Me and my Little Monkey, just before his 1st birthday in August of 2008.

My son turned three this last weekend.  Three-years old.  I’ve caught myself thinking about those words a few times over the last couple of weeks.  Three years.  It seems like such a short period of time.  I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it really is a short period of time.  But it’s amazing what those fast-flying years can encompass.

Three years ago, we brought him back from the hospital.  He was tiny and frail, and I kept thinking I was going to hold him wrong or bend something the wrong way.  It was insane to think that my wife and I had been put in charge of this little human being.  Mostly, because it was ME (my wife would have done fine regardless).  I sometimes had tenuous control of my own life…and now I was one of the people entrusted with someone else’s?  That realization can do powerful things, I think.  It makes you think about what you want in life: what’s important and what you’re doing with yourself.  It makes you take the focus off of “you” and even your significant other, for a while at least, and realize that there’s something bigger now.

I made a promise to my son in those first couple of days he was in our house.  I promised that, no matter what happened in life, no matter how crazy it was in our house, I would be there for him.  It didn’t matter what he did that might anger or disappoint others, I would always be there for him.  Unconditionally.  I know, it’s pretty cheesy – I think a lot of parents think those thoughts and mean them – but I said it out loud to him.  I said it while holding and rocking him one night, trying to calm him when he was upset, and I meant every last syllable of the words I spoke.

As he gets older, he tries to test me on my resolve.  He does things for sheer spite, it seems at times.  He fights me and pushes me and makes me so angry I feel myself turning red.  But I’m never really angry at him; only his emotions and actions.  And he can turn that anger away quickly with a quick smile and a laugh, or a familiar phrase.  It’s amazing, really.

I’m beginning to realize that these early years of his truly are fleeting.  Three years.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s a drop in the bucket…but they fly by quickly.  So I’ll soak in the morning naps on the couch with him.  I’ll cherish the times he comes to me and asks don’t I want to go to his room and play legos?  I’ll hang on to the cute way he says certain things (“Is that a good idea?” after every idea he comes up with, for example).  I’ll savor the way he tells his mother that sometimes he just wants “Daddy Time”, and wants her to go away so we can hang out together.  I am hanging on to it all…because the last three years sometimes feel like a blur.  But they’re some of the best of my life.

Happy birthday, little monkey.

It has taken me back to the first time I watched the movie – gathered with some friends in my best friend’s bedroom, on the night Andre the Giant passed away.  I think I was one of the last to see the film, but then, I led a pretty sheltered movie-watching existence in my younger years.  I can honestly say it wasn’t my favorite movie after watching it, but it held the #2 spot very solidly.  #1 is, and always has been, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  But, what is not to love about the Princess Bride?  As the grandpa says – “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..”  It’s great stuff.  I fell in love with it immediately, and have treasured it ever since.  It’s one of those movies I will watch every few months, just because it’s always enjoyable.

A few of my favorite quotes:

• Inigo:  Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
• Fezzik: You never said anything about killing anyone.
  Vizzini: I’ve hired you to help me start a war. It’s an prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition.
  Fezzik: I just don’t think it’s right, killing an innocent girl.
  Vizzini: Am I going MAD, or did the word “think” escape your lips? You were not hired for your brains, you hippopotamic land mass.
  Inigo Montoya: I agree with Fezzik.
  Vizzini: Oh, the sot has spoken. What happens to her is not truly your concern. I will kill her. And remember this, never forget this: when I found you, you were so slobbering drunk, you couldn’t buy Brandy!
  [turning to Fezzik]
  Vizzini: And you: friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed in Greenland!
• [Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]
  Vizzini: HE DIDN’T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
  Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
• Inigo Montoya: Who are you?
  Westley: No one of consequence.
  Inigo Montoya: I must know…
  Westley: Get used to disappointment.
  Inigo Montoya: ‘kay.
• Westley: Who are you? Are we enemies? Why am I on this wall? Where is Buttercup?
  Inigo Montoya: Let me ‘splain.
  [pause]
  Inigo Montoya: No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry’ Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour. So all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the princess, make our escape… after I kill Count Rugen.
  Westley: That doesn’t leave much time for dilly-dallying.
  Fezzik: You just wiggled your finger. That’s wonderful.
  Westley: I’ve always been a quick healer.
• Prince Humperdinck: First things first, to the death.
  Westley: No. To the pain.
  Prince Humperdinck: I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.
  Westley: I’ll explain and I’ll use small words so that you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon.
  Prince Humperdinck: That may be the first time in my life a man has dared insult me.
  Westley: It won’t be the last. To the pain means the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose.
  Prince Humperdinck: And then my tongue I suppose, I killed you too quickly the last time. A mistake I don’t mean to duplicate tonight.
  Westley: I wasn’t finished. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.
  Prince Humperdinck: And then my ears, I understand let’s get on with it.
  Westley: WRONG. Your ears you keep and I’ll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, “Dear God! What is that thing,” will echo in your perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.
  Prince Humperdinck: I think your bluffing.
  Westley: It’s possible, Pig, I might be bluffing. It’s conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I’m only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again… perhaps I have the strength after all.
  [slowly rises and points sword directly at the prince]
  Westley: DROP… YOUR… SWORD!
  [mouth hanging open, drops sword to floor]

And…lastly, but certainly not leastly:

• Miracle Max: Have fun stormin’ da castle.
  Valerie: Think it’ll work?
  Miracle Max: It would take a miracle.