80s Movie Nights

I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being a dad through every stage of Little Smoot's development. Every year of her young life has been a new, exciting experience, each one to be treasured in its own way. Even back when she was just this little crying, pooping, eating machine, she was a bundle of fun.

Now that she has turned 11, she is entering a whole new stage that I can tell I am going to really enjoy: she's now old enough to enjoy and appreciate a lot of the goofy 80s movies I grew up with.

If I were a movie critic, I'd be able to rate a movie with ease. I wouldn't even necessarily need to see the movie -- just the credits. If I don't see the name Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray or Leslie Neilson in the credits, I can probably say with some degree of authority that the movie stinks.

Over the past couple months I have been enlightening Little Smoot with some of my all-time favorites. Right now, we're working on the Back to the Future trilogy. I had a great sense of parental satisfaction after we finished watching the first movie and she immediately said, "Let's watch the second one!"

We giggled our way through The Three Amigos last week. Mrs. Smoot hates that movie (and most of my other 80s favorites), so that made it even more satisfying to see that I'm instilling a sense of good taste in Little Smoot.

Little Smoot's favorite movie so far has been Ghostbusters, though. She absolutely loved the part where the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man terrorizes the streets of New York. I dare say that she laughed more at that scene than anything she has viewed on Sponge Bob Square Pants.