The Movie

I have a little obsession. Since about 2002 I have been trying to watch at least one movie a day. In college this was very easy for me, you have so much time. At first I would keep a notebook with me where I would write down the movies I had seen and the movies I wanted to see. This eventually evolved into a database where I could play with the data. I can tell you how many movies I have seen of a certain director or year or genre or country.

Finding what movies to see has never been a problem. every time you see something you like it opens up about other 10 options that might interest you. My first real quest was to watch all of the IMDB top 250. I have at times seen all the 250 top movies, but it keeps changing and it is sometimes hard to keep up. At the moment I am standing at 243/250. I am missing 5 Indian movies and a couple of recent ones that can only be seen in theaters.

Eventually I also found a great website called icheckmovies. This is the IMDB Top 250 challenge on steroids. It has a very large variety of different lists and a very easy way to check them off once you have seen them. It has become sort of a quest to keep checking movies off these lists.

Having kids does not allow as much time to watch movies as before. So, part of my plan for this summer was to use the time to watch as many movies as possible. I did watch a lot, 52 to be exact. My DVR is still 70% full though. Most of the stuff on it are TCM movies. TCM is the best channel a film junkie like me can ever wish for.

But as the summer passed I realized that it was about something bigger than watching as many movies as I could. The movies were secondary to what i was really experiencing. A unique opportunity to be the most important person in someone's life. Matias completely depended on me for two whole months. For 8 weeks I was absolutely responsible for the life of another human being. And even though I spent most of this summer feeding him, cleaning, changing his diapers and mostly working to serve his every need, it has been the best summer of my life.

What did I watch?
Viaggio in Italia: Roberto Rosselini invented Neorealism with Roma Citta Aperta and then with this movie apparently inspired Truffaut and Godard to start the French New Wave. A single person responsible for two of the most well known film movements in history. Quite an achievement.

The Bookstore

I used to read a lot. Like a book a week. I have two full bookshelves in my office of books I have read in my life. I have read from Harry Potter to Sigmund Freud, from Plato to Stephen King, basically anything that I could get my hands on that seemed interesting or that would expand my views on the world. There was a time, a simpler time, when the only thing that I would buy was books, not even clothes. Things have changed a lot.

A lot of people have asked me when reading these blog: "You have been using so much time on watching movies, why are you not reading more?". There are two parts to my answer:

First, every book in my house has been flagged. If you are not familiar with Seinfeld or have no access to the clip on that link, what that means is that most of my reading happened in the bathroom. When I had kids the privilege of reading in the bathroom completely disappeared. In fact, the privilege of closing the door and having some privacy disappeared. All I can do now is sneak into the bathroom for a 5 minute break while they are sleeping or busy doing something. Those days when I could sit and read an entire chapter are long gone.

The second reason is concentration. The books that currently interest me are dense in information and usually need a lot of my attention to understand. Sleep deprivation and the general stress of doing things immediately drains me of any energy and motivation to start reading something.  I still read, just a lot slower. I have been reading the same book for about 6 months now. I'm almost done with that one, but it is a terrible reading rate. Watching a movie is easier on my brain and also is something I can do while multitasking. I can watch a movie while feeding Matias. Reading and doing something else is impossible.

I think reading is the thing I miss the most of my old life. I hope that when Lucas and Matias grow a little more, I can take the habit again.

What did I watch?
Until the End of the World: I have mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand it was visually beautiful, the music was incredible and some of the themes are incredibly prophetic about today's society. The basic premise of images beating out words is very relevant today, it is even relevant to my current post. On the other hand it is 5 hours long. It didn't really need to be 5 hours long.

Ice Age: Collision Course: I saw this one with Lucas. The same statement I made yesterday about remakes could be made for sequels too.

The Barber

Matias had his first haircut today. I really don't like baby hair, specially when it starts to get all patchy, so I had been insisting for a while that we should just shave it off. When Lucas was 3 months old we did it for him. Today, the time finally came and Alegna buzzed off all of Matias hair. He looks really different but cute. His big eyes look way bigger now, but I think that is a good thing because they are his best attributes. He smiled through the whole haircut as you all probably predicted now that you have read my description of his character in my previous posts.

It also seems that Matias has started to roll over. Last night I found him facing down and a couple of minutes ago I found him this way again. It is very mysterious because he is in his swaddle, it probably takes a lot of effort to roll over all wrapped up like he is. It makes me laugh to imagine him going through the motions and effort to actually roll over like this. I can picture the sounds he probably makes while he does this.

On other news, Lucas hit Matias for the first time today. Lucas has a toy poke ball that he carries around in the house sometimes. Matias was crying because he was hungry, Alegna was preparing his bottle and I wasn't around either so Lucas just decided to throw the plastic poke ball right at Matias's head. Matias started crying really loud from the pain. All I heard was the plastic poke ball hitting something and then a loud wail. I came to find Lucas just staring at his brother with a concerned look. It was easy to figure out he had thrown the toy at his head. Alegna had a talk with him and asked him why had he done that, while I was feeding Matias his bottle. He said his reason was because Matias was crying. Alegna explained that he should have tried to calm him down with kisses and hugs instead of with a poke ball to the head. He came back looking really sad and asked Matias for forgiveness. Matias was feeding so he just smiled back at him.

Tonight we had the chance to go out just me and Alegna. We had dinner and a movie while my parents watched our kids. It was a nice night out.

What did I Watch?
Dunkirk: You can tell it's a Christopher Nolan film and not just because Tom Hardy was in it. I really liked it, we saw it in an IMAX theater so technically it was captivating. All World War II movies are eventually compared to the best of them all, but although this is not at the level of Saving Private Ryan, it is the movie that has come the closest to it.

The Trip (Part 2)

We are on vacation mode and it's been great. We had a great weekend at the beach and spending time with our family. We have gotten a lot of help with Lucas and Matias, so our hands are now a little more free to sleep a little later, have meals without having to rush, and enjoying some free time. We are back to the slow life, where you can actually take breaks.

Today we had a fun day. Just hanging around in my parent's home in the morning. It felt like a Sunday morning. Lucas has been wanting to see the Emoji Movie since he saw the trailer on TV. Last time he went to the movies it was with me and Alegna stayed home with Matias. I wanted Alegna to have that same experience and also that movie looked terrible, so they went to the see it together. While I was waiting for them I went Pokemon hunting with my cousins and raiding some gyms trying to catch a Legendary Pokemon. Lucas really liked the movie, Alegna not so much but I think she enjoyed the experience and the bonding.

Lucas had some popcorn, juice and chocolate while at the movies. He also had had a few glasses of chocolate milk in the morning. I guess it all came together in his bloodstream and by mid afternoon he was running all over the house tackling whoever was in front of him while screaming at the top of his lungs. We decided to take him to a water playground near my parents home so he would use up all that energy. He ran and played and by the time we came home he was ready to go to bed. It was a relief to finally get him to bed at a reasonable hour. The past couple of nights he's been going to bed pretty late. We had some time on our hands so we went to have dinner at a Venezuelan restaurant. We had some arepas, patacones, malta, chicha, papelon and a lot more. It was a Venezuelan food feast.

What did I watch?
The Space Between Us: These next couple of weeks I will not have access to my DVR so I will not have a wide selection of movies to choose from. Nothing special about this movie, if you get past the absurd premise and that it is probably targeted to teenage girls, it is a little entertaining movie to pass the time. Nothing more.

The Seven

Sometimes raising a baby unconsciously becomes a race to the next milestone. Does he hold his head up? Does he follow your face? Then comes turning over, sitting down, crawling, walking, talking, etc. These are all important milestones in their development and of course you want to help them achieve them. I try to do some tummy time every day with Matias so he can gain some muscle strength for his next milestones. But I have another set of milestones that I find more interesting and amusing that I observed on Lucas and I am curious to see how Matias develops them. I will call them the Seven Vinciguerra Milestones.

1. Holding their own bottle: My least favorite part of taking care of  a baby is feeding it. You are pretty much trapped and you can't do anything else except just sit there. When you can finally free your hands while he is feeding feels like a great advancement.
2. Understanding the concept of blowing their nose: There is nothing worse than hearing your baby breathe through some nasal congestion. I have become an expert in using the suction nasal aspirators but it is a relief when you can just put a tissue on his nose and say blow and he knows what the hell you are talking about.
3. Understanding the concept of pointing: The moment when a toddler finally understands that when you point at something he should be looking in the direction of your finger instead of at your finger feels like a great advancement in abstract thinking.
4. First fart joke: This might be a boys only milestone, but I can't deny I was very proud the first time Lucas imitated a fart sound and had that grin that said to me "See what I did there?". I find the whole process of developing of a sense of humor very interesting.
5. Jumping with both feet at the same time: Apparently this is one of the most complex motor skills a human can do. Try asking your toddler to jump at different ages and you will see how hard it is for them.
6. Kicking a ball: I love soccer so it's obvious why this is important for me.
7. Sitting through an entire movie in the theater: As you can probably tell from the blog movies are important for me and being able to share that with my kids is important for me. I tried having Lucas watch a Star Wars movie for the first time in a theater but it didn't work, he was too young and Rogue One was darker than your average Star Wars movie. Disappointingly, his actual first movie was Despicable Me 3. I hope I have better luck with Matias on this one.

For the other parents that read the blog feel free to comment on what other non-traditional milestones you enjoyed watching on your kids.

What did I watch?

The Misfits: It was good, not very special or memorable. Clark Gable's performance is pretty good but the movie felt too long.

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