The above photo was taken of our oldest son at 6 weeks old in March of 2004. I used my old Canon PowerShot G3 in black and white mode. You can read all about it and see a larger version of this (and other baby photos) at our Flickr account. The follow-up photo is here.

The last couple of weeks have been a real learning experience around here to say the least. It's like the floodgates suddenly opened in regards to big brother's vocabulary, and he's tossing out new words and sentences right and left. He had already made it from A-J singing the "Alphabet Song" with us, and this weekend surprised me by saying "XYZ" with me at the end. He's also getting really good at mimicking the first "Signing Time" DVD we bought him last month. I was a slacker and never started signing with him when he was a baby. I was just too pregnant, too tired, too everything to deal with it at the time. But we started just before he turned 21-months old, and after only four viewings he had learned and used the signs for "eat", "milk" and "ball". He adds in more every week.

But where the 'learning experience' comes in is the parrot-effect. As a new parent you always tell yourself that you need to watch your language because they're like little sponges. But actually seeing it in action? Whoo boy.

Last Sunday we gave our 4½-month old Stage 1 jar food for the first time. About halfway through the feeding, from behind the camcorder daddy told him, "I'm so proud of you! Later tonight I'll take you out for a beer to celebrate, kid." And less than two feet away, you could hear our toddler say (on camera) "beer! beer!" It's captured on tape for all time... Daddy had to take a moment to compose himself and wipe a l'il tear from his eye. I think the only time he'll ever be more proud as a father is when one of the boys finally throws their arms in the air and screams "TOUCHDOWN!" after an Oklahoma score.

Then last Friday night I was changing the oldest's diaper, which quite honestly should be an Olympic event. Ballroom dancing? As if. I've never had such an ab-workout in my life! As he was flopping and flailing around I shrieked, "Geez kid — do you think you could give your poor mom a break for a minute here?" And of course, the first words out of his mouth were, "Geez! Geez! Geez!" And it's only been repeated, oh say, a thousand and one times since then. Go'on and ask me how happy I am that for once in my life I didn't drop the F-bomb!

Next, I fully expect him to bust out with "" to the driver next to us when we're in the car. As long as he doesn't pick up on the accompanying hand-sign used with that, I think we're golden...