Well, Phil is almost 23 months old. We don’t know exactly how tall he is or how much he weighs, other than it’s “more.” The boy turns two years old next month: 11% of the way to empty-nestdom.

What’s Phil been up to the past four months? What hasn’t he? His prestigious list of firsts include:

• First snow: Late January
• First coin-operated ride: The red ’Vette at Valley River Center
• First brain-freeze: Courtesy Orange Julius
• First time away from Mama: a week in February when she went to Washington, D.C.
• First National Park: Yosemite
• First Aquarium: Monterey Bay
• First Bubble Bath: From a Scooby-Doo headed bottle
• First meeting of cousins: March
• First bite from a kid: In church nursery
• First bite to a kid: Not yet

Phil’s running now. Fortunately he frequently takes long (two hour) naps in the afternoon, so we have a chance to recuperate. Phil also enjoys baths; he’ll go and stand by the bathtub and hope he’s dirty enough. He enjoys eating carrots. Somehow he’s been genetically altered; go figure. The new word/phrase list includes: “No way,” “Up” (when he wants out of crib/playpen/or just to be carried), “Oops” (frequently), “Cool,” “Wow,” “Cup” and an occasional “Please” and “Thanks.” Phil’s trying to sing the Alphabet Song, “double-you ecks” is particularly noticeable, as are many other letters and the tune. If you sing the song to him, he’ll reward you with a round of applause. He also waves goodbye, often to people he’s never seen before. His throwing skills are improving — we’ve switched to soft Nerf-type balls, as he tends to aim for the head. Phil enjoys working on my old computer: this is what he’s most recently typed: “bnh .vbgbn n, nnh nh2121 74” (solve the code, win a prize).

Well, it’s been awhile since we gave away a bonus, so here's some Phil wallpaper to enbeautify your computer (most web browsers will allow you to right click the image and “set as background/wallpaper”).

Previous photos:
Newborn Phil
Phil at about 5 weeks
Phil at about 8 weeks
Phil at about 10 weeks
Phil at about 14 weeks
Phil at about 17 weeks
Phil at about 22 weeks
Phil at about 27 weeks
Phil at about 33 weeks
Phil at about 36 weeks
Phil at about 43 weeks
Phil at about 50 weeks
Phil at about 1 year
Phil at about 15 months
Phil at about 19 months