Day 85: The Neil Effect

Grandpa Neil's musical talents and sinister "scary" genes have all been well documented thus far. Even his smile has been shown to be hereditarily contagious.

But what about his visage? Countless baby LeBaron boys have been endowed with the "Neil Effect." The little ones are particularly susceptible when wearing a hat of any kind. Case in point, Exhibit A below shows baby Anders from behind. The soft pale neck fat and the domed, slightly sagging cap is a dead giveaway (sorry Dad).

Exhibit A: Baby Anders from behind

The front view is no less incriminating. Feathery hair, double chin, bright blue eyes, silly LeBaron ears, stained shirt...the list goes on :-)

Exhibit B: Baby Anders, front view

Exhibit C: Baby Beans (Bentley)

Exhibit D: Duck Beans

Exhibit E: Baby Kai

Exhibit F: Baby Kai

Exhibit G: Baby Porter

Exhibit H: Baby Porter

Exhibit I: Baby Finch

Exhibit J: Baby Neil

We love you dad and we're glad that we get to see a little piece of you every day in our children. The legacy lives on!

Day 65: The Silly LeBaron Face

Dad is the king of grinning with no teeth.
Anders has an excuse. He has no teeth. So what's Dad's excuse?

He's a LeBaron.

Silly LeBaron faces are all over the place. No one really knows why, but pointy noises, big ears, toothless grins, and bird hair are swimming in our gene pool. Blame Canada. And then blame polygamy and large farm families for passing it on a thousand times.

Here is William Farland LeBaron, Grandpa Neil's grandpa. This is one of the oldest silly LeBaron faces on record. See how the unique positioning of his grin makes him easily identifiable as a LeBaron? Looks like Dad bequeathed Grandpa Willy's ears, too.

The silly LeBaron face is part of what makes Dad so lovable. Luckily, many of us inherited silly LeBaron body parts, including Neil's timeless smile (and silly LeBaron ankle). You don't have to look very hard to find examples. One or two pages into most family blogs yielded this precious fruit (sorry Tom and Jess and Maggie and Justin, your kids are too cheesy and always show their teeth. Jim and Luci, you need a blog!).

Bobby, making sure Neil gets his picture taken in the Philippines.Maddie, being Dad's smile for Halloween.Bean doing a no-teeth Neil.Sisi with a classic Grandpa Neil face.Finch, doing some grinealogy.Oh wait! What? What's this? Grandma Abuelita's recipe is really Grandpa Neil's recipe? Turns out the silly LeBaron face knows no bounds. Brooke brought me this Mexican hot chocolate the other week, and I was thinking it looked like the guy from Duncan's Toy Chest in Home Alone 2, but Brooke knew better. It's Grandpa Neil in a wispy white wig. Glad our LeBaron counterparts in Mexico are finding their way onto confection labels.