#145 Seeing baby photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend for the first time

Do you remember wearing a diaper?

Well, you did, you did, and you looked good in it, too. You crawled around hallways, yanked the dog’s tail, and screamed like a banshee in that diaper-padded butt. Chances are good someone took pictures of you doing it. Chances are good the camera kept clicking through your grass-stain-and-pimple-filled childhood, too.

The evidence exists.

Coming across those old photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend these days is great … for a few big reasons:

1. Coloring in the lines. When you’re falling head over heels for somebody, you just can’t get enough of them. If you’ve ever said “I wish I knew you before!” or “Where have you been all my life?”, then old photos are your best way into their past.*

2. Awkwardness Anonymous. At the start of the relationship everyone’s on their best behavior. New pants, muted farts, and deodorant double-swiping is the norm. Which is why sharing old photos builds so much trust. We get to see into your geeky past, when metal mouths, Coke-bottle glasses, and gap-toothed grins were the norm.

3. They’re just plain ol’ cute. Because you were a chubby-cheeked one-year-old with wide eyes and a button nose at some point. We won’t ask what happened.

When you see those old photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend it’s like your pasts and your futures start slowly twisting together. Stories pop out of birthday cake blowouts, histories bloom out of family reunions, and long lives lived seem to fill in before your eyes as you finger flip through dog-eared albums on the old basement couch.

AWESOME!

(*Until the Holodeck gets invented.)

Photo from: Mikira and here

43 thoughts to “#145 Seeing baby photos of your boyfriend or girlfriend for the first time”

    1. Imagine BHB, 15 years from now, proudly showing this photo to his/her new boy/girl friend: “Yep, I was an infant internet SENSATION.” Awesome!

      1. Totally.. I think BHB will actually be able to totally seal-the-deal with their new flame, once they show that picture..

        I sort of hope the BHB grows up to be BHA (bed head adult), and has exactly that same hair.. so their new boyfriend/girlfriend sees that photo and says: “Well, that explains it!”

        1. You know, I bet that baby someday takes a pic of his adult bedhead and then there will be bookends: BHB and BHA! How adorable!

    2. I hate to “spam” off Neil’s comments (if “spam” is even the right word…) but I’m hoping that some of you might be willing to help me in an awesome cause: voting for my niece in the Little Masterpiece Studio’s Most Popular Baby Competition!

      She is ten little fingers and ten little toes of awesomeness, so if you have a Facebook Account, please click on the link and simply click “LIKE” beneath her photo.

      http://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=243608215687055&id=184035244977686&set=a.242327589148451.57311.184035244977686&refid=0

      Thank you very much!

      I will now return you to your regularly scheduled awesomeness.

      1. She is GORGEOUS! I voted! I cycled through all the photos and she is definitely in the top 10 for cutest baby :D

  1. You know what is funny?
    When your mother in law to be, visits your home & sees a baby picture of you on the wall & then turns around to everyone & says
    ”geez simone you were a cute baby! – Now I know at least i’m going to have good looking grandchildren!”

    1. ***Well, thank your lucky stars she never said “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!”***
      When your husband-to-be agrees, bananas belong outdoors, (considering the smell literally makes you sick), this IS compromise…sounds as if you will live an awesome-ever-after life with good looking children too! What more could you possibly ask for!

  2. BED HEAD BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I swear I’m not copying you, lovethebadguy, and I just wanted to post it too. I’m thinking of the font being EXTRA huge, to convey my emotions at seeing this wonderful image of awesome pop up once more :) )

    1. The baby’s awesome enough to have such a sentiment repeating many times, in capital letters, bold and italic font and with several dozen exclamations marks. ;)

      1. I like your thinking ;)
        Oh, and I’ve been wanting to ask for a while, but it’s kind of awkward… Are you a boy or a girl? I can’t actually tell from your name, because it could be either saying ‘come on, you’ve gotta love the bad guy (me)’ or ‘i love my boyfriend, he’s a bad-boy type of guy’. Sooo… is it male or female? Or both? Or none? Your decision :P

        1. Emmy – if you click on lovethebadguy’s name above you will go to the blog belonging to lovethebadguy and the secret is revealed there!

          PS – nice blog lovethebadguy!!

            1. Ahhh, thanks Mary! And hi Jess! Cool blog- no time at the moment to read the stories but I’m sure they are wonderful :D

  3. When I married my husband I had seen younger pictures of him, but not baby pictures. While our son was just a few weeks old I wanted to see baby pictures to compare so we headed out to his mom’s house and she got out a huge tub and we just sat there for hours looking at old pictures. His sister even came down to look too. There were laughs and tears and even some teasing.

  4. “Until the holodeck gets invented”, OR you are a SEER of the holographic universe!
    I framed 8×10 photos, around 6months of age, for my partner and myself which sit on our night stands. It’s a good reminder of many endearing things,
    to cherish and SEE!

  5. Just reading the title made me swoon. I’m so glad you picked this, Neil! It’s incredibly sweet. Looking at those photos is like opening a special door into a deeper part of someone that so few get to see. It works well with friends too! Love it.

  6. I love this one! (of course, it helps that I was an insanely adorable baby, so this moment always went well for me!). But besides that, it is so cute and sweet, and it’s so true when you’re first in love you can’t get enough of learning about your new lover. So awesome!

  7. One of the baby photos that was most prominantly displayed in my mom’s house (for new girlfriend’s to see) was a picture of me in a pink sailor suit.. now, my mom INSISTS that it was actually alternating thin red & white lines, and it only looks pink in the photo.. but really, is that a whole lot better?

    So, I always had the pleasure of impressing my new lady friends with how stylish I was in my pink sailor suit..

  8. When I read “Where have you been all my life?”
    I automatically thought, “In a cupboard under some stairs!”

    xD Any other Starkids here?

  9. What a wonderful way with words! “New pants, muted farts, and deodorant double-swiping is the norm.” What a terrific and accurate description! The entire entry made me laugh, as did all of the posts! This is now one of my faves! Thanks for a relaxing Friday night laugh. :)

  10. I wish Neil would write the Twelve steps and Traditions of/for
    Awkwardness Anonymous……..
    this would be something of *his genious* to see!!!

  11. Nice :) you just love the last pic with a startled baby, don’t you? I have also used that pic in my blog :) if u get time, please check my blog smilingpritz.blogspot.com

  12. Just started university, and recently this guy I’ve been hanging out with a lot mentioned that he was in a certain wedding when he was four…and it turns out it was the same wedding I was in! We were the Flower Girl and Bible Boy at the wedding, and apparently we “fell in love.” We dug up the pictures, and not only is it adorable to each other that young…we’ve got pictures of each other *together* that young, holding hands and kissing and stuff…now that’s rare…and AWESOME!

    1. Gosh! Thats so CUTE Melanie!!!! :) Hope yu guys go a loong loong way and create more “flower gal” “bible boy” lovers in your wedding too! :)

  13. When I found the baby photos of my boyfriend ,my heart just stopped beating for him. It’s more than just a cute baby ,right? It’s some you love.

  14. When I found the baby photos of my boyfriend ,my heart just stopped beating for him. It’s more than just a cute baby ,right? It’s someONE you love.

Comments are closed.