Atticus has been a bit obsessed with Neil Young for the past year or so.

Yes, it all began way back when he was only four and a half. Before his dad and I went to see Neil Young live, we downloaded and burned his awesome Live at Massey Hall album from 1971.

Well, Attie went crazy over it, wanting to hear certain songs over and over. He wanted to hold the CD cover in the car, so he could name the songs as they played and he sang along. He had me upload them to his own CD player.

And we sang along with him: Kevin, Lucas, and myself. It’s still a fun family event in the van when number 3 (“Old Man”) comes on. :P

I’d known all of the songs for forever, of course (Neil’s one of my faves <3), but I'd never known all the words to all the songs. And some of them came to me with new meaning, after having lived through so much since.

It wasn’t long before he’d memorized the songs and could even name which song was which number on the album.

We thought it was amazing.

But anything in excess can get, well, um — even though I feel like a bad mama admitting it — downright annoying … which is to say that we didn’t exactly mind when Atticus started to sway from his Neil Young obsession.

Anyway, as you can see, he didn’t turn away completely and has continued to fan the flame over the months. :P