Father measures baby son's growth for a year with philly cheesesteak sandwiches

'Hopefully I haven’t scarred the kid for life'

strangework.com (Brad Williams)

A Philadelphia father has documented the growth of his son with the help of cheese steak sandwiches - yes, really.

Brad Williams started measuring his son in this unusual way after he brought a cheese steak home for dinner before realising that his son, who was two weeks old at the time, was “very similar in size” to the sandwich.

“What started out as a joke turned into a monthly tradition of cheese steak measuring as Lucas was growing,” the computer programmer wrote on his blog.

Lucas at seven months old (Brad Williams)

Williams proceeded to measure his son’s growth alongside the sandwich for the first year of his life, taking a new picture every month.

Social media users have gone wild for Williams’ cheese steak story which has subsequently gone viral on Twitter.

Some were quick to ask where Williams kept purchasing all of the sandwiches from - he later revealed in a tweet that they came from a variety of local shops in Philadelphia: Jerzee’s Sports Bar, Fatty’s Bar & Grill and Dalessandro’s, which he claims to be his favourite.

Meanwhile, others praised the father for his out-of-the-box thinking.

“This man documented the first year of his son's growth by photographing him against a cheese steak every month,” wrote one user.


 Lucas at 10 months old 
 (Brad Williams)

“It's early, but I'm nominating him for parent of the year.”

While a Philly cheese steak sandwich is a popular lunchtime staple for many Americans, it’s a relatively unknown dish in the UK.

Typically, it’s made from thinly-sliced pieces of beef steak and topped with melted cheese inside a bread roll.

After 12 months of consistent cheese steak documentation, Williams revealed that he decided to stop taking monthly photographs of Lucas and the greasy treat as he “was quickly growing a dislike for cheese steaks”.

In a hilarious clip posted to his blog, Williams can be seen trying to snap his son alongside a sandwich for his second birthday.

Despite his best efforts, Lucas defiantly wriggles away from the sandwich before ultimately pushing it away from him.

“Hopefully I haven’t scarred the kid for life,” Williams writes.

“We’ll see how it goes when he turns 3!”