Our Little Piece of Comic Strip History

For me, as a kid, it was "Peanuts".

For my older kids, it was "Calvin and Hobbes".



For my three younger kids, it's definitely "Baby Blues".

My 9-year-olds only discovered within the last year that we have a bunch of the "Baby Blues" collections in the house. It was at that point that they became the total devotees that they are today. To the point that, just casually, I asked my 9-year-old daughter something like, "Um, which book was baby Wren born in?", to which she immediately replied, "Number 14". Whoa.

See, as parents, we've always loved "Baby Blues". So much of it was just so bang on with our own experiences.

However, not too many people can make the claim that their own child influenced one of the strips.

Here's how it happened. Years ago, on the "Baby Blues" website, they were running a contest of some kind, something like the weirdest thing you ever said to your kid or some such thing. My wife sent in something funny our oldest daughter said, which, in hindsight, didn't quite fit the requirements, if I remember correctly. In any case, she told them about the comment our probably 2-year-old first child made at bathtime. After coming out of the tub and looking at her fingers, she said "Dese are all winkled. Pwease you iron dem?"

Time passes. Life goes on.

Then, much MUCH later, we pick up a Baby Blues collection, and lo and behold, we see a strip that talks about wrinkly fingers from the tub and ironing them! We were, and still are, convinced that my wife's submission was the inspiration for this strip!

In fact, for Mother's Day one year, I managed to get the actual hand-drawn strip for my dear wife as a present, and it hangs on our wall to this day. Here it is:



Our own little piece of comic strip history.

Gee... I wonder if I can find a "Peanuts"??