I read a lot of blogs, some very regularly, some sporadically, and a lot of my regular reads have been publicized pretty widely under the label Mommy-Blogs lately. Dooce. Mimi Smartypants. Suburban Bliss. Finslippy. Fussy.
I love 'em. Good writing, lots of humor, and a better insight into what pregnancy and parenting is really like than you get from most childrearing books. Sometimes, I have to feel a little bad for the “mommy bloggers” especially when they get shitloads of bile-drenched hate dumped upon them. Sometimes I get the impression that parents get really tired of being parents. Fair enough. I get really tired of being a glorified file monkey, and really, being a parent is one of those jobs you can't just quit when you're burned out. Overall, though, I love reading about people and their kids; the milestones, the quarrels, the “darndest things moments,” the worries and hopes that evey mom and dad has about their kid. You get the picture that when all's said and done, damn near every parent wants one thing–for their kid to have as good of a life as is possible.
Which brings me to my point of the day. I started reading Darn Tootin' quite a few years ago…probably back in '01, and was immediately engaged with Rob's bouyant, yet piquant writing style, and his gleeful talk of his small daughter Schuyler, then only a toddler. The wonder with which he wrote about his daughter, the “gratuitious baby picture of the day” feature, the level at which he was engaged with his little girl was so endearing, and it reached something very personal for me. It reminded me of some of my own dad's reminiscenses about parenting, and about just how knocked out he was by watching a tiny baby develop her own personality, and start being an individual. I looked at Rob Rummel-Hudson's journal and thought to myself, “Here's a guy who's really, really enjoying being a dad, and man, he's got an adorable little kid to dote on.”
Like many of his regular readers, I worried along with them when they started worrying about their daughter's speech delays, and the events that led up to now, where they know what Schyuler needs to have the best life possible. What Schuyler needs is a “box of words,” a programmable speech-assistance device which she can learn to use to communicate in spoken language. The device she needs costs about $7k, plus another $1K-$2k in warranty coverage. Rob and Julie, Schuyler's parents are doing everything they can to get this helpful little gizmo into their daughter's hands, and many of us want to help them help her, too.
What you can do is click on the picture of the cute, mischievous, stroppy little girl below, and donate a couple of bucks to the fund. Maybe someday little Schuyler will be a grownup with a blog of her own, and the memory of her first gift of a big box of words will be one of those memories she shares with the world. Even if she never tells anyone but her mom and dad about it, I am sure it will be a very significant event in her young life.
