How Baby

A horrifying thought popped into my head the other day, and now I’m sharing it with you so I don’t have to suffer alone.

Sometime when I wasn’t looking, Momo turned from a lump of unformed clay bursting with possibility to an actual person with strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, dreams and desires and fears. She went from possibilities to actualities. And, sure, she’s only a kid and obviously she’s going to change, but those actualities are things that other people can see and judge her on right now.

And I feel those judgements like they’re on me, because these past years, Kev and I have been pretty much the biggest influences on her. Even the mannerisms she gets from TV, well, she got them because we let her watch TV. She can’t run or jump like the other kids? Well, we should have given her a more active childhood. Cries at the drop of a hat? Failed her emotional development.

It’s all very real now, you know? All the choices we made up to this point, even the ones we made in survival mode, the ones that ‘don’t matter because she won’t remember’, every time I was mean or inattentive, it feels like it’s all coming back now and, bam, here’s my daughter, how did I do? How does anyone live with the mistakes they know they made? Other than just hope you can fix them, I guess.

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This strip features a long overdue cameo of the twin daughters of longstanding patron Miki! Thanks for your support, MIki. It means a lot to me.

Speaking of cameos, if you pledge to my Patreon at the $10 level or above, you can be in the comic too! Even a $1 pledge gets you email updates and behind-the-scenes stuff, and helps keep the lights on around here. Your small monthly donation means I can keep my commitment to being ad-free, too!”

Plus, all patrons as of March 1 will be entered into a draw to win an Aspen Tyke Traveler, a diaper bag specifically engineered to ping all the planning pleasure centers of the geeky brain. The folks behind the bag were kind enough to donate a bag for the draw, as well as put mini zines of How Baby in every bag they sell! Every patron gets one entry, with another for every $5 of their pledge amount.

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ONE more thing, I just wanted to share that the StArt Faire Excellence in Webcomics Awards have selected their winners for the ‘Best In’ categories, and How Baby was awarded the ‘Best in Comedy’ award! After a good convention weekend at Tsukinocon, this was a wonderful surprise to return home to. Thanks, StArt Faire!