Zoe and Cleo

In our experience, becoming new parents has seemed to involve a sort of magnetization, through which we suddenly attract, as if were polarized, a band of objects generally related to infancy. Of course, this is due largely to the generosity of family members, of neighbors, of friends, and of co-workers - but the effect is the same. We are ships at sea, in a stormy and uncharted ocean, trailing a wake of plastic toys, pink, foot-high sweaters, and board books.

All of these nifty objects have been something of a revelation to me. I was dressing Cleo in a summery top the other day, and finally figured out - I'd never quite thought to understand it - how women's blouses with crossing spaghetti straps - work. I can now speak with some clarity about the history of popular children's books (from Pat the Bunny to Eric Carle's serialized productions), and I could, if anyone actually cared to listen, discourse on the relative time involved in changing disposable and cloth diapers.

One of the most appealing things to find its way into our childproofed house, though, has not been intended for Cleo. Rather, it's about Cleo - at a certain remove. We've been given, over the past few months, two volumes of collected Baby Blues strips. Started in 1990, Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman, the comic focused, in its first few years, on Wanda and Daryl, thirtysomethings who become new parents when their first daughter, Zoe, is born.

I don't want to argue that it's the best-drawn daily strip out there, or that its humor is especially sublime. But I will say that, when read at the end of a long day of Cleo-sitting, the familiarity of certain themes of the strip - Wanda's exhaustion; Daryl's naive enthusiasm; Zoe's relentless energy - rings absolutely true. Parenting an infant, in the pages of Baby Blues, is hard work, but also regularly punctuated by moments of grace, and humor. And, occasionally, the strips also touch me with their relevance. I recently blogged about Cleo's tiny, brightly-colored piano, and if you look back a few posts, you can watch a brief video of her playing on it. Which is why I smiled a little more fully when I came across this 1996 strip by Scott and Kirkman (you can click on it to enlarge it):