A new Todd and Penguin today. If you're wondering what commercial Penguin is talking about, you can check it out here. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I could draw a Taking Up Space comic, which is a shame, because I spent several hours on Friday plotting the future of that comic. I was really psyched to get to it, but Todd and Penguin comes first, so long as it has the most readers. If you missed the most recent TUS, it touched on a rather popular (ie, overdone) news topic.

Sorry that I missed TWO updates last week. Balancing work and family life has been difficult of late. I know it's a sucky thing to keep telling people hey, 'sorry I couldn't update.' Sucky and unprofessional. But right now Baby Wright is going through his Needy Stage and is much more demanding of our time than he has been in the past.

Balancing the comic and home life is difficult when you aren't doing this professionally. Particularly when people expect professionalism from you. And I am a workaholic who always tries to bring professionalism to everything I do, however, when this is not the job that pays the bills, it's got to be the first thing set aside when obligations come up. My goal is to have this be my main career, then I can afford to devote the proper amount of time to do it 7 days a week.


I'm not complaining about family time, though. I enjoy watching Baby Wright learn new things.

On Valentines Day he stood up by himself for the first time. Now (at 11 months old) he is starting to walk around the house! He started with a few steps at a time, then he would fall back on his but. Within a week or so, he began taking 4, then 8 steps. Now, he is taking as many as 20 steps before falling down. However, he is determined, and pops right back up!

Crawling is still his preferred method of travel, though, if he is in a hurry. Sometimes, he will start to stand, then decide instead to do a crab crawl, with his hands outstretched and his but in the air. It's a funny site.

Most funny though, is something which began last weekend.

My dad called and I handed the phone to Baby Wright to see his reaction.

He smiled, seemingly recognizing grandpa's voice. He didn't talk back or anything, he just kinda' looked at the phone.

Then when I hung up, he wanted the phone back. I handed it to him, and he lifted it to the side of his face (though it was upside down) and he began talking into it! Well, blabbing, as he doesn't speak words yet.

My wife and I were laughing so hard. And of course, he smiled. He knows when he's made you laugh, and will try to repeat whatever he did. I realized he was a little comedian when he was about 6 months old or so and my wife and I were shopping and he was in his car seat inside the shopping cart. He made a weird face which we'd never seen before and my wife started cracking up. He immediately did it again and again.

Eventually, I took the phone away so he wouldn't poke himself with the antenna stub (or call China). Then he picked up his remote (we gave him his own remote - without batteries- so he can be like daddy) and he put the remote up to his face like it was a phone and began talking into it! Then, during the week, he would simply hold his hand up to his face pretending he had a phone (or a remote!) and say "bab babababa."

Here's a pic. And before anyone thinks I let my son walk around like Mr. McMessyFace, I don't. His face and clothes are not usually that messy. I swear, your honor! He'd just finished eating when my dad called and it was close to bath time.

However, he IS normally holding a sock, or some other item. He likes to walk around while holding two items (one in each hand) whenever possible. Socks are a favorite for either hands or mouth. Give him two socks and he'll be content for an hour.