BABY BLUES SCRAPBOOK 16 DAD TO THE BONE

Well on the day you were born, the nurses all gathered 'round. And they gazed in wide wonder, as my face hit the ground. The head nurse looked up, said, "Leave this one prone." She could tell right away that I was Dad to the bone." --Sing to the tune of George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone

If you read the job description in a want ad, you might think long and hard before responding. WANTED: A man willing to change diapers that could nuke the ozone, plop down on all fours and become a horsie at a moment's notice, arise from a deep sleep for an hour to calm nightmares, and part with a significant chunk of his hard-earned nest egg. There's only one explanation for why a man such as Baby Blues' Darryl MacPherson would accept such a challenge . . . because he's Dad to the Bone.

"Now, when I coach your teams, I go out of my mind! Every holler and scream means I'm proud that you're mine! As the years go by, pretty baby, can't believe how much you've grown! I wanna' thank you for makin' me a Dad to the Bone!"

Of course, Baby Blues isn't only about fatherhood. This is a well-rounded family, with mom Wanda becoming more well-rounded every day as she heads into her third pregnancy. This collection of strips from the wildly popular feature Baby Blues, which is enjoyed by millions of parents and kids every day. Over the years, creators Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman have perfected this family-centered strip that presents the joyful moments with the frustrating in a way that is hilarious and heartfelt without being syrupy sweet.

Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman's Baby Blues is a past recipient of the esteemed National Cartoonists Society's Comic Strip of the Year Award. The two have published 15 successful Baby Blues collections and three treasuries since 1993. The strip appears in more than 750 newspapers and 20 periodicals worldwide. Their Web site, babyblues.com, receives 300,000 hits each month. Jerry is also cocreator of the renowned strip Zits. He lives in Malibu, Calif. Rick lives in Phoenix, Ariz.