Other Bloggers' Baby Blogs Critiqued

Well, since Cass and I have decided to get into this whole baby-blogging b.s., I thought it would be informative to take a few pointers from some of our baby blogging buddies.
We've reviewed a few of our friends pages and these are our thoughts.

THE WRIGGLESWORTHS

The first thing I'll give props to the Wriggs for is creating a baby-blog because they actually need one. I mean they live in freaking Libya. Nobody is ever going to visit them there. They might as well live in Iraq.
So yeah, they need to let people back in the civilized world know that everyone is alive and well.
Despite a tendency to be a bit okey-dokely, in that really dorky Ontario way ("I have never had pickled herring before and it was yummy"), Mike actually does a pretty sweet job of giving people a real feel for what it's like to live in Benghazi and to travel to places like Turkey.
The obvious highlight is when he puts his daughter in a swing made of a lamb carcass.
But throughout the blog Mike maintains a great, conversational writing voice (unlike some presumptuous upstarts who pick apart their friends blogs after only three days of blogging) and also manages to give readers a sense of history ("The road takes you through the valley where Omar Mukhtar led the resistance against the Italians in the 1920's. Mukhtar was a thorn in the side for the Italians for a while, and this bridge was part of a railway constantly attacked by his forces..."). They also do a good job of linking posts to other relevant sites. Very journalistic!
The Wriggs' daughter is damn cute (they've got another gromit on the way) and Mike puts a lot of videos of her doing funny stuff like running on a treadmill (she gets that from her mother) or taking her first steps amongst a group of robed Libyans.
In the end the sheer exoticness of their location makes their blog pretty interesting.

What Cass and I learned: We need to move away from Calgary to increase our blog traffic. We'll be in Australia around a year from now. Come back then.

ADAM AND ARISSA

Residing in Montreal, Adam and Arissa don't do too bad on the exotic scale either. After all, they speak French over there and that shit is crazy.
Adam, who does most of the writing, has nearly mastered the Ontario dead-pan writing style--and by that I mean he just sounds like a big dork.
There are all sorts of "extreme" outdoors pictures of Adam and Arissa doing X-Games type crap like snowboarding or wakeboarding or surfing or playing hockey in a really shitty toque, which I assume Adam learned to enjoy during his totally stoked tenure as a really dope North Face salesman (Dude!!!!!!!). The whole fake-tornado thing was pretty funny as well and they definitively get extra points for being the only multi-cultural family critiqued here.
But the true strength of their blog is just how unimaginably charming their daughter Aisha is. I've seen the kid in person and it's ridiculous. Her jowls hang below her chin and her eyes look like planet earth as viewed from space. And I'm saying that knowing that almost every kid--probably including ours--start off looking like something hatched out of an early James Cameron movie.

What Cass and I have learned: dressing your kid up in sweet costumes ups the "awww" factor of your blog by multiples, but in the end it's all about fat cheeks. A good blog requires fat cheeks.

THE TOPPERS

I'd like to start this section by paying some respect, not to the authors of the blog--Adam and Julie--but to their eldest son, Evan: it is always awesome to refer to yourself as "Kipper" when playing goal, even in soccer. Anyone who says otherwise is probably from Ontario, and we all know what kind of goal tending they have out there.
A great trait from the Toppers blog is their brevity. These people get to the point and that should be commended. I mean really, people are reading your blog to find out what's going on with the family and to see great pictures of parents and kids enjoying some wacky time together. Readers just want to know that you're alive, the kids are happy and that you haven't become one of those home-schooling, sign-language teaching, organic-food feeding hippy families (we're considering doing all of those things by the way).
On a purely technical level, it's sweet how they put pictures one post on the left, yet on the next post on the right. That's rad.

What Cass and I have Learned: Put pictures on the right and left. It looks sweet.

THE HOGANS

No, not the Hulk Hogans, the Kirsten and Tim Hogans!!! AHHH, HAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAA.
One thing I DON'T like about the Hogans' blog is that they won't let me link to pictures of Kirsten's brother Dustin, who grew a sweet mustache for Christmas. I think he looks great. There's no way he can live up to his dad's 'stache I'm sure, but to grow truly great facial hair you need to be, you know... old.
Anyways, the Hogans' are obviously computer wizards, because they didn't even use Blogspot to publish their blog. Don't ask me how they did it. I haven't a clue. It's like digital magic or something. Like maybe they're using HTML or something.
The Hogans' definitely get the "aww shucks" factor, just because their first baby was just recently born, and in their house none-the-less. Damn I wish I could link to pictures. Just peruse their website. You'll see the "aww shucks" factor I'm talking about. Watch for Santa Claus. When you see Santa Claus, you'll know you're there.
I also give respect to the Hogans for venturing outside the baby-blog format. Check out this tirade on bottled water. Bottled water? 2000 times better! A F--kin' doubt it.
Way to be pro-active the Hulk Hogans. It's up to you to blaze a trail in history for your offspring to follow!

What Cass and I have learned: Take the family name of a famous wrestler.

Well, that concludes our Baby Blog Critique for now. Please let us know if there are other blogs you'd like critiqued and we'll be happy to oblige.
Sorry for being so contumelious, but you know, that's how we roll.
Contemelious. Yeah!