For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 02, 2020

Welcome baby April

Welcome, April Marian Patterson. Prepare for a life with two nutty siblings, older parents, a bunch of nieces and nephews, Grandpa Jim and adorable dogs. Sidenote – I think I read somewhere Lynn Johnston wanted a girl named April so she chose April 1st birth.

It’s funny Elly thinks she has to entertain right after she’s given birth. Imagine her reaction when someone tells her that the ambulance is there to take her and the baby to the hospital to get tests done using the equipment that her next-door neighbor and nurse Carol Enjo does not have lying around her house. Elly might need to put some clothes on.

At least Michael has his priorities strait.

Five Pattersons, one pizza delivery man, one police officer… three paramedics (one of which being ambulance driver)?

Given a choice, I suppose “April Marian” beats “April Foole.”

Better get five.

10 people! They aren’t “social distancing!” Lol

Who would have guessed April’s 2nd birth would happen during a world wide plague

In the last panel, is April upset that she’s not getting any pizza?

Pizza and childbirth. What a combo.

How is Pizza guy driving on ice?

The Ambulance should come first for the baby and mom, not pizza.

Happy Birthday April! You have quite a party going on there. To bad you won’t remember it, but I’m sure you will be told the story so many times in the coming years you will think you do.

Does Elly look naked in those panels to you?

I’m thinking Ellie is wondering how much of her the pizza guy saw.

Welcome April!!!

They gonna put a candle on the PZ and let the birthday girl blow it out?

Teens have priorities too and pizza is one of them.

So, from here on out, this comic follows normal timeline and goes from year to year and ends when April is 18. This is around where I’d started reading when I first got into the comic because Mike, Liz, and Aprils teenage years interested me far more than their baby shenanigans.

I thought Pizza guy already brought a whole stack of them?

A yellowed copy of this strip was taped on my mom’s fridge until she passed away because 15 days after it originally ran her first grandchild entered the world. As April grew up we had the joy of watching my niece go through many of the same experiences.

The days of Farley are numbered. April is directly responsible for the dog’s death in a few years. Flashbacks are a bummer.

I thought the pizza guy was done driving that night because “it’s suicide out there”?