Marissa is an adorable toddler with a rare and terrible medical problem: West Syndrome, a.k.a. infantile spasms. Her father Mike has been active in the online Special Needs community, chronicling her story for years now at his blog Marissa's Bunny. Last year, his readers raised almost $30,000 through a ChipIn fundraiser to offset the costs of Marissa's neurosurgery. As a sort of 'thank you', and with the help of matching funds from his employers, Mike offered to give away and/or raffle 40 iPads to the special needs kids of his blogger friends, to be used as assistive technology devices for many of their non-verbal kids. This follows on the heels of several other iPad raffles he's held in the past year.

Guess what happened next. The Special Needs Parenting blog community is on the case: Ellen Seidman (and her commenters), Rob Rummel-Hudson, Sarah and Joyce Hely, Shannon Des Roches Rosa and others are putting together the pieces right now.
(previously on MetaFilter: the unravelings of Kaycee Nicole, JT LeRoy, Kodee Kennings, Alexa DiCarlo, and Amina Arraf)
posted by Asparagirl on Jul 18, 2011 - 183 comments

Last month our family watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop." We loved it. In fact Gracie was bound and determined to become a street artist when she grew up... Now of course we would never in a million years damage anyone's property. But we wanted to do something artsy. Something stealthy. Something public. Then I had a bright idea... A gallery of dozens of small rocks with cartoony faces hand-painted on them and placed back outside. (Via CNLT. previously. )
posted by ShawnStruck on Mar 7, 2011 - 40 comments

Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty is a blog featuring selected drawings by Isaac age 10; Grace, 9; and Lily, who is 6. They participate in Illustration Friday, and even do book reviews. Recently, to celebrate the 3rd year anniversary of the blog, their father asked readers to submit some 'fan art' using past CNLT drawings as inspiration. Here are the submitted art works, accompanied by the original drawings that inspired them. [more inside]
posted by thread_makimaki on Sep 9, 2009 - 38 comments

Rock Tots and other Lil Music Makers.

Yes, because kids rock too.
posted by swift on Jan 9, 2009 - 9 comments