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Omaha Magazine

Spaghetti Toes

Mar 19, 2015 11:21AM ● By Allison Janda
As a parent, you’ve probably appreciated (and not appreciated) the absolute honesty that often escapes your child’s mouth. Frankness aside, kids also tend to say some hilarious things. Martin Bruckner’s daughter, Harper, 3, is no exception.

In early 2014, Bruckner, his wife Michelle, and their daughter were having dinner when he overheard his wife exclaim to Harper, “Please don’t put spaghetti between your toes.” That same night, as Bruckner was giving his daughter her evening bath, he found himself asking her, “Did you drop your cheese in the tub again?” From that point on, he decided it would be worthwhile to take note of all of the absurd utterances around his house. He knew that one day, he his wife and their child could all look back and have a good laugh.

Bruckner began to create graphics based on things he wrote down, eventually starting Tumblr and Facebook accounts to share them with friends, family, and parents around the world. “Pretty much the first day I started the Facebook and Tumblr pages I had parents replying to me with the things their children say to them,” he chuckles. Bruckner admits that it isn’t just the locals that find things he, his wife, and his daughter say funny. In fact, he has gotten messages from as far away as Australia.

While Spaghetti Toes started out innocently enough, it seems to be gaining steam as Harper ages. Bruckner states that while his daughter is a newer conversationalist, the things she says only get funnier with age. “Her vocabulary is getting bigger and stronger but she’s still having a hard time getting certain things to be in the correct context, which in turn makes them hilarious,” he says. This

is confirmed with nothing more than a cursory glance through his website. The graphics he has created have started to garner some national attention, getting picked up by websites such as BuzzFeed and The Chive. Additionally, Bruckner has started to fulfill custom orders and recently completed two such requests for a woman in Canada. Nonetheless, Bruckner remains encouraged by the local scene, claiming Omaha’s creatives are extremely supportive while locals are incredibly kind.

The attention his sites have garnered feels good, Bruckner says. Nonetheless, he finds that he is more drawn to the long-term payoff that they will have. “I started this as a way to document my daughter’s life while she’s little and I’m having an incredible time doing it,” he shares. In fact, his own mother, inspired by what her son was doing, went digging for books that she kept on Bruckner and his siblings when they were young. Bruckner hopes to use it to create additional graphics for his mom and five sisters. “I’ve gotten message after message after message from parents and I think everyone is in agreement as far as their children saying incredible, silly, ridiculous, and disgusting things,” he adds. “I say things daily that I never thought I’d say.” We’re sure that every parent out there can relate.

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