There are a lot of bloggers out there. And, we've noticed, among the many bloggers, there is a disproportionate number of mommy bloggers. 

To distinguish oneself among the sea of prolific, child-obsessed, memoir-oriented, Internet-posting, reproductively gifted writers is a distinction indeed. And in this case, the distinction belongs to Maplewood's own Ellen Seidman.

Seidman's blog was just awarded "Best Special Needs Blog" by thebump.com. Seidman, who most recently worked as an editor at Glamour magazine, has been blogging about her son Max, who suffered a stroke at birth and subsequently is challenged by cerebral palsy. (Another stunning character in the blog is the not-to-be-overlooked Sabrina, younger sister to Max.)

We took a look at Seidman's blog and immediately saw what thebump.com recognized before us: This chick is smart, funny, original and has a broader perspective than many bloggers. She also knows how to keep it short on length but long on content, poignant and touching but not self-pitying, informative but not preachy.

Plus, she's a darn good photographer.

But it's the words that rule. Who can resist blog entries with titles like "Screw you, brain damage!", "Dance party on mommy's bed" and "Is that snot in your hair?"

The award from thebump.com included a $100 Pottery Barn Kids gift certificate which Seidman immediately gave away in a contest on her blog.

With Seidman's permission, Patch is running this excerpt from the very first "To the Max" blog post from October 28, 2008:

I walked in the door from work tonight to the usual greeting: Sabrina's "Mommmmmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (she's three, so all of her sentences end in multiple exclamation points) and Max's squeals of joy (he's five). My mom's visiting, and she told me that she and Max had been dancing together before I came home. When you're a working mom, you get a little wistful hearing about fun kid stuff you missed during the day, but when you're a working mom with a disabled kid, you get especially wistful. I needed to recreate the dancing scene, so I grabbed the kids' hands and we did Ring Around The Rosie right there in the kitchen. What the heck does that song mean, anyway? "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down"? I just Wikipedia-ed it, entry says it's considered to be a reference to the Bubonic plague. Nice!