Guest blogger Lucie Amundsen reflects on the death of Scottie… 

Dealing with a death of a dog is tough stuff. Watching your children deal with that death is even tougher.

Eight years ago when my husband and I learned we were pregnant, we got a dog. We figured with our wings clipped anyway we might as well -“in for a penny in for pound.”

Straight from our local Animal Humane Society , Scottie-dog turned out to be a good pick. He was a Rottweiler-mix who destroyed nothing, tolerated the children pulling up on his ears and years of toddler commotion. 

Of course, I had no way of knowing that he’d be the “man of the house” for nearly 20 months when my husband lived away for work and deployment. It was comforting to be known as “the house with big black dog.”

This year he turned 12.

That’s old for a large breed dog, but because of long, daily walks he was still quite athletic and we were banking on a couple more years with him.

So it was quite a shock for my husband to return from errands to destruction-fest. The house was cold with standing water on the floor. Scottie had chewed through three waterlines - flooding the laundry room, the kitchen and a bathroom - and a 24-volt wire that knocked out the furnace.  He then proceeded to tear down & destroy shades, curtains and bath towels.

In short, he snapped.

A trip to the vet concluded that the dog most likely had dementia (we didn’t know a dog could even HAVE dementia!) and was now a risk to both property and people.

We would have to put down the pet our children had known all their lives. (more…)

Today we have Darcie Gust, a Cribsheet regular, guest blogging for us. She swore she’d never be a short order cook for her family and is now finding out that trying to get her 3 year old to eat is a very tall order.

Before I became a parent, I had a lot of ideas in my head. Thoughts of what I would and would not do when I became a parent. I’d see those OTHER parents out (you know the ones!) and about and say to myself - “That will never be me!!” One of the biggest “Oh no, not me I will NEVER EVER…” issues I’m battling happens during mealtime at our house.

I swore I would never be a “restaurant” for our kids. I spent half my life working in restaurants - I wasn’t going to be serving up a different meal for every person in our house, especially when I was the one making it!! At least that’s what I thought, before I had a toddler.
Introducing solids to our little girl was a cake walk - she’d not only try it she’d eat the whole jar of whatever it was on the menu for that day - (well, except Apricots - she hated those.)
That little girl just turned three and she is very selective in what she eats. I find myself making a meal for dinner for the family - and then something for her that I know she will eat. Typically PB&J, Mac n Cheese, Grilled Cheese or some form of Chicken Nugget/Chicken Fries.
I do still put on her plate a bite or two of what her Dad and I are eating - which her little brother who is almost two will typically at least try, but she refuses…and then follows that up with -
“I can’t eat that - it makes me cough.” A step up from her telling me it would make her throw up which is what she used to do! We’ve gone the bribery route - begging her to try just one bite - I have tried the “This is all you get til morning and you’ll go hungry” approach - and she honestly would prefer to go hungry - and has…Sometimes she makes it through the night - other nights I’m lying next to her as her tummy is growling and she’s crying. How do you not give in to that and let her have PB&J sans crust yet again? Even harder yet is that both of our kids barely register under 5% on the growth charts for weights! I try not to get too wrapped up in the percentiles but I’d love for them to register on the chart at least!!

I once told a friend that I had visions of sitting down at the table eating as a family every night and was very disappointed that I was failing and she reminded me that we could still sit at the table as a family and eat, even if we were not all eating the same thing.

She’s right, and we have since started doing just that…but I wonder - how DO you get these little ones to eat without making them go hungry?

Guest blogger Julie Kendrick reflects on the recent annual camp for families with children from China….

Kids are streaming through the front door of Cragun’s resort in Brainerd, ready for another Culture Camp. 

I can’t help but wonder how it feels for these kids to look at the crowd and see something other than the mass of Norwegian-blonde heads that fill the halls of their Minnesota schools. Now, just for the weekend, these Chinese-Americans are in the majority, and the crowd that swells around the registration desk features heads of uniformly dark and shiny hair.

At Culture Camp, the kids see others who look the way they look.  Everyone has a story likes theirs, and that story always starts in China. It’s the 11th annual Families with Children from China Culture Camp and there are 90 families from all over the state, and beyond. 

Their stories start with birth parents in China who felt the restrictions of the one-child rule. Then there is arrival at an orphanage, perhaps into foster care.  At the same time, but on the other side of the world, the story includes hearts that are yearning for a child.  Long talks, long forms, long waits.  Finally, journeys were made.

And families were begun.

As the mother of a 13-year-old adopted at age four months in Wuhan, China, I’ve had some time to observe this group and watch it grow.

Some of the kids study Chinese, go to Chinese schools, make journeys to see their orphanages and plan to live in the place they clearly see as their “real home” someday.  Other kids are more like mine, who seems to be the queen and sole resident of the Country of Herself. For each of the past eleven years, for one October weekend, we’ve brought her to connect with others like her. Have we done the right thing? That’s not an easy question to answer.  (more…)

We asked and you sent them. Here are some cuties in leaves…keep them coming!

 Mallory and daddy

 Natalie

 Lydia

  Liam

From guest blogger Lucie Amundsen… 

One of the most surprising things about parenting for me has been the incredible things it has made me say. Sentences tumble out of my mouth that adults without children would never dream of saying.

Just this week I rounded the corner to find my son, fresh from the bath, on a stool removing popcorn from the microwave. And I said this instructional phrase, “We DO NOT handle hot food NAKED!”

A friend just had a baby this week and I briefly thought of embroidering just that wording on a throw pillow to let her know how ridiculous her life will become. But she is in the throes of baby love and she wouldn’t believe me anyway.

I want to know what things Cribsheeters have let tumble forth from their lips - if only to make me feel better.