Today’s comic (Issue187) is another slice-of-life. Our dog is such a bright spot in our family, and there are times when the people just cannot console a child, but one of our animals can. We have cats too, but there is nothing quite like a dog to warm the heart of a child. Our kids call Angel their “little sister,” so that tells you how they feel about her. This past week was particularly hard in our house as the kids grappled with the thought of losing their dog. Even though she was not critically injured, it was a scary time, and our kids needed a bit more TLC to deal with it. Having the kids want the dog next to them to go to sleep is a regular occurrence in our house, and we wanted to showcase that in the strip.

Mike is pretty cranky in this issue, and his behavior is very much like our youngest, Violet. Our 2 year old has a fierce temper, and when she is tired, watch out! Nothing will console her, yet she just feels like she needs something. It can be frustrating as she screams “no” and slaps away all of our offerings of comfort. The dog will work to calm her on occasion, but honestly there are often moments nothing works. Usually she will simply find a place to lay down and go to sleep on her own–she is one of those children who really needs to be left alone in order to relax enough to take a nap.

On a side note, I have to admit that our 2 most explosive personalities kids-wise are Monty and Violet. I have to wonder if there is something to the fact that they both were born on the 4th of July (yes, both kids were born on 7/4, 4 years apart).

I do want to note, just in case anyone gets upset, I am not an advocate of “cry it out.” That is the method of putting a kid in their bed to go to sleep and leaving them alone in their room until they do. I know people who use it and swear by it, and I respect that. We are more inclined to have baby in our room with us, or sit with our kids until they go to sleep. Despite common fears that such method will not teach your kids to go to sleep on their own, I can safely reassure that our older ones have no issues with falling to sleep by themselves. We tried CIO years ago with our first and didn’t have the heart to do it. Anyhow, I do believe there is a time, though, that kids are just so overtired, they need a few minutes alone to relax. With Violet, typically she is in the same room as us and we simply ignore her. She usually comes around and calms down on her own, or she falls asleep. I don’t have any problems leaving a kid for 5-10 minutes to get a break. However, any longer and I usually have to go in and try something else. Okay, end of explanation.