Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Kids at House Blend (3)

The puppies love the kids. The kids at least like them. But my puppies are still learning manners. (Imagine yourself a child standing eyeball to eyeball with not one but two black dogs even if they're well mannered!)

My two black puppies usually wait impatiently behind the baby gate until everyone's done eating and the meeting closes then we let them mill around and greet everyone. (They stand eye-ball level with plates of food on laps and at least eyeball to eyeball with most of the kids).

At the end of the night we usually let them join the group because we need them to welcome and be comfortable with groups of people (and kids) at our house. Friday night my usual puppy supervisors had to leave early and we went over our time so everyone left pretty quickly. (Ellie didn't even bark at my guitar. smile! )

I think my puppies were disappointed that they didn't get their usual social time at the end. (Good thing Bryn was there!) But having the gate means that we could have our meeting and still watch the kids feel safe and go up to them and talk to them and pet them (and get them excited) the whole time. Grown-ups, kids, and puppies did just fine.

2 comments:

  1. The House Blend was great! I was SO amazed at all you did, Margie (and George.) Maybe we can help bring things or help prepare things for you? The kids definitely had a wonderful time and loved the dough and ingredients. (Sorry about the mess they left!!!!)

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  2. The mess wasn't a big deal, not at all! (Next time, remind me that I have two black puppies (no- adolescent dogs) who would be happy to lick it all up!)

    When it was all done, (the next day) we talked about listening to and learning from kids as opposed to asking kids questions expecting textbook answers. Thinking about the kids up to their elbows in bread dough, George said, that was probably the point God wanted to make about the kingdom of God. We need to be up to our elbows in the sticky stuff! And once you've got your fingers in it, it's really hard to get it off. :-)

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