Colleen Lindstrom of FM107.1 Get Real Girls recently requested to share the story of her daughter Brady with our Cribsheet community. It is a subject that is difficult to share but close to her heart - SIDS.  This is hard to read, but her goal is to raise awareness of safe sleep habits and what you can do to reduce the risk.
In her own words: Our daughter is so deeply missed. She was our ultimate teacher in living life joyfully, and I honor her by sharing our story.

At 11:56 pm on March 19, 2005, my firstborn drew her first breath.  With that first breath of life in the midst of a bustling birthing room, came her glorious newborn cry.  As long as I live, I will never forget the wailing sounds she produced as we welcomed Brady Judith Lindstrom into this world.  In that instant, our love story began and we made plans, just as all first time parents do.  Her Daddy would teach her about baseball and how to appreciate a really good rock song, and I would take her to dance classes and instruct her on the importance of an appropriately timed punch line.  We would live happily ever after, aside from the occasional bump in the road during the Junior High years.   I thought my heart would actually explode right then and there.  I had never tested its capacity with love like this.  So, I sang to my little girl:

You are my sunshine
my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are grey
you’ll never know dear
how much I love you
please don’t take my sunshine away…

Each day I was amazed that I could love her more and more.  We marveled at each new skill she developed, each new sound she made, each new expression that she revealed.  She was perfect.

And then… 

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Saturday’s Source featured relationship reporter, Gail Rosenblum’s article on men’s waning libidos. This article was in part inspired by readers comments from a previous Cribsheet post concerning one of Gail’s articles on new moms and lack of libido.  

Read her ”Lackluster Libido” article here.

Does this topic ring true for you? Share your situation below. It’s okay - you can be John/Jane Doe.

Today we’re wrapping up “Mother Words Week” here at Cribsheet with Ann’s essay about her son’s love for “all things amphibious”

Critter Love

From an early age, Alex had an incredible eye for detail. He has been able to spot the tiniest Box Elder bug, the squirmiest snake and see the flash of a minnow before anyone else. He spent much of his early childhood squatting in the yard—diaper-laden shorts nearly touching the grass, his pudgy thighs supporting his tireless examination of the soil.

When Alex was about nine, an interest in “all things amphibian” blossomed. He spent afternoons at the library inspecting the shiny drawings and colorful photos in the DK series of animal books. His grandfather sent him clippings about nature camps in Vermont and we all began to picture a grown-up Alex photographing rare animal species for National Geographic. One summer afternoon, I was cleaning out the car after a weekend visit to the family cabin. As I collected cold french fries and sticky Dairy Queen cups from the rear seat, I was horrified to discover the skeletal remains of a frog in the cup holder of the minivan. At the time, Alex disavowed any knowledge of this animal or responsibility for its demise or presence in our vehicle. (more…)

Today’s Mother Words installment is one of longing and perspective from Cynthia Lehew-Nehrbass.

Conversations With My Daughter

Often as I listen to my friends express the woes of communicating with their teenage daughters, I wonder what the experience would be like. Conversations about messy rooms, requests for shopping sprees, exorbitant phone bills, and broken curfews — they all intrigue me. Their motherly struggles with finding the right tactic to curb the pubescent whiners and “back talkers” that inhabit their homes — I am almost jealous. Probing for details on how these conversations might go — I want to know everything. Why? As a mother, I would give almost anything to have even just one conversation — no matter how rocky — with my own teenage daughter.

Sarah Grace, my thirteen year old, has Down syndrome and hearing loss. She speaks in minimal, one to three word sentences — usually with prompting; and struggles through shyness to verbalize nearly anything. Daily, I see the frustration in her brown eyes as she attempts to express herself. From a young age, I always knew that Sarah would need help in the area of speech; but I thought that with years of therapy, by the time she was a teen, she would finally find her voice. (more…)

Today we continue to share essays from the Loft’s Mother Words class. Gretchen Sage-Martinson shares how she’s learned to see the world through her son’s optimistic point of view.

“And that one is up”

Last year I was out driving somewhere the day after a big storm had swept through the area. I had my two year old son in the back seat. He was babbling away to himself as usual. We pulled off the highway and drove through a section of St. Paul that had many trees down. For some reason this really hurt me. Seeing those destroyed trees, roots pulled completely free from the ground, made it hard for me to breathe. “Oh Theo, look at all the trees that are down!” I whined to my small child. In the rear view mirror I saw him lift his tiny chin so that he could see out the window. “Oh Mommy, but look, that one is up, and that one is up.” Honestly, for the next 5 minutes Theo continued to point out every tree he saw standing tall. Then he went back to mumbling, but he managed to lift my spirits.

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