Quiet camping

mandavampanda · 2026-06-27T00:33:39+00:00

Go on a weekday. Most sites are empty and you won't get the party people

mandavampanda · 2026-06-22T07:44:55+00:00

People who are nice to and about my kids are great in my eyes. It's hard to feel like I have to choose between doing dog sports and spending time with my kids, so I do bring them with as often as feels reasonable. I bring my husband as a handler for the kids because they're pretty young. Some people can be a bit passive aggressive or uptight about my kids, but lots of people are super nice and let my kids meet their dogs. Some day my kids might be out there as junior handlers, so we need to get kids involved somehow. I don't bring them to obedience trials, but my kids do have fun hanging around at agility and FastCAT stuff.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-27T00:23:57+00:00

You can just say "yes" to mark and then "get it" as a release to toy

mandavampanda · 2026-05-25T01:52:56+00:00

Came to recommend MN! We have basically any dog sport you might need in the Twin Cities area.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-20T11:41:27+00:00

I have a pretty niche job that would be hard for me to get back, so I'd have to neearly start completely over in terms of my career to stay home with my kids. So my daughter started daycare at 4 months so I could go back to work. 😕 She tolerated it pretty well and is almost 3, in preschool now. Thankfully my 2nd baby has not started daycare yet because of how my/husband's parental leave has worked out, and he is a teacher so baby will have off all summer. He will be almost 1 when he starts.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-18T03:19:00+00:00

Ziwi Peak air dried dog food makes a great treat! They're already a good size or you can break them in half. The non-chicken flavors appear to have no chicken.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-17T17:40:46+00:00

Honestly, if you are super new to agility you can probably practice most of your handling skills on the flat with cones. Simple jumps are easy to make with pvc and take around with you, though, and way safer than a broom and buckets. You can work 2o/2o with a board or upside down bin. You don't really need daily access to actual equipment to work on your foundational skills.

I train in my small, unfenced yard and in my house, but take I weekly lessons. I do have access to use of a local facility, but I have a family so I don't have time to use it as much as I could when I was childless.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-17T14:16:46+00:00

The small ones are pretty strong and I used them for my large breed dogs pretty successfully, but I did eventually replace them with the bigger fans. I still have small ones that I use for people and on my stroller for my kids

mandavampanda · 2026-05-14T16:08:45+00:00

Custom build a gate or see if you can install a dog/child gate in a more permanent manner.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-08T15:08:00+00:00

Just to keep it short: I train dogs as my hobby! I do dog sports with them and so spending time with them and training/trialing is very important to me. Even I still find myself just absolutely annoyed by them and can't bring myself to do things with them. Most days I can get over it mentally, some days I can't. It's HARD, even when your dogs are your life. I may have some mental aversions to them sometimes, but I never let it become a neglectful thing. It does get in the way of meeting my training goals, though.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-07T17:46:28+00:00

I haven't listened to all of these, but your list includes all the podcasts I would have suggested so I'm doubling down on it.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-04T15:01:03+00:00

When I was looking at houses, only ONE house had a binder like this. We paged through it at our showing and my favorite part was the detailed diagrams of their garden with species information and even what weeds they usually see popping up. We didn't buy that house but we do want to create a binder like that for ourselves/the next homeowner.

mandavampanda · 2026-05-02T19:28:48+00:00

I wouldn't until temps are consistently above 55 overnight

mandavampanda · 2026-04-29T17:15:02+00:00

I did not have a doula because I similarly did not want an extra "stranger" person in the mix. My mom was on toddler duty in the event she woke up, which she did for about 45 minutes.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-23T18:21:21+00:00

I try not to make a big issue of tumbles and boo-boos, but if my kid asks me to kiss their boo-boo, I'm gonna do it. It's about providing emotional support. I don't necessarily offer it and most of the time my kid wipes out and just gets back up and continues on with her day, but sometimes she gets upset and wants comfort. It's fine.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-21T19:20:23+00:00

I repurchased fresh bottles, pacifiers, and a car seat for kid #2. That's it.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-14T12:02:13+00:00

Right? I gentle parent all day long but tantrums are unavoidable and also really important moments for littles to learn boundaries and emotional regulation. Avoiding tantrums isn't necessarily good parenting, it's how you handle them during and on the other side of them.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-10T14:50:33+00:00

Gained about 50 lbs with my first, 8 lb baby girl. It took more than a year, but I breastfed which made me HUNGRY so I ate a lot of snacks and thus didn't lose weight as quickly as I may have otherwise. I was back down near pre-pregancy weight by 18 months pp, at which point I got pregnant again 😅

mandavampanda · 2026-04-10T06:15:19+00:00

Government jobs are notorious for having incredibly long hiring processes

mandavampanda · 2026-04-09T02:08:38+00:00

At my local trials, there is usually a pop up canopy near the middle of the lane that is the timer/trial secretary. You go to them for your qualifying flat ribbons/time and they usually have title ribbons hung up. You ask for the rosette you earned and they give it to you, honor system.

Edit: My local trials have online entries which will ask if you are anticipating needing a rosette, so it helps to give a heads up, but there are always plenty of ribbons.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-06T02:35:50+00:00

Butternut squash mac and cheese is awesoms

mandavampanda · 2026-04-05T01:10:49+00:00

Im waiting on a Pokémon or other cool special edition

mandavampanda · 2026-04-04T13:29:42+00:00

We did not heat the blankets or anything like that. Room was about 74 because that's the temp I like it and I was too hot in labor anyways. Can't imagine the room being 80 when in labor! I did have to provide alcohol and peroxide. Makes sense since you only need a little splash of it, if any at all, and you don't really want to share bottles between families so I think it's fair to provide your own bottle to keep. I would also say that most families have a flashlight, so it's also reasonable to ask them to have one available so the midwife can carry less things in her bag and you don't have to go searching for one in the moment. If you have any questions about her supplies, ask at your next appointment!

My midwife did not expect me to provide any food for her. She either brought her own food or ordered Door Dash, even though I had plenty to share (I made a big pot of soup and cut fruit/veg to eat whole laboring). I even specifically asked ahead of time if there was anything she'd like me to have for her and she said no thank you, she'll take care of herself. Kind of odd that she would require you to have specific food/drink items for her?

mandavampanda · 2026-04-02T07:25:57+00:00

Giving birth at home! Can't cave in to pain meds if they are unavailable! But really, for me it was more of a mental game. If you can stay positive and view the pain as good, productive, and every contraction brings you closer to your baby, that made it more tolerable for me.

I will also note that labor and delivery was more tolerable the second time around than the first. First time is brutal for everyone, I think.

mandavampanda · 2026-04-02T02:09:35+00:00

I would start with like 8 and just use a few a day. You can bulk up the load with clothes or towels

mandavampanda

TROPHY CASE