little bitty girl

I am going to preface this by saying I am about to have a mini vent on this matter.

Lately, people have been telling me how things will change in regards to my love for Mindy. How I will no longer love her and perhaps will want to give her away once the baby comes. The funny thing is the majority of the people telling me this are dog owners. And when I say, "Well, you seem to still be able to love your dog and your child..." The reply from them is that, "Oh, that's different. Loving a dog is different..."

Granted, we have some cat owner friends who have wanted to get rid of their pets once their baby has arrived. But in general, there seems to be more hate on the dog owner side... And I don't really get that attitude. I grew up with dogs and I always envision that one day in my future, we will have one. I never ever thought I would or ever could love a cat. And then came Mindy, and I do. I love her as much as I can love any human being. I think if you love a pet, that pet simply is a member of your family.

I am hoping to take the route Marie did with Monkey when Ryo was born. Ryo was raised to know that Monkey was very much a family member. In fact, Ryo always called Monkey her "big sister."

That all being said, I do worry about how things will change. I worry because Mindy is getting older and how a disruption of a baby might affect her life. I am trying as much as I can to spend quality time with her. Yesterday, we were spooning while watching TV and I laughed so much as she just kept trying to get closer. I was trying to show her that she couldn't because of my belly and she had to work around it. She finally carved a place for herself above my belly and settled there until BiB decided to move and kicked her in the butt.

I've also started to play sounds of newborns crying so that she can get accustomed to the idea. (YouTube, you are so awesome that way!) I think the first time, it was rather disconcerting because the expression on her face was WTF? But now, she's relatively undisturbed by it. If anything, Stefan is the one that finds the sounds slightly annoying, especially when I play it during a hockey game. Perhaps he's the one who needs the acclimatization to the thought of a new baby...