Our "first born"

This is Kaya, our chihuahua, in a picture just too cute for words. It may look like she's snuggling up to the baby, but what she is really doing is stealing the body heat of our child. She's really good at doing that. She'll snuggle up to me at night and I think, oh Kaya does love me, but if I try to snuggle back, watch out! Fortunately, she has enough brains in that wee little head to know not to even look cross-eyes at the baby, or it's off to a lovely farm where she can run free.

We were really worried about bringing the baby home and how Kaya would react to her. For the 37 weeks I was pregnant, Kaya was, what we termed, my "practice baby." Oh, I loved her so, so much. I would take her everywhere with me, snuggle with her while I sat on my growing ass watching Golden Girls (don't ask) and eating oranges by the dozen (and yes I even shared my orangey goodness with her). Ms. Kaya was top dog, and had been for 2 1/2 years. Then her pedestal came crashing down and here was this little, pink, oh-so-good smelling package that mama seemed to love more (I'll admit it, I do). My mother warned me that while I would still love the dog, my patience with her would wear thin. I laughed and said no, Kaya is like my first born.

That changed and quickly. Poor Kaya didn't know what to think. Suddenly, she wasn't allowed to jump all over mama, wasn't allowed on the couch, and forget trying to kiss the oh-so-good smelling package. She has done remarkably well though readjusting into a life of a dog. She and the baby are terrific friends and she pretends not to mind when her tail gets yanked of her fur gets slobbered on. And, I think she's realized that the oh-so-good smelling package has it's benefits, like free food spit across the room for her to chase, and a heater that doesn't kick as hard as the bigger heaters. We're a nice happy family.