Nala Love

We brought Emma home on January 2, 2009. We were all so excited to welcome her to her new home...everybody except our cat, Nala. Before Nala even saw the baby, she sensed something was different and literally ran to the bedroom and hid behind our bed. She kept her distance for several days. She finally started to warm up to Emma after a few weeks. Now that a year has gone by I am amazed at the bond they share.

Emma's first words were Mama and Dada. But shortly thereafter she started saying Nala. If Nala comes into the room, Emma squeals with joy. And surprisingly, if Emma is in the room, Nala trots over and rubs up against her. I love that they can coexist on the floor and sit right next to each other without Emma feeling the need to grab at her...I'm sure Nala appreciates this too. Every now and then Nala will feel the need to be by herself and she will run out of the room, but this doesn't happen as often as you'd think it would.

Recently, Emma has figured out that if she throws a piece of food on the floor from her highchair, then her Nala will come to her. Often Nala will eat it, but sometimes I think she's a little suspicious of it. Maybe she is skeptical of any food that Emma won't eat herself. This weekend, Josh taught Emma a bad habit related to this...

I foresee Emma throwing all of her food on the floor in the future.

As we know, Emma loves paper. Apparently tissue falls into this category. I had a box sitting by the bed and she pulled one out and proceeded to rip it to shreds. We had tiny pieces of tissue all over the bed. Once she was done, she would pick up a piece and then put it in my hand. Nala was laying with us and it was like I could see the thought bubble above her head as she caught a glimpse of her Nala. She was thinking, "I bet Nala would LOVE a piece of tissue...I should share!" After that she picked up a piece of tissue and then put it on top of Nala. Nala was pretty much unphased but this but Emma was so proud of herself and she thought it was the best game ever. She picked up tissue pieces and gave them all to Nala for several minutes. Nala just laid there and let her do it. I think she likes the attention. Emma started to get a little overzealous though and it made Nala give her the look like "Okay, that's enough, I'm outta here." She got up and walked away while Emma was looking away.

We all love our Nala and she loves us unconditionally. She doesn't shed that much but somehow it never fails that each day you'll find at least one Nala hair on your outfit. We have come to call this "Nala love" because it's as if she doesn't want us to forget about her and so she leaves her mark on us. But you tell me, how could we ever forget this face??