Proud Mama

I've always said that I will do my best to teach Nate compassion, sympathy, empathy and love. The choices he makes in his life are, in the end, his to make. I know at 19 months he is far from being the person he will always be (and at times I thank God above for this!) but he is starting to show signs of something that makes my heart so full of pride...

In the last couple of weeks, Nate ahs been showing real affection and love for our kitties. I know this sounds silly but if you know me, you know that animal welfare is a HUGE part of who I am. To think Nate might follow in my footsteps (and my dad's before me), is just so exciting.

It all started like this. We were playing in the kitchen. Nate had several (safe) kitchen tools and big bowl of water to play in. Just to add a new element to play, I gave him a small bowl of penne pasta to play with. This is what he did with it:



He fed it to Nittany the way he'd seen us give the cats treats. I was so excited!! Since then, we feed the kitties their treats on a regular basis. I hand him the treats and tell him which kitty to give them to. He has an obvious preference for Moo Moo ("Nate, give these treats to Polly." "No. Moo Moo."). He knows each kitty and nicely sets the treats in front of them. He also tries to share his sippy, will sit contentendly nicely petting Hobbs, and loves to just watch Moo Moo be her weird little self.

If this is the one thing he learns from me, I will be thrilled. Well, this and to never bring home a girl with giant fake boobs.