Dare Devil

When Neil and I were dating he once asked me, "What is your favorite animal?" I quickly responded, "A dead one." I was kidding... mostly... but to tell the truth I have no desire to have a pet, especially one that would live in my house. I think this is due to the fact that we never had pets growing up. Consequently I am a little nervous around creatures, specifically ones that look like they could take a chunk out of my leg or peck my eyes out. Well to my great amazement Baby Grace has no fear at all when it comes to animals. She loved the goats and sheep at the petting zoo and cried when I carried her away from them. And then today we came over to my in laws for a day of fun. We went swimming at the next door neighbor's house and they have a bunch of cats. Well, now I know that Grace loves goats, sheep and kitty cats. One nice black cat in particular took Grace's fancy. Grace and I had to follow around the cat and when it disappeared into the bushes Grace was inconsolable. We had to walk up and down the drive way calling "kitty, kitty, kitty." We did this for a few minutes until Grace gave up hope of being reunited with her new friend. Her cousin Jack, on the other hand, was thoroughly terrified of the cats and didn't even want to walk past them. I am learning that since my baby has no fear I have to watch her like a hawk. She will go up to anyone or anything and yell a friendly "Hi" and if she is ignored she will just keep repeating hi until the person responds or walks away. At the pool most of her energy is spent trying to get away from me so she can fling herself into the deep end. Today she realized the greatest fun in the world is to jump off the edge of the pool into the water. Luckily I was there to catch her every time. I am thinking that once she gets better at running I am going to have to invest in those stuffed animal backpacks that are really leashes, especially in airports. It is not like I want my child to be a scared pansy but a little bit of reserve would be nice.