National Cat Day - A babies best friend

Give your cat a cuddle because today is National cat day! 

This time last year I blogged about my two cats and how important I think it is to show and teach children how to respect and love animals from a young age. I was pregnant with Noah at the time I wrote that post and couldn't wait to start putting my sentiments into practice. 

I hoped that Noah would develop a great friendship with the cats and that they would accept him into our family. Fast forward a year and I couldn't of pictured it any better.

Noah and Teddy are becoming the best of friends. 

Ted is usually a very timid and cautious cat and although he completely trusts Nick and I he is still jumpy if you move too quickly or are too loud. With this in mind we thought a baby would terrify him but thankfully we were wrong.

Teddy is really interested in what Noah does and will walk up to him to see what he's doing. He seems to want to be near him and often sits beside him. He has even been spotted guarding Noah's bedroom door at night which we find very endearing. Ted is very patient and trusting with Noah and seems to understand that he is a baby.

Noah is as interested in Ted as Ted is in him. With Noah being so young you would expect him to be really rough and heavy handed with the cats but incredibly he's not. He's ever so gentle with them and pets them just as we do as adults. When he strokes them I tell him "be nice" "ahhh nice" and he giggles and smiles. He's never grabbed the cats or pulled their tails but he has attempted to crawl over them once or twice! 

It makes my heart melt seeing both baby and cat interact in such a loving way. I can't wait to watch their bond blossom and to see them grow up together. 

Do you have pets? How do your children behave with them? 

Noah went to the Zoo

Yesterday Noah had his very first zoo experience! 

Both Nick and I are huge animal lovers and as parent's we aim to teach Noah how to love, care and respect animals too. He is already showing such fascination for our cats and he always smiles when he see's them. He's a little David Attenbourough in the making! 

As an animal lover I have a split opinion on zoo's. On one hand it is cruel to see these wild animals in captivity but on the other some of the animals are endangered and zoo's play a part in their conservation.

It was such a sunny and busy day at the zoo when we got there, it was chaos! Trust us to decide to go in half term and on a bank holiday. We don't have a parasol for the pram yet so whenever the sun shone on Noah's face he would squirm around and whine. It was a constant battle trying to find shade, make sure the sun was no where near him all while dashing out the way of people with the pram. 

We had a lovely long walk around the whole zoo and saw countless animals. My favourites being the Lemurs! They were so adorable. They are in a walk in enclosure so they were bouncing all around us. A couple of them jumped on the fence beside us and one of them put their hand on the handle of the pram! I was stroking them too as I didn't realise it wasn't allowed! They were such tame, playful and beautiful animals. 

After we visited all the animals we went to a sea lion show. It's amazing to see how intelligent they are. It made me envy the zoo keepers and trainers, how much of an amazing job would that be? We can't wait to go again when Noah is a little older and will be able to enjoy it more. 

We had a sit down in the park before we left and Noah had his dinner in his pram, dining Al Fresco! We then bought Noah some souvineers; a monkey teddy, tiger rattle and a flask with his name on it and headed home. It was one lovely, sunny, animal filled day! 

National Cat Day

Okay, It's time to fess up. I am a crazy cat lady. There I said it. Well if you know me you probably already knew that. My cats are my fur babies and there's not much I wouldn't do for them. 

 It's not just my cats though I am animal mad. I honestly think I care more about animals than I do my own kind. One of the main things both Nick and I want to teach our son is how to love, care and respect animals. I don't think that value is shown to many children these days and those children grow up thinking that animals and pets in general are property and play things rather than a living creature that depends on you. 

Seeing as it is National Cat Day I thought it would be fitting to write up this little post and share some of my favourite pictures of my boys with you. Enjoy!