Very well, I guess. Before Colette was born, I'd read that dogs tend to become jealous of the new center of attention. One book suggested that I ease the transition period by bringing home a blanket with her scent on it. Whoever wrote the book must have thought that I would have lots of luxury time in between the birth of my daughter and her coming home. It didn't work that way: I spent the first night sleeping on the hospital room floor. By the time the second night rolled around, I'd decided I would sleep at home, but I was too exhausted to remember to bring a blanket home.

When I finally did bring Colette home, Pasta and Neon were as spastic as ever. I had to shout them down or they would have jumped up on her. Since then, they've calmed down, and now they seem to be quite interested in her, even if she isn't as much fun as I am.

What's been the most fun to watch is how they react when Colette is crying. If I'm in a different room from Colette when she starts crying, the dogs (who are with me always) will run to the other room to see what's going on. They may have gotten this way because usually when Colette starts crying I'll get up and go to see what's going on myself.

When I'm in Colette's room changing her diaper, the dogs are at the threshold of the room. If she's crying, they tend to forget that they're not permitted in her room. Sometimes I will turn around to find Pasta sitting behind me nervously trying to figure out what he can do to help. Of course I tell him to get out of the room (we really don't want him in there), but it is funny to see him react to her.

I think Neon is the most put off by Colette. She has usurped his place in my chair. Over the past five years he has found his way into whatever space I can make for him in the chair in the den. In his defense he has never had a bad attitude towards Colette. It's just that he tends to sit at attention at my feet, or rest his chin on the edge of the chair, hoping that I'll invite him up.

I've no doubt he'd be gentle with her. We've put her in one of those bouncy seats – it's like a baby recliner, really – and put the seat on the floor, and both Neon and Pasta are careful around her. Every now and then one or the other of them will come around the top of the seat to sniff at her, but they are always gentle.

My brother told me (I think it was Shane) that it's important to play with dogs when the baby is around. You don't want to only play with them when the baby's away because they might start to associate the baby with no more fun time. So I play with them when Colette is in the room. It's tough to throw the ball around like I used to, but we still managed to wrestle on the floor.

I heard somewhere that when you have your first baby, your dogs are demoted from being your children to being your dogs. While there's no doubt that things have changed for my two pals since Colette was born, I think we're still getting the quality time we used to have.

And before too long, they'll have a new playmate.