Two Cats and a Baby

Roughly a year ago we began preparing Ainsley and Min for the bundle of joy that would join us. When we moved into the new house, we made Peanut's room off limit by shutting the door. When we began assembling and arranging furniture, there were mouse traps and rebukes to steer them away. Heck, I've read several places that we should have put up a screen door to the baby's room so that they could see and smell, but wouldn't go in and try to suck his soul out by sitting on him. Yeah, we didn't do the screen door.

For their part, Ainsley and Min have dealt pretty well. There was sniffing and avoidance for the first few months. There was glaring and stalking away the next few months when Xander would cry. Occasionally there would be some turf issues when I had found a cat snuggled into the bassinet. Min maintains this path, but Ainsley is more enlightened.

Ainsley likes Xander. She sits in the glider in his room. When she walks into a room, she'll walk by him and let him pet her. If Xander is in my lap, she will jump up too and rub against him.

Xander loves both of the cats. Wherever he is and whatever he is doing, he will stop and watch when one of them walks by. He leans forward or sideways if he is stuck in the high chair. And despite not crawling, last night he made every effort to move to Ainsley while we hung out on the living room floor. He will talk to them with simple sounds, excited but not quite yelling. He reaches out to 'pet' Ainsley by grabbing whatever he can, be it fur, ear or tail. And Ainsley has had no problem with this at all.

In fact, one day I accidentally closed Ainsley in Xander's room when I put him down for a nap, since she was already sleeping on the floor in there. When I heard him squacking over the monitor an hour later I went up to find Ainsley in the crib letting Xander pet her as she walked around. While I don't encourage it, it was pretty darned cute.

As a side note, Ainsley has easily figured out how to jump over the baby gate I set up to the back room. Min has not and will sit there suffering silently until someone opens it for her.