Among the most cost-efficient toys with regards to entertainment hours per dollar, other than the free ones like an old box, has been the cat’s mouse on a fishing rod toy. Both Annabelle and Madeline enjoy the toy. Madeline is able to hold the rod in her hand and give Annabelle the required motion to the mouse from atop her high chair. On Friday morning I was watching Madeline on the floor and she grabbed the yellow rod in one hand and the attached mouse in the other hand then stood up and held both above her head with the distinct expression of triumph. This was one of the first few times that Madeline has ever stood without holding onto a table, chair, or cat litter box so it was a very impressive feat to me.

Annabelle wasn’t quite as impressed as I was. The basic response she seems to have to Madeline being able to stand is that Madeline is now a perceived threat that needs to be neutralized. The standing posture with arms wide for a cat is an aggressive one. So when I was looking away from the two of them I looked back to find Annabelle actively boxing Madeline with her paws and scaring Madeline into a crying fit. So now we need to be even more vigilant than before. We need to watch the baby but also make sure that we don’t have a small scale Roy incident. I am not sure of how big the cat that mauled Roy was but Madeline is quite small so I don’t want anything bad to happen between her and our kitten. So I’ve been trying to split them up if I can’t monitor them directly. Madeline still isn’t afraid of Annabelle and they have also been feuding over her pink Madeline monogrammed chair. The chair seats either one baby or one cat but the most common scenarios that I have seen is that Madeline goes to sit in the chair and Annabelle immediately decides to join her in the seat or Annabelle sits in the chair and defends it appropriately from any advances from unwanted babies. Maybe we need a second chair.

The babysitter search has generated some results although we still don’t have a very stable plan. So far we have a babysitter on Tuesday and Thursday with my mom doing the babysitting on Wednesday. On Monday and Friday we aren’t sure what we are doing. Sarah became quite interested in the idea of day care when my mom suggested that Madeline might be cranky at the end of the day because she is bored due to a lack of interaction with other kids her age. So we are in a search for a good local day care to fill in a couple of days per week. The problem is that on Friday none of them called Sarah back and Madeline has been standing and waiting for a solution whenever she gets a chance.