Ellie can do lots of things

It's amazing to witness the incredible things that a nine month old can do.  Only nine months old and already Ellie has a really good understanding of what you say to her.  She is able to eat, move, babble some words, and explore her world.

Ellie has a fascination with our dog Schnitzel.  She wants to touch and poke him whenever she is near him. Unfortunately Schnitzel takes every opportunity to lick her on the face, gross.  Schnitzel tolerates Ellie and he really is very good with coping with her poking him and pulling his ears.  I still have to keep a close eye on the both of them, though, because no matter how placid, a dog is still a dog.  They have sharp teeth, quick reflexes and unpredictable ways.

 Schnitzel

 

Many, many years ago now when we still had Steve's dog Chelsea, a kelpie cross, she snapped suddenly at one of my nieces.  Now Chelsea was the most lovely dog who was great with kids.  The kids were always playing with her and she put up with all of their attentions with good grace. But this one day she lashed out and snarled at my niece, it was so totally out of character that we all rushed across to see what was up.  Chelsea was getting older, so probably had less tolerance for all the touching and feeling, but one thing we discovered close by was a lighter.  We didn't see it, so don't know for sure, but suspect that the child has tried to burn the dog. No wonder she lashed out.  Luckily, Chelsea just snapped and snarled, she didn't bite or hurt the child at all.  It is a reminder though, that any dog can lash out at a child, so they need to be watched always.

Chelsea

 

There are a few rules with handling dogs like no approaching them from behind and not disturbing them while they are eating.  These are hard to enforce with a nine month old who just wants to grab hold of any part of the dog that she can manage to reach.  She is also partial to sharing the dog's bones, yuk. Today Ellie kept trying to pick up the dog's discarded bones.  Just by using my tone of voice and firmly telling her 'no the bones are Schnitzel's', she would put them back down again.  Then I asked her to come into the shade and she crawled across to us in the undercover area.  She has learnt how to negotiate a couple of steps, after we showed her and talked to her about going down backwards.  She is getting the concept of 'ta' and although she's not saying it yet (she still grizzles for what she wants) she knows to hand an item to me when I put out my hand and say 'ta'.  Today, for example, I decided that I wanted my keys that she had been playing with so that I could unlock the house. The keys had been discarded where I could not see them.  I asked Ellie to get them for me by saying 'ta for mummy's keys, ta for mummy's keys'.  She knew exactly what I wanted and went to get them, then she handed them to me, repeatedly, as it now had turned into a game.

 Ellie

We went to the Coffs Coast Apex Toy library today because as Ellie is on the cusp of walking by herself I thought some walkers could be a fun thing to hire for her. It seems like a waste of money to buy something that she may only use for a matter of weeks.  The membership cost $90 for the year and it allows us to borrow 4 toys and 1 puzzle for up to a month.  Inside that month we can return and re-borrow as often as we like.  Harry had fond memories of being a member of the toy library when he was a toddler.  He was so excited that we were going there today that he ensured that Steve left the big car for us to use.

 Harry