Boy vs Dog - Battle for the Ball!

We headed up to Noosa at the end of February with Tyden, Anne, Alora and Fudge, lured by the promise of boat rides and lots of beach time. Eli just loves running around like a mad thing on the sandbank in the middle of the Noosa River (almost as much as Fudge does!), so we made two trips a day to make the most of it.

Tyden and Anne always bring along a ball for Fudge to chase...invariably a battle ensues for the ball between Eli and Fudge, and given that neither of them understand the concept of sharing, it can get pretty competitive. Good thing one of them (Fudge) isn't inclined to bite. In this series of photos, Eli and Fudge are both enjoying the ball and giving each other plenty of close attention.



























To the victor goes the spoils!

Little Monkey!

Just when he was starting to play on his own a bit more and I was able to get a few things done around the house without shadowing him, Eli has now decided that he likes climbing.

He has a number of favourite climbs, including scaling the couch (complete with death-defying runs along it's length) and the pillars in our hallway (see the photos). Of course, coming down isn't as easy as going up, so there have been a few spills.


He's also very much into climbing the stairs and running and vaulting into the bath tub, before lying down and pretending to go to sleep in the tub. I've yet to photograph that particular activity, because I'm normally too busy chasing the little monkey!


He's a smart little fella too, because I was telling my mum about this particular activity of his the other day and he was obviously listening in, because he got down from the couch, ran to the stairs (spilling some milk out of his mouth as he went because he was laughing), scaled them and off he went vaulting into the tub for us, just to prove that a) he can do it and b) that he was listening in on our conversation.

The cheesey grin

For the past couple of months I've been 'training' Eli with particular emphasis on perfecting his cheesey grin. As you can see from these photos, he's been making great progress. No doubt I'll regret this training regime in the future, but for now I'm happy to report that he's getting some good mileage with his grins.

Popsicle

We made orange juice popsicles, but they hadn't quite frozen yet. Eli had the most fun playing with the plastic bits and pouring the juice out (26 Oct).

Growth chart

We've got a tradition at the Noosa house of photographing Eli on the same carpet each time we visit. The idea is that it will be a neat way to show how big he is getting over time. It is getting more and more difficult to get him to stretch out and hold still....
On 19 Oct, you can see we are having difficulty getting him to hold still and stretch his arms and legs out. Puppy Gertie helped, but we didn't manage to get a photo of him that really shows his length.

Puppy Gertie did a better job of holding still for the photo.

Here's a sassy one of Eli tromping around upstairs.

Fun with friends

Just after my birthday, we had the chance to catch up with our friends Sam, Simon and Sylvie while they were camping near Noosa. Eli loved the water, as usual, and was less sure about the boat (probably because it means you aren't in the water). He inspired Sylvie to new levels of recklessness around water (sorry Sam and Simon....).

Beautiful big boy!

It's official that Eli is a boy now. He is beyond babydom, no matter how much we want to cling to our memories of the little bundle he used to be. Here are a few pictures from 28 Sept, just before he turned 1.5 years old. He was 11.3 kg (25 lbs) and 76 cm (30 inches). Wade was vacuuming the living room, so Eli picked up his big pillow and Noah's ark and settled down by the steps to play.