We've got a problem :(

Do you remember last summer when Minnie & Ellen really started interacting for the first time? Ellen was curious & Minnie was super gentle.

Then, just a few months later ... the "cousins" were even more excited to see each other. Ellen literally squealed when she saw Minnie, and Minnie was antsy to have her belly scratched.

This fall, when Ellen was really moving around, she could hold her own when Minnie was around. Ellen started to turn her face to avoid Minnie's kisses & she would crawl away when she had enough playing time. This was also the last time I took Minnie over to Molly & Erik's at nighttime. It is just too hard to have a vocal pup when there is also a baby sleeping in the house.

The last time Ellen & Minnie were together was Christmas day at Mom & Dad's. Ellen did see pictures of Minnie during this time and gave her very cute I'm-looking-at-an-animal grunt :) Molly asked me to come babysit Ellen tonight because both of them had meetings to go to. I got about an hour in of play time before bed, so beyond that, I was just a warm body in the house. Molly was nice enough to let me bring Minnie, and I was excited for the girls to get to play together.

Uh oh!

This is what their entire time looked like. Ellen was TERRIFIED and tried to run away! What happened? She was okay with seeing Minnie when she was up in her high chair, but as soon as she got down, she was running off & avoiding Minnie.

Molly broke up the doggie/child chaos with a before-bed snack for Ells. At this point, Minnie was on her leash so she couldn't get to Ellen anymore :(

We asked Ellen to "find the doggie" hoping that she would be interested in looking at & petting Minnie. Instead, she found this book in her book basket called, "Doggies" by Sandra Boynton. That's not what we were looking for, but that's still pretty impressive! {Super cute book, BTW, for those of you with little ones!}

You can't really tell, but this is a terrified face. She ran just out of where Minnie could reach on her leash. Poor thing! She doesn't want to play with Minnie anymore. :(

Poor Minners ... she lost her best friend! :(

I'm hoping this is just a phase that Ellen is going through. I would hate for her to be scared of dogs as a little one ... especially a sweet dog like Minnie. Does anyone have some tips for us?