The Dower Family

Check out Ollie bear - literally!! We came across this great company called mymakebelieve.com.au that sells the most gorgeous costumes for babies and kids. We originally planned to get just one for our friend Audrey's first birthday present but we couldn't resist getting one for our very own Ollie bear. It is completely impractical but I think you would have to agree that he looks completely adorable in it. I can't wait for Halloween but we will have to find a few more excuses to dress him up in it before then. The bunny costume for Audrey is equally as adorable, although she wasn't too sure about it at first, but when she looked in the mirror she saw how gorgeous she looked. As the weather was so nice today we took Ollie to the local footy club to watch a game. Ollie wore his Cats jumpsuit so he looked the part, but he wasn't really into it and slept through most of the time we were there. We had to cut short our trip as the Cats were playing at home and Ollie wan...

More of the same. We'll try to hold the camera the right way next time and I'll endeavour to change out of my pyjamas first!!

I'm trying out uploading some video of Ollie. Click on the image and it should start. Apologies that you will need to twist your head 90 degrees, Nick was holding his phone the wrong way. Enjoy.

It has been a week of new purchases in the Dower household. As Ollie is nearing the six month mark when he will start eating solids (or mushies as they should really be called), we thought it was time to get ourselves a highchair. You'd be surprised at how many different kinds you can get and after lots of research I worked out exactly which one I wanted. So of course, that was the one that had just been discontinued!! Anyway, we bought a similar one and it got delivered to our house ... in pieces. I couldn't wait for Nick to come home to put it together so I gave it a crack and after managing to find a screwdriver (the most challenging part of the process) I successfully negotiated the instructions until the object before me resembled the one on the box. Ollie and I both held our breath the first time I put him in it, but it held his weight (not an insignificant amount). Ollie seems to like his highchair for reasonable periods of time and I have found it a godsend as it en...

It has been a busy week for Olliebear. On Thursday Ollie went for his 4 month check up. He now weighs 7.510 kg and is 66 cm long. He is still huge for his age and is staying along the same percentiles as his last check up which is exactly what you want. As part of the check up he had his 4 month needles (plural) which were awful. It wasn't as user friendly as having them done at the clinic as he was laying on a surgical bed rather than in my arms. The upshot is that he probably blamed the nurse more than he blamed me. I'm thinking I should send Nick along next time as it is such a horrible experience when he screams and then when you finally get him calmed down, they give him another one in the other leg. Luckily he calmed down reasonable quickly and he was back to giving me smiles by the time we left the surgery. The only bad thing about our check up was Ollie's head. I was planning to ask the doctor about it as with his incredible sleeping habits (we are still on ...

This weekend we had two very special events in the Dower household. The first was Ollie's four month birthday and the second of course, was my first Mother's day. Nick really did a great job of ensuring I had a fabulous Mother's day. I actually got my proper present the other week which was a new ipod which means I can access the net and email when I am feeding Ollie in his room as well as play some pretty cool games and watch movies/tv shows. But today I got another wonderful present which was an album that Nick had put together of the progress of my pregnancy with Ollie including pics of my tummy and excerpts from the diary I kept throughout. It is a bit of a work in progress with plenty of room to add more pics but it was a wonderfully thoughtful present and it made me cry with happiness when I went through it. We celebrated the rest of the day with a festival of food. Starting first with delicious homemade pancakes and double chocolate ice cream (the fat free ice-c...

As last weekend was a long weekend, Ollie and I were thrilled to have Nick home with us for three whole days. We packed the weekend with lots of activities including catching up with lots of friends. One day we had lunch with our friends Rachel & Christian to talk about our exciting trip to Bali next year when they get married. On the next day we had our friends Ben & Cec over with their little boy Darcy who is only a few weeks older than Ollie. At one point the boys held the babies quite close together and they both let out big beaming smiles. The boys also cheekily put the babies in the port-a-cot together and made lots of jokes about it being a cage match. Fortunately the babies weren't in the mood for fighting. Another lovely activity was going for a long walk as a family. Ollie and I normally go for a big walk in the pram most days to get us both out of the house and have some fresh air. But it was nice to have Nick join us on such a lovely day and we topped it...

As Ollie has been so spoilt by all his family and friends, he has a lot of teddy bears. But until now he hasn't really taken much interest in them. Well that changed this week when he started playing with the brightly coloured bunny that his Aunty Alicia and Uncle Guy gave to him (it also came with a fetching matching hat which will look too cute in winter). The bunny is nice and soft and its long limbs are just the right size for Ollie to grasp with his hands. Of course as soon as he grasps them, they go straight into his mouth - the bunny must be quite delicious. So far the bunny has been with us on a number of expeditions including to mother's group and to Indooroopilly shops where Ollie held the bunny beside him in his pram. It looked very gorgeous. But my favourite thing about the bunny is that it is machine washable - I suspect it might take many trips through the spin cycle, especially as it has already been dribbled and spewed on way too many times. I've also ...