The Dower Family

I haven't mentioned Ollie's wonky head for a while but those who have seen us in recent times will probably know that there has been a LOT of too-ing and fro-ing about what to do about it. We have seen recent improvements through using a big foam wedge in his cot. But the downside is that Ollie wiggles himself to the edge of the wedge so that he is right against the bars of the cot. When he wakes up in the mornings (or sometimes the middle of the night) you can hear him running his hand along the bars - we think he sounds like a little prisoner rattling his tin cup. Anyway, we had decided that we weren't taking the helmet option but I had a little freak out recently when the child health nurses told me we should be doing it so last week we went to the place that makes them and got his little noggin cast. They wrapped his head in gauze bandages to get the shape of it and he had to sit still for a few minutes. He was very brave, especially since he (and I) had no idea we woul...

Ollie is completely obsessed with water. Any time that I have a bottle or glass of water, Ollie stares at it so intently. He has even started to grab at it when I am holding it. I figured that was as good an indication as I was going to get, so he got his first sippy cup last week. It was a total failure and even I am not able to get water out of it and into my mouth. So he also got his second sippy cup last week as well. This one was much more successful and he takes great pride in swigging out of it. In fact, he loves his sippy cup so much so that I have to keep it out of his line of sight when I am feeding him. Speaking of feeding, Ollie and I were both getting totally bored with the wallpaper paste farex stuff so we took a quantum leap straight past the single flavour foods we were meant to have and tried a store bought three fruit combo. You should have seen the look on his face - he had discovered flavour, and he liked it. He kept opening his mouth and grabbing for the spoon. ...

Our good friends Aman and Alice got married this weekend and we were lucky enough to be included in the celebrations. As Aman is Indian, the wedding festivities ran over three days. It started on Thursday night when we went to Aman's parent's house along with about fifty other guests for some beautiful Indian food, lots of dancing, gorgeous sarees and henna painting. Luckily for us, Nanna Pyke had made the trip down to Brisbane to stay with us during this time so she could look after Ollie. So we went sans Ollie to that Thursday night event. On Friday there were other wedding activities and then on Saturday, the big day. It started at 9am at the Sikh temple with the most delicious chai tea. Ollie came with us this time and he got dressed up in his tuxedo t-shirt again. Nick had a role in the ceremony so was separated from us (which he would have been anyway as the men sit on one side and the women on the other). Ollie was due for a nap so I spent most of the ceremony standing o...

Over the last few days Ollie has been making good use of his mouth. I mentioned the other day that Ollie was desparately trying to get his foot into his mouth. Well, with a bit of assistance from me he is now able to jam his foot right in. I've uploaded a video of one of his earlier attempts. You can see that I am a bit of a stage mum, giving him a bit of a hand at first, but once he figures it out there is no stopping him - and it appears that it is quite delicious. Since this development, Nick and I are taking extra special care to wash his feet! Another mouth issue - and this one is HUGE - Ollie has started solids. Well mushies is more appropriate really. I did originally want to wait until Ollie was 6 months before we moved onto food but lately he has been exhibiting all of the signs of a baby who was ready to start solids. He has been showing an extremely keen interest in anything that Nick and I are eating or drinking (especially Nick's beer), shoving absolutely everythin...

There is a lovely tradition in my family involving a christening gown that my Grandmother (Nanny Pyke) started when her first grandchild was born. Apparently she had one of her relatives (Aunty Violet?) bring it over from America and since that time, each of the grandchildren were christened in it. By the time I was christened in it, it had already been used by about five or six of my cousins and sister (not sure whether Geoffrey was christened before me - he was born the day before me so it must have been close). Since then a number of other grandchildren have worn it. My cousin Simon's little boy was the first great-grandchild to be christened in the dress a year ago. Nick and I made a decision not to christen Ollie (probably something to do with being afraid we would be struck down upon entering a church) but this didn't stop me from getting some photos of Ollie in the big girly dress. He wasn't too sure about the whole thing and I think he suspected it was a bit...