The Dower Family

In the last week or so, Ollie has really gotten into making lots of noise. I think it all started when I showed him how to bang two of his toy plastic cups together. Before you knew it he was not only banging cups together, but using his rattles as drumsticks and slapping his hands on other toys. The only problem is that Ollie's desire to make noise is not as strong as his desire to put everything into his mouth. So that means that he usually has one object in his mouth while he bangs at it with another one! The other delightful noisemaking of late is this dreadful squealy noise he has got going on. It is kind of like what I imagine a pterodactyl would sound like (if it were under attack from a pack of stegosaurus). I'm sure the first time he did it, it was cute but after about 20 minutes it can be pretty soul destroying. I have been hoping it was just a phase and after a week or so it seems to have evolved into an even higher pitched, but thankfully less evil sound. This...

Ollie got his special little helmet last Monday. As you can see it is blue camoflague print which is pretty cute, but if we take him into a blue forest, it is going to be mighty difficult to find him. He has adapted really well to wearing it, with no problems sleeping at all. And it stops him from scratching at his head all the time which is a plus. Another plus is the extra protection it provides at this time when he is still getting his balance. At baby group the other day he keeled over and knocked his noggin on a chair leg. We all held our breath but Ollie just looked at us all like "what??" and went on with his playing. After having only worn it for six nights we can already see a massive improvement in the shape of his head. I've included a pic of him from overhead so you can see the gap where his head is being encouraged to grow. That was taken on the first day. So far the bottom plate has popped out significantly but I hope the top one won't be too far...

Check out this vid we took last week. Nothing too exciting in it but there is a lovely moment about 11 seconds in when Ollie notices he is on camera. He is doing this gorgeous thing lately where he shakes his arms to show his excitement and his already big eyes grow even bigger. As an added bonus he chucks in a great smile a few seconds later. Enjoy.

Last Thursday marked the six month celebration since Ollie Bollie came into our lives. We can't believe how quickly the time has flown by and we can't imagine what our lives were like without him in it. It seems like only a moment ago that he was a floppy little guy and now he is sitting up on his own, eating real (ish) foods and chatting away (even if he is the only person who understands what he is saying). On his 1/2 birthday we sang him the birthday song, but stopped halfway through!! Then on Friday night we celebrated the occasion with a lovely bottle of Pol Roger after Ollie had gone to bed (see pic of very proud and happy parents about to down lovely French champagne). Unfortunately the downside to Ollie turning 0.5 was his six month needles. Again, Ollie had to have one needle in each leg and an oral dose. He screamed after the first and he screamed x 10 after the second needle. The lady who gave him the needles pulled out a bubble blower to distract him at the ...

Here is a video of Ollie showing off his latest trick - playing jump jump. Basically he lifts his body up when he is standing on your lap. The best bit is that you can ask him to "jump jump" and he will start doing it. Now I might be a bit of a stage mom but I'm impressed by his vocabulary - it is his seond action word, following up "kick kick". See a trend here?

As Ollie is almost 6 months old, we had our check up with the health nurse. He now tips the scales in at 8.4 kg - which explains why I am struggling to carry him around these days. Because he is such a superstar the nurse noted in his book that his development was "excellent for his age" so I'm proud as punch. Unfortunately Ollie has not been well this week. Nick was struck down with a cold and we all ended up with it. While Nick is still pretty sick, Ollie only had it for a few days, but it was awful. He sounded like Darth Vader and was a total snot ball. I dashed up to the pharmacy one night to buy a vaporizer which has been running every night since. It all seems to have done the trick and he is on the mend again. Nick on the other hand is sitting beside me still snuffling. But being sick has done nothing to reduce his giant appetite (Ollie, not Nick). We continue to work our way through various fruits and vegetables and this week tried our first proper desserts. ...