The Dower Family

The time has finally come.  Despite my desire to let Ollie grow his hair out and be a little surfy dude, it was getting to be pretty manky lately and growing into quite the mullet.  I realised that I wanted to get a trim long before I was able to convince Nick of this.  In fact I still don’t think he is on board with the idea but, anyway… This is the before shot.  A very cute boy but look at the dodgy nutty professor hair over the ears and the long fringe.  You can’t even see the back which was totally the worst bit. I did take the camera to the hairdressers with the best intention of totally documenting the occasion of his first haircut but you know what they say about the best laid plans.  The hairdresser was a gem and pulled out every stop in her repertoire but it was all just a waste.  From the doing up of the cape and the first spritz of water, it was an absolute cry-a-thon.  In the end I was hugging him so close to me that our heads were together and I was worried that I w

We’ve had some new housemates lately – two icky schmicky bush turkeys who have been taking shelter in the trees off our back deck.  We’ve named them both Terrence the Turkey and Ollie is really taken with them. He makes a special “gobble gobble” sound and I swear he even said “turkey” once the other day. Fun stuff this week – Obear and I went to a local indoor play centre with our mother’s group which Ollie thought was awesome.  He was totally into climbing all over everything but it was slightly soured when he had an “incident” with a slightly older kid who thought it was a great idea to push Ollie in the chest and onto the ground.  Of course there was no mum around for the naughty kid but I took the opportunity to explain to Ollie that that is why we are gentle etc.  Hopefully the lesson works because Obear is a bit of a roughian at the moment, taking great delight in throwing stuff, biting me and pulling my hair.  I’m still having visions of being on “A current affair” on a spe

As Ollie’s independence develops along with his walking, he is increasingly wanting to totter around on his own when we are out and about.  Hence the monkey.  It is effectively a leash for toddlers.  Thankfully it looks a bit cute peeking out from over his shoulder. We have had a pretty awful week with all three of us being struck down by an awful tummy bug that seems to be going around.  So not too much on the social front to report.   We did take Obear out for lunch on Saturday and Sunday.  He is getting pretty good at sitting relatively peacefully at restaurants.  I suspect that this time will be short-lived and it will only be a matter of time before the tantrum chucking takes over and the experience is not worth the bother.  Better enjoy it while we can. I’ve mentioned before how much we love the “That’s not my …” books, well Nanna Freddy took that as a personal challenge recently and bought a few back with her from her trip to NZ.  While we were at the coast she ma