The Dower Family

Ollie’s vocabulary grows every single day.   We counted it up recently and he has at least 50 words that he regularly uses. These range from the obvious (mummy, daddy, gus) to the culinary (toast, nana, juice, cheese) to transport (car, bus), and environmental (tree, outside, turkey).  Of course he was always going to be a jibber jabberer with Nick and I for parents. But this week he has been saying something I’m not such a big fan of - “NO WAY”.  I was over at a friend’s house the other day lamenting about this new phrase and saying that it must have been something that he had picked up at daycare, when she pointed out that I apparently say this ALL THE TIME! To which I, of course, replied “NO WAY!”.  I guess I had better watch what I say a little bit more, although it could have been much uglier than that! Unfortunately OBear hasn’t been in the best form in the last week.  We have been talking about these new teeth coming through for absolutely ages but finally they are mak

It is hard sometimes not to think your child is the most amazing being that has ever roamed the earth.  I often sit there in wonderment looking at him with a big goofy smile plastered on my face. I had one of those moments this week at the State library (where we go for nursery rhymes with some baby friends once a month). Ollie was wandering around holding hands with a little girl he had just met (seriously, such a ladies man) when she decided she wanted to join in with the Hokey Pokey.  O got swept into the circle and joined his other hand with another little girl.  He copied them in shaking his hands and legs and spinning around.  Everyone thought it was so gorgeous, especially me.  I had tears of laughter streaming down my face.  He is just turning into such a wonderful, beautiful natured boy and I feel so privileged to have him in my life.  The title of this blog stems from our visit to a local kids clothing market over the weekend.  Ollie saw this inflatable toy and just th

As winter is upon us the weather has turned rather chilly but the skies are still beautiful and blue so it is perfect park weather.  Ollie is a huge fan of the park, with his two favourites being the swings and the slippery slide.  He can actually go down the slide all by himself.  It is very impressive and just a tiny bit terrifying. Since the weather today was so delightful we took the opportunity to go to the park at the end of the street altogether.  It also gave me a chance to take some nice pics of my boys hanging out. Obear loving the slide   In an update about our new fish, all of them are still with us which is as big a surprise to me as anyone.  We actually even added five teeny tiny little fish (known as “the back up dancers”) to the mix.  The problem is that these guys are extreme sports enthusiast and spend most of their time around the outlet to the filter riding the current.  But they occasionally get caught in the little whirlpool and twice now they have

  Fish have been featuring fairly heavily in our life lately, what with our trip to Bali (where every restaurant, hotel or gutter has goldfish the size of your head swimming away), Ollie learning the noise fish make (like a mwah mwah sound – tres cute) and finally, with me making a delicious green curry out of them the other night!! So we thought it was a good time to finally get Ollie his birthday present from us – FISH!!!  The original plan was to get one Goober the Goldfish and few backup dancer fish but instead we came away with world’s most impressive little tank and four fish.  They are (at this stage) called – Goober, Chester (or Goldie) and the two twins.  Ollie is obsessed with them but not quite as much as I am.  I have fed them more times than I am meant to today as I’m worried that the naughty twin fish is eating all the food while the others get nothing.  Watch this space, next week I might be reporting that they have all been flushed due to overeating!   The new f

Well we are back now, recovering from the wedding festivities in the comfort of our own home.  We normally find that by the tenth day in Bali we are SO ready to come home but this time we could have stayed for much longer. Ollie just adored Bali.  There was so much to look at and so many lovely people wanting to cuddle him and say how handsome he is.  He just loved the attention.  There were even times I had to chase after the enthusiastic waitresses to bring Ollie back.  Since my last Bali blog we headed to the Monkey Forest in Ubud to check out the little rabie infested critters.  I hate them and am quite terrified of them but we both knew Ollie would get a total kick out of them.  He did, but he also was pretty wary of them.  He liked this little guy.  Perhaps he thought he was small enough that he could take him? He thought all of the old statues needed a few cuddles. Obear being a bit of a monkey.   Each morning we got beautiful fresh juice with our breakfast and

Finally, Rachel and Christian’s wedding was upon us.  After months of planning, almost 40 guests heading over to Bali and way too many incidents to mention (try two stolen/lost passports, an exhaust burn on the bride’s leg, slashed little toe – me, coral cuts, many upset tummies, a missed flight, expired passport, do I need to go on?) the time had come. As we were staying with Rachel’s family in the most beautiful villa in the world (check it out – villamojo.com – it is actually more impressive in the flesh) all of the wedding day festivities took place around us.  Us lovely ladies kicked off the morning with a laid back pedicure upstairs.  Unfortunately Ollie decided to wake up as soon as we started and the boys were out gathering wine and cheese.  Luckily Obear has quite happy to sit on my lap for an hour and watch the ladies do their work. He also didn’t mind getting a bit of a toe shape and one of his toes painted as well! The rest of the day was a flurry of activity. One of