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 this turned out to be one of Ollie’s highlights from the trip. He went mad for it and would try and wrench it out of the hands of the waitress each morning. His fave was banana, papaya, watermelon and pineapple. I don’t mind if he wants to eat his fruit this way and have started to recreate it at home. Check out this pose – I’m adamant that he has never seen me in a similar post. Never.
There were a couple of kids around the wedding festivities which was good for Obear who is a very social creature. This is Finn, Rachel’s new nephew. He is the most gorgeous boy who loves giving cuddles, wore cute black skinny jeans, had his toes painted (twice – once with a little flower design) and declared that he wanted to be a butterfly when he grew up. Ollie was a big fan and tried to bust a move on him. This is him moving in for the kiss. Finn was not keen on the idea, just check out the body language. Fortunately Ollie’s moves were reciprocated by Finn’s sister Bella a few minutes later.
This is team O’Brien (Rachel’s parents, brother, his partner, Leah, their baby Mia and us) at breakfast one day in our amazing villa. Ollie is probably impatiently waiting for his juice.
Fun in the pool with Cyndee. Ollie loved the pool so much and can now say “pool” as well as “outside” and nodding his head. Definitely a summer baby like his mummy and not a Victorian like his daddy.
Check out the water baby flying. He loves the crazy stuff.
Just chilling by our pool. Obear got a few nudie swims which he just loved.
All geared up for a journey outside.
Hooking into the prawn crackers and fried egg at Warung Ocha, one of our favourite cheapy dives. Although it has gone up a bit – two meals and two tallies of beer set us back about $10. Ollie loved the food (not surprisingly) but the prawn crackers were his fave.
Obear getting his money worth out of the Hyatt buffet breakfast. He had croissants every morning for breaky. I’m actually beginning to think he is turning into a croissant. Perhaps it has something to do with his French nanny??
A spot of lunch on the beach. What’s that he is eating? More croissants!!
This is Ollie’s first attempt at taking a photo. Because our point and shoot camera is more than Ollieproof, Nick thought it would be fun to let him have a go. I think he did quite well but in future he might move his little finger out of the way and let the condensation on the lens disperse, but I’m probably just being picky.
One of the things I’ve loved most about this trip is the uninterrupted time Ollie and Nick have had together. They have developed quite the bromance and there have been lots of kisses and cuddles shared between the two of them. Ollie’s favourite thing seems to be when Nick carries him on his shoulders – possibly because he is hanging with his daddy, and possibly just because it gives him a really good view of the world. Here are the two of them walking home beside the beach in the rain one night.
And some of those Daddy/dude kisses I was talking about.
We did pretty well taking Ollie out in the pram at night to restaurants but sometimes you just can’t be bothered. One night when we were staying at the Hyatt we thought it would just be easier to order room service and drink our duty free vodka. I’m sure the meal cost us more than going out to a nice restaurant at home but it was worth it just to kick back and finish of our books while Ollie slept peacefully.
Ollie’s love of little girls is not restricted to Australia. He was charming the ladies over there and loved to give all the little girls kisses and cuddles. Here he is again while I’m in another changeroom trying on more clothes.
Another lovely lunch for the family Dower. Thanks to the heat, Nick and I could easily knock off a couple of tall Bintangs over lunch (it doesn’t get you drunk, it is too hot). Perhaps this is why Ollie has come home with a new word – BEER! He chants it, but I promise it isn’t something he has heard from us. Here we are enjoying some delicious satays, nasi goreng, pasta for Ollie and even more prawn crackers for the little seafood lover.
This is Obear at Sanur, having his first swim in the ocean. It was perfectly calm as it is protected by a reef so it suited all of us to a tee. It is also really shallow so Ollie could walk around which he just loves.
One of the last holiday shots from family Dower before our just past midnight flight home. It was probably the low point of the trip – we put Ollie to bed at normal time and then scooped him up to go to the airport just after nine. Normally he just goes straight back to sleep but there was way too much going on for that to happen. The immigration on the way out was almost as bad as on the way in with a stuffy hall full of people lined up trying to leave the country. Initially we took the baby express line in the Indonesian nationals line but even this wasn’t moving so I threw myself on the mercy of an empty line and was told that if I went to a particular office and got a stamp, I could come through his line. I ran back to Nick, scooped up the passports and made my way through the throngs of people to this little office filled with officials smoking cigarettes and reading the papers. I gave some dude our passports and sat and waited. After I while I took a tour of the office and couldn’t find the passport guy, but fortunately he reappeared with our miraculously stamped passports. Another dash through all the people, picking up Nick and Ollie and whoo hoo – magically through immigration.
Unfortunately that was the high point. The first 30 minutes of the flight were woeful with a by now completely exhausted and hysterical Ollie screaming until he eventually went to sleep. Nick and I then took turns nursing him in between trying to get some shut eye ourselves. When we finally arrived home around 8am local time, I was feeling a sense of relief. Unfortunately so was Ollie, right all over my lap. Eww!
But anyway. We all got home safe. No one got sick. We had a great time. Now we are just trying to work out when we can get back there before the end of the year. We loved Bali before we had Ollie, but travelling there with a baby makes us realise that it is an even more wonderful place to visit. And Ollie already has his first stamp in his passport.
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