The Dower Family

You would have to be living under a rock to have escaped the recent events in our town. Luckily for us we were nowhere near the action thanks to our move to the bay, however our old area was hit pretty hard with lots of people's houses being seriously damaged. It felt quite strange watching it unfold on TV from the comfort of our loungeroom while the gorgeous sunlight filtered in, while almost all of our friends at least suffered the inconvenience of doing without power for a day or two. Nick went and put a great effort in helping to clean up in our old area, relishing the combination of two of his great loves (cleaning AND destruction) helping out strangers to gut their flooded houses. There was no such hard labour for me but in tough times I bake so many many muffins and cases of water were dropped off to the volunteers station. It was so nice to see so many people pitching in to do whatever they could to lend a hand. Here is a pic of Nick's filthy legs after he came hom

(Look how he has grown - a photo from each of the last 12 months) Another 12 months have flown by and now our sweet little boy is a two year old. In keeping with last year's birthday post I thought I'd share a few of my favourite things about this gorgeous little petal: - he calls out to me from his bed "I'm awake" each morning, usually way before the sun comes up - he puts his toys in the naughty corner and imitates me saying "sit down, stand up, I love you" - he loves to cuddle up and read "Where the wild things are" and say all of Max's lines - he has big beautiful blue eyes just the same colour as mine - his absolute favourite matchbox car is his hummer - he still loves his toy panda as much as he did this time last year - he gets a tuft of crazy professor hair that sticks up after every nap - his favourite day of the week is Saturday even when it is Tuesday - h

So Boxing Day afternoon we packed up the rest of the presents that Santa had left under our Christmas tree and took them over to Nanna Carmel and Grandpa Rob's house for the next instalment of Christmas 2010. Ollie always has such a good time here because he just loves his aunties Emma & Hayley and Uncles Luke and Simon and Fiona. He gets so much attention normally so of course he was going to be the star of a Christmas gathering. Not surprisingly there were lots of lovely presents for him and by now he had totally got the hang of this present thing, wildly ripping paper off and declaring "that's mine" about any present that was around. In keeping with his domestic goddess themed presents, Ollie got his very own shopping trolley and cash register, complete with groceries. He has been having a wonderful time pushing them around the house along with his newest friend, Jemima from Play School from Aunty Hayley, who he has had a real interest in lately (Jemima tha

Well Christmas is officially behind us - the turkey and ham have been eaten, the frozen prawn shells have been picked up by the garbo and the Christmas tree is safely tucked away for another year. We had a wonderful time, naturally when you have a little boy who has cottoned on to the general premise. Not the religious meaning, more like (in his own words) "Santa brings presents". But it was still a delight to see. As Ollie is blessed with more sets of grandparents than the Brady Bunch we were limited to only seeing Nanna Freddy & Poppy and Nanna Carmel & Grandpa Rob over Christmas but we are looking forward to catching up with Pa & Nanna Kaye and Grandpa Peter really soon, as well as Aunty Alicia and Uncle Guy. In an effort to keep Santa fuelled up for his massive trip we left out some cookies and milk and a carrot for the reindeer (only one? Aren't there like 8 reindeer? Hope they weren't too hungry). Ollie may have helped out the reindeer by takin