The Dower Family

Happy 6 month birthday to our lovely little Eve. To commemorate the occasion we had a little photo shoot this morning. And here are just a few of the things I adore about her: - when she is tired she puts her thumb in her mouth and tries to roll onto her side - even when she isn't in her cot. - she flaps her arms when she is excited and happy. But when she is unhappy she will flap only one of them. Such a small variation. Thankfully her giant happy smile is a useful clue. - her all time favourite song is the "boom boom boom wayo" song. Her face always lights up when she hears it (and she flaps two of her arms!). - she thinks her feet are absolutely delicious but she fails more often than she succeeds at putting them into her mouth. - she makes more noise than any baby I've ever heard. When she is tired, when she is hungry, when she is happy... - she loves me so very much but she possibly loves Ollie even more. - whenever Ollie does something that might hurt her

It was my birthday last week, which around here translates to a whole week of birthday celebrations. The best part of the festival of Tans was definitely Friday night when Hayley and Simon very generously looked after (sleeping) Evie and Ollie. Nick and I took off down the road to one of the locals for steak dinners and lots of vinos. It was totally awesome. Not so awesome the next morning though as we have been completely sober around here of late so it hurt a little more than usual. Nursing my sore head we popped down the road to the farmer's market on saturday morning and I found the ultimate cure - yum cha - 8 dumplings washed down with raspberry lemonade. Perfection. Ollie steered clear of the yum cha and stuck to the super giant and delicious lamingtons they sell down there. Later on in the day I had the pleasure of a one hour massage followed by spa and sauna at my fave spa place (a leftover baby shower pressie) which was absolute heaven. It was also the first time I h

I'm not sure if it is because she is nearly six months old or because she has started eating real food lately but Miss Evie honestly appears to have doubled in size in the last week. Some mornings when I get her out of her cot I swear that I can see she has grown since the night before. I think it is probably due to the amount of food she is consuming. After stuffing around with one mere taster of a meal for almost two weeks I realised I had to up it to two and finally three meals each day. She still hasn't had as much variety as Ollie had by this point but I'm also busier. She is enjoying natural yoghurt, pears, carrots, bananas and a variety of different baby cereals. This morning she even tried weet-bix. Not a huge success but I'll persevere because Ollie won't eat them and it would be great if she did. Evie has been a bit of a handful this week with sleep thanks to her ability to roll onto her tummy but inability (or lack of desire) to roll back. Basical

Kids birthday parties are just so exhausting. Perhaps this is why it has taken me an entire week to get the photos up from Ollie's third birthday party last Sunday? Since we live in such a wonderful location with access to a little beach just at the end of the street, we thought it would be great to have a beach party. This theme was brilliant as it meant no real decorating and no need for party games (just a bunch of sandpit toys). A sandcastle cake was called for complete with sand made out of ground up vanilla wafer biscuits (leftover sand may have been consumed by me with a spoon - mmm, sandy goodness). It kind of looked like a giant lump so I piped some shells out of white chocolate as well as some starfish and kind of pink coloured crabs. It did the job. Definitely a sandcastle cake. We kept guests to a minimum as too many kids are way too much like hard work, and we don't expect our grown up kidless friends to trek out to on a Sunday morning when they should be fas

The balloons have all been popped, the presents unwrapped and the cake sits half eaten in the bottom of the fridge. Ollie's third birthday is over before the day itself actually even begins. But in keeping with what has become a bit of a tradition, I'd just like to share with you a few of the things I love most about my little Olliebear: - when he gets a numb leg he tells me that his leg has gone old - that he says "got-for" instead of "forget" - that he quotes his favourite Ice Age character Buck and walks around the house saying "you don't need the calories" - he is adamant that another Ice Age character "Sid the Sloth" is actually "Sam the Sloth". We think he has worked out he is wrong but is too far into the deception to back out. - when Evie cries he says "she needs her brother" (or sometimes "she needs boobies") - when talking to any person littler than he, he says "hello little fella"

The rest of the Christmas break has been filled with lots of socialising. It feels like the first time that we have really been back in circulation since Evie came along and turned it all upside down (in the nicest possible way). We had our friends Nick and Marie, Bruce & Louise and Criddo as well as their assorted children over for a BBQ. Ollie had a great time pestering Criddo's son who is 14 and probably doesn't want to hang out with 2 year old boys, but was extremely patient with O. O's other favourite part of this day was playing with the esky. Not only was it great to play with the ice cubes but also bury his toys in there. Poor Woody, Bullseye and Jessie had to be retrieved the following morning. New Years eve saw us having Rachel & Christian over for a BBQ and sleepover. Our lovely neighbours were having a party but we politely declined as we hadn't seen Rachel & Christian in such a long time. But this didn't stop Rachel & I from ducki

Christmas round 2 took place on the 27th this year at our place with Aunty Alicia and Uncle Guy visiting on their Volvo sponsored road trip along with Grandpa Peter. By this stage I think Ollie was quite adept at opening all of the lovely presents that were given to him. And we were quite adept at eating even more food. The weather was a bit too average for a swim but it did make for good cricket watching weather. As always, Ollie was completely taken with his Uncle Guy. Maybe because he is super huge compared to Ollie? Maybe because he is just lots of fun. But Ollie had a little competition this time in the form of little miss Evie as it seems that Guy was totally smitten with her. Understandable too as she does happen to be the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen (biased much?). After the kiddos went to bed us older kiddos sat around on the back deck consuming our own bodyweight in nibbles and wine/beer talking the usual rubbish and planning what to do on our upcoming c

Well Christmas season is officially over. We have had a fantastic time here - hence the lack of blog. But I'll make up for it with three, that's right THREE, blogs today. We have so many photos I had trouble narrowing them down! Christmas round one kicked off on Christmas Eve with Ollie helping me to write a letter to Santa (including his caution to be careful on the stairs). We baked some Christmas tree shaped cookies to leave out as well as some carrot shaped ones as we didn't have any real carrots to leave for the reindeer. Ol was then allowed to stay up late to watch the Carols on TV as well as "Shrek the Halls". A very sleepy boy then went to sleep without much resistance. Christmas morning didn't start especially early for us, probably because we are normally all getting up at 5am anyway. Ollie was beyond excited to see that Santa had left him the present that he had asked for - a life jacket, so he can go out on the kayak with Nick. There were a