The Dower Family

"We live in Australia. Pa and Nanna Kaye live in America. Nanna Freddy and Poppy and the cows live in Cloncurry. Bananas and apples grow on trees. Potatoes and carrots grow in the ground. They have dirt on them. Bunnies like carrots. I like carrots. They help me to grow up big and strong like daddy. And bunnies". Such is the gorgeousness that streams out of Obears mouth these days. It keeps me very entertained. Another moment of loveliness? This afternoon when Evie and I went to pick him up he ran to the front gate and called out "gorgeous pantses" - I often call him "gorgeous pants". Too cute. We had a rainy day last week with no playdates booked in. I was determined that it not be a day of television so I pulled out all the stops, making lots of different games for us to play (I even spent Ollie & Evie's nap time cutting, sticking and drawing to make a set of dominoes). But the best activity of all was when we put all the couch cushi...

How cute is this photo? Sweet little baby lettuce. That has become Evie's new nickname thanks to none other than her big brother. It seems that replacing words with funny or naughty words is a pretty big hit around here at the moment. Ollie gets a real kick out of singing to Evie "baa baa black sheep have you any poo". He cracks us all up. He has also been impressing us with his botanical knowledge. Nanna Carmel pointed out the jacaranda trees to him the other week and now he takes great pride in pointing them out to us all as we drive along. Turns out there are heaps around here and some car trips see him basically just repeating "jacaranda jacaranda jacaranda". I taught him poinciana the other day so that is starting to creep in too. Clever little duck. His other favourite top of conversation this week is his favourite colours. He keeps telling me "blue and green are my favourite colours". But this means that apparently pink and red are gi...

Yes I've been a bit tardy again. Moving right along... The weekend before last we went over to Sam & Alan's place to check out their lovely new swimming pool. The weather has been just perfect for swimming and since the pool was about the temperature of a nice bath, we got Evie Peevey in for her first swim too. I utterly adore this photo of Ollie & Audrey. So much so that I think I might frame it for Ollie to keep in his room. But after a big day and no sleep, Miss Audrey took herself off to bed early, leaving the two lovely little boys to have a bit of bro time. We bought ourselves some more time after dinner to play grown ups by packing the two little dudes off to watch a movie in Sam & Al's bed which conveniently opens onto the back deck. Not sure how much they actually watched though as it seems like they spent the whole time tickling each other and generally having a good time. Miss Evie has a whole raft of new tricks this fortnight. One is sucking h...

Since you've all been a bit deprived of pics of late here are a few more to get you through the week. An especially nice one of Nanna Carmel and her two big boys, her two little boys and her little lady. Ollie and his Uncle Simon. They couldn't love each other more. Evie's cute ruffled bum. My friend next door gave Evie this stunning outfit that was made by a friend of hers (Wee Bonnie Creations - check them out). I just love her ruffley bum. Super gorgeous. Look at those eyes. That's all folks. Hope this got you through the blog drought.

Apologies again. Just TOO TOO busy around here. In addition to working overtime on Mini Mayhem (markets in less than two weeks and now a space in a new store opening up at Annerley!), I've also picked up 100 uni assignments to mark. So spare time is non-existent and blogs, like personal relationships and exercise, appear to be the victim. I did tee up a guest blogger in the form of Nick but he too has been busy. Perhaps he can knock something witty out next time. But just to give you all your fix of the gorgeous people, here is Halloween... Evie busted out the Olliebear costume. It was a tad big on her and the temperature wasn't really appropriate for full-body bear suits so it was for photos only. But you'll have to agree that she just looks adorable. Myself and the two little monsters. Ollie was a dragon. Although I heard numerous people suggest that he was a dinosaur and even a few that he was a crocodile. Nick was a vampire. A glasses wearing vampire. We tho...

The weeks really are starting to fly by. I can't believe it has been 13 weeks now that we have had this gorgeous little girl in our world. She continues to be an absolute joy and I am just so damn lucky to be her mummy. This week she achieved two milestones. The first was to roll from her tummy to her back. Arguably not that exciting though as it is significantly caused by gravity but she has worked out how to lean so that her body weight kicks in and does the rest. She did it four times in a row the first time so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fluke. The second achievement is an extension of the other week when she worked out that her hand went quite nicely into her mouth. Today she figured out how to hold an object (that I put into her hand) and of course that object then went into her mouth. Delicious. Who knows what she will learn next week. It is amazing watching them learn. Obear is also doing a great job of learning himself. Today he learned how to take his ...

Apologies for the incredibly late blog this week. I have been having some technical difficulties uploading photos. I've also been incredibly busy printing millions (well a few at least) t-shirts in preparation for our first big market on 19 November. So because I have been busy I decided that this week's blog can be brought to you by none other than the Olliebear. How you ask? Well last week Ollie discovered our point and shoot camera, which thankfully is one of those awesome ones you can throw at a rock underwater and it will still work. So O has been having a great time toting the camera around with him and taking some lovely little pics. So here we have the world through Ollie's eyes... The top photo is of his and my shadow at the beach. This is a personal fave of mine. Nice composition, even a bit of a dutch tilt going on! This one is of "rainbows" on the floor. The rainbows are the sun shining through the crystals on my candelabra. You can also see a...

Welcome to the world to our newest relative Alexander Luke Dower, who arrived a few days ahead of schedule over the weekend. The original plan was that Alex would share his birthday with his dad, but it seems that little Alex wanted a special day of his very own. We took Ollie and Evie up to the hospital to meet their new cousin and to give our best wishes to Mum Fiona and Dad Luke. We can't wait until Alex gets a bit bigger and then we shudder to think of all the shenanigans these three will get up to over the years. Evie and I had another girly outing over the weekend to my friend Phoebe's hens celebration. I have known Phoebe since 1987 so it was a real thrill to catch up again for such a lovely occasion. But since it was an afternoon affair I was able to take Evie along with me - which is a good thing and also not such a good thing. I'm itching to go to a social event without her soon but it is probably a while off. It is funny that when you have a baby with you,...

We have had so many occasions to sing the Geelong Cat's team song since Ollie was born that you would think he would know the words by heart now. And last Saturday we were lucky enough to get one more chance to sing it this season when the Cats thumped the feral Pies in the Grand Final. For anyone who doesn't follow AFL, Collingwood are the team that everyone despises (probably even the Pies fans themselves, if they have half a brain, which they probably don't). So the win was even sweeter. It was also especially sweet for Pa Chris, a lifelong diehard Cat's fan, to score three tickets to the final at the last minute from a very generous friend. Nick was extremely jealous indeed. Now the AFL Grand Final is held on a Saturday afternoon, i.e. prime kidlet time, so we had to get a little creative about how we were going to wrangle the TV to ourselves and a bit of peace and quiet. The solution? A super awesome cubby house complete with its own LCD TV, Stanley the Dog,...

I am loving the small town feel of the area we live in. I've always loved that sense of community you get in a country town, and the more I explore this area the happier I am that it has that vibe. This was particularly evident last week when the local footy team made it to the grand final. All of the businesses had signs up wishing them well, but the best show of support came from the local baker who made the coolest bread I have ever seen - with green and red swirls!! Unsurprisingly Ollie thought this was pretty awesome too and happily devoured all that was placed before him. Speaking of football, the mighty Geelong Cats played in the preliminary final last week against some other team whose name is not worth mentioning. So we busted out the Geelong onesie that Pa Chris gave to Ollie when he was a baby. Thankfully the Cats rose to the occasion and it looks like the onesie will be getting busted out again this coming weekend. Evie was clearly not impressed at being dressed l...

It has been a big week (alright week and a half!) of firsts around here. The first of the firsts is that we have official smiling!! I've endeavoured to capture it for you but Evie is still pretty stingy with the smiles. This is the best I could do. You can see a hint of a smile. She reserves the good smiles for when I poke her on the nose and she even throws a few in the direction of her lovely big brother (although clearly not in this photo). Other firsts include: - first efforts by Evie on her baby playmat. She figured out that if she kicks some things they make noises. Always very cool to watch them make a startling realisation such as this one. And then go on to repeat the same action. - first bath in the big tub. The whole baby bath thing gets a bit tedious after a while so I jumped in the big tub with her and she just loved it. Like Ollie she adores floating on top of the water with her ears submerged and all the sounds of the world muffled (I do a similar thing whe...