The Dower Family

We have a new family member.  Her name is Betsy and she is 98 years old. The other week while ambling through one of the local op shops (we have 14 of them within a few blocks.  I just can't help myself) I spied this beautiful piano - again.  I had seen it a few times but at the ridiculously exorbitant price of $200 I couldn't justify it.  Until,  HALF PRICE SALE!!  That's right - $100. Needless to say she came to live with us. She is in amazingly good condition for her age.  And we know her exact age as she came with the original certificate and warranty from 1915 as well as a receipt for when she changed hands in 1980. I cannot tell you how excited I was by this purchase.  I have always wanted to have my own piano and I especially wanted one that the children could play.  Ollie always has such a fabulous time playing the one at our playgroup hall - even if it is usually dinosaurs he is using to push the keys. Thankfully...

There has been a LOT going on around here of late in the milestone front. Probably the biggest in terms of impact on our daily lives is Evie's ability to move herself around.  I wouldn't quite go so far as to say crawling but it is definitely forward propulsion.  She needs to learn to lift her bum off the ground but even without that she is pretty darn quick.  So quick in fact that the gate has gone back on the top of the stairs.  I've included a little movie of her taken the other week (so she is quicker now!) - as usual it won't open on ipads/iphones etc.  Not sure why this is.  I hope to figure it out one day. An Ollie milestone is his drastic improvement in swimming.  I've started taking him for lessons at another swim school as our old one shuts over winter as it is outside.  The new one is like a different universe in terms of professionalism and the results are starting to show.  This also might be due to him having two less...

This vid probably won't open on an ipad or iphone but is totally worth checking it out on a real computer. Enjoy.

Easter came around again. We ate too much food, again!! But I thought I'd let the Easter photos tell the story this year. Enjoy. And in non-Easter news, Knights are really huge around here at the moment. Specifically "Mike the Knight" who is on ABC3 every morning. Ol is totally obsessed with him so it was only appropriate that he get his own Knight outfit. I knocked him up a shield to go along with the sword that Nanna Carmel bought him ages ago. But the best bit is the hat - you may recognise the blue ice-cream bucket from his robot outfit not too long ago. A bit of a snip of some paper, whip up a feather out of some felt and voila, Ollie the Knight. How do we know that he loves the costume? While it was still dark this morning, Nick found him wearing it in bed while reading books under his lamp.

Check out this beautiful little family!! Finally a photo with all of us in it. We were lucky enough to get some family photos taken on the weekend by a lady I came across who is building up her portfolio (read: free photos!!). This one is really the only posy posy one - the rest were just candid ones of us all being silly buggers on the beach. I will be getting my hands on all of them at some point but in the meantime this one can tide us over. Pity Ollie looks like a little urchin. By this point we had been running all over the beach and Ol was fairly drenched too. Oh well, at least it is a true likeness of him! We've had some lovely activities this week. The first was a wonderful family get together (sans Luke, Fiona & Alex) to celebrate Grandpa Rob coming home for a visit. Rob was certainly impressed with all the growing that Evie & Ol have done since he saw them last in November. And while Ollie was thrilled to spend some time with his Grandpa, he was still a ...

It seems every time I get around to writing a blog of late it is to do with being away from home. But nothing so exciting this week. Just the bits and pieces that make up our daily life - it may not be edge of your seat interesting but it is just a bit lovely to have such a nice little life. But before I do, one pic that didn't make it last week (technical issue - it seems you all got to see two of one photo and none of this one). Here is Ollie feeding the lorikeets on the balcony at Nanna Carmel & Grandpa Rob's beach house. It was like our own private wildlife sanctuary! Now back to reality. Evie is super gorgeous and Ollie is super trying. That seems to be the theme of our week. Ol has been pushing my buttons like you would not believe. Yesterday saw him refuse to have a sleep at all which saw me with not one single moment alone to myself the whole time Nick was at work. That probably doesn't sound like a big deal but it is enough to make me need to lock mys...

I'd been planning to blog early in the week but it just didn't happen due to needy children (not just mine) and lots of screen printing to be done. And it isn't like I didn't have some good material - Ollie going on the super big boy slide at the markets, a delightful bout of gastro and my favourite, Ollie's decision to call us Mum, Dad & Eve (he is only three, I want to be mummy for a bit longer!). But I didn't get around to it and now we are away. We are lucky enough to be having a long weekend at Nanna Carmel & Grandpa Rob's beautiful new beach house at the coast, that nick has named "the Budge". It is such a lovely spot and we are extremely thankful to be able to use it as now we are down to one wage, this will be the only holidays we can afford!! We came down last night after work, putting the kids to sleep in the car. Evie complied fairly quickly but Ollie appeared to be desperately trying to stay awake the whole way down. He e...

Well this cruise holiday seems like a distant memory now but I've still got to tell you about the second part of it so I'd better rack my brain... The trip down to Tasmania was the one we were most excited and apprehensive about. Excited because Nick and I had never been to Tasmania, apprehensive because we had to cross Bass Strait and had heard that it could get pretty rough. As we hit open seas after departing Melbourne it did seem like we could be in for rougher waters - there was a definite increase in the swell - and one of our party even found herself suffering from some seasickness. But that was the worst of it (well, that and being "mooned" by a diving boat) as the swell didn't pick up any after that. I had also prepared myself for not seeing any land for a while but instead there were lots of gorgeous little islands dotted along the way. Although the most amazing landscape unfolded the next day when could see the coast of Tasmania. It is unbelievabl...

Our goal for 2012 (among all the usual stuff) is to get Ollie able to read. He and I have been working on this a fair bit lately using a program called Reading Eggs. The results have been pretty amazing. Please don't think I've gone all stage mum on this. He absolutely LOVES doing it and asks me a million times a day if he can do it. It has actually become my substitute for television when I need to achieve things like putting Evie to sleep and getting ready in the morning. I think the results speak for themselves...

The lack of blog of late can be partially explained by our recent cruise adventure. We were lucky enough to be treated a wonderful family holiday aboard Radiance of the Seas by Nanna Freddy who took us, Aunty Alicia & Uncle Guy, Aunties Zoe & Peta and Cousin Jackson along to celebrate Poppy Mick's 60th birthday. The cruise sailed out of Sydney which meant that we had to make our way down there the day before. This was to be Evie's first plane trip and Ollie's 13th. Ollie was a trooper and didn't even mind that he wasn't sitting with us, instead he was with Nanna & Poppy. This should have made it easier for us with Evie but unfortunately it didn't. This probably was a combination of a significant delay on the tarmac and an overtired baby. Once we were up in the air Evie thought it would be good to treat the other passengers to 20 odd minutes of crying. But eventually she settled in to sleep, and then we pretty much commenced our descent. Thank...

The big news around here this week is that Miss Evie Peevey is sitting up ALL BY HERSELF! A big pile of cushions is still required and definitely not on any hard surfaces but this is still a huge development. I tried to get a good pic of it for you all but it was more of an action shot - in the split second before she keeled over! This week also saw Ollie and Eve going to have needles. I have been dreading taking them both along but it seemed like the obvious thing to do. Ol, not having had a needle in a long time, clearly forgot what was involved as when I told him he was only getting one while Evie had to get two, he started complaining that he wanted two as well. Probably the most painful part of the whole experience for me was the waiting room. Why do doctors have to keep you waiting for at least an hour? Thanks to the wonders of iphone games it wasn't too bad but once Ollie grew tired of the games he thought it would be a great game to point to all the people in the roo...

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...