"Old Mr Oakvale had a farm..."

Oliver has a nice group of friends now, and along with them, some lovely mums and dads that we've got to know. Most of the time (ie during the week) it's Annemarie who gets to see them, but early today it was a 'Dads day' event for Gabe.

He went with Oliver, O's friend Quintin, and his dad Boris to Oakvale Farm - a Hunter Valley attraction packed with cute animals.

The first area is a large open shed, where we all (30 or so family groups) gathered with our little ones. We were all handed milk bottles, then...  without warning...  they open gates and we're swarmed by lambs and kids (as in baby goats).

A few of the (human) kids understandably freak out - you'd think a tourist attraction that's been doing this thing for years would know better. But alas - common sense is not common.  Anyway, we emptied our milk bottles and moved on to larger animals.

(It's very cute, ever since the photo below was taken, whenever Oliver sees a cow in a picture book, he insists on patting it.)

Some of the other highlights of the trip included feeding food pellets to kangaroos, seeing joeys up close, and riding on a scenic tractor/train.  Oh, and patting the koalas of course!

If anything, at 15 months Ollie was a bit young for Oakvale farm.  18 months + is probably more appropriate. And as you'll see in later posts, he's found more koalas, closer to home....

Month Thirteen

Poor Oliver - Much like his first month in the world his first month as a one year old was pretty ordinary.  He had a fantastic birthday and the three weeks of being terribly sick - a double ear infection and tonsillitis. Almost landed back in hospital - but some strong flirting on Oliver's behalf with the doctor (and a second dose of antibiotics!) Oliver seems to be on the mend.

Oliver being Oliver he still managed to have a good time. He has started to be a busy busy busy boy.....and very independent!

Playing in his lovely tent from Grandma Marlene and with his wooden worm from Cousins Ashley, Lachlan and Ben

A spoon. I have it.
Master Independent....feeding himself yoghurt.....

Risotto and muffin......
 (Oliver has been moved into the middle of the kitchen well away from walls.)

And now that I'm covered in yoghurt, I wait.
(Hmmm... hope they haven't moved without telling me!)

We have not been particularly adventurous in taking Oliver out at night -
now that he is one we would try a little night activity.
Staying warm at 'Winter Heat' - an outdoor event in a Newcastle Park.

Oliver models the present for Cousin Victoria.
(He doesn't get out of bed for less than 10 pikelets a day.)

Oliver on his trike; off to post some presents to Cousins Victoria, Joshua and Ben.

First Birthday Party

Oliver is turning one tomorrow and four of his little friends came over today to help him celebrate.

Oliver's grandma flew in just for the party which was a just fantastic - thankyou Grandma!  So after breakfast with Grandma and Mum and Dad at III Bean (one needs a latte to survive the party) - it was party time!

Oliver had a lovely time with presents...

He enjoyed pass the parcel with Megan (Oliver's Godmother) and balloons!








Oliver is lucky enough to have two cakes - one large 'O' for the party today and a number 1 for Yola's on Monday.

Poor deprived child did not actually eat any of the cake today - but everyone else did !




Of course there was loads of cuddles and general spoiling.

Maybe Oliver needed a double shot in his latte..?

Thank you for all the lovely presents and birthday cards - Oliver had a wonderful time. Although he slept through some of his party, he enjoyed spending time with his little friends and playing with his new toys after his big sleep.

Special Delivery

Oliver was feeling very important with his special delivery to the mail box.  It is the invitations to his first birthday party!

The baptism was really about Mummy and Daddy and all our family and friends coming together to celebrate the arrival and presence of Oliver in our lives.
Oliver's first birthday is all about him and his little group of friends.

Oliver absolutely adores Anna Walker's I Love to Sing and it seemed like a good excuse to print some lovely photos for family and friends and also make a little keepsake to celebrate Oliver's first birthday.

Oliver gets so excited when we read the book and it is almost always the first book he choices to read each day....could it be because the main character is named...Ollie??

We read to Oliver before he was born, the first thing we bought for Oliver was a book, the first activity we took him to was story time at the library and his first picture in the paper was because of reading...so of course having a story book invitation was so fitting.

My baptism

As I suggested in a recent post, my baptism must have been coming up, and today's the day!


Mum and dad have been busy getting sweet things ready in the kitchen..

This has something to do with "fairies" but I don't get it. I'd much prefer a good old bottle of milk myself.





I'm not sure what these things are - mum calls them 'baby mudcakes'.

All I know is that they're going into a little cardboard box with a few other surprises - for each of my cousins.

OK, time to go to the church for my big event.

Here, we've just sat up the front... where everyone can see me. Mum took all my clothes off and wrapped me in a towel.

Dad explained that this is a good thing - but I wasn't so sure.









Next, they poured oil on me, which felt quite nice.

And then Monsignor kept telling jokes about Justin.









I'm not sure if Justin minded, but I did notice that most people laughed a lot.

Justin and Megan also got to light a candle with my name on it.

Finally, I got to sit on the altar, and everybody clapped. 

I think that meant I could have my milk soon.

 Yes, we finally got to go home for the party.

Here I am with my grannie Florinda from Perth, and Grandma Marlene from Melbourne.

They took turns to feed me, so my spoiling factor was at least 200%!

Here are some more photos from my baptism party, including my cousins Ashley and Lachlan from Melbourne.

They had fun in my coloured ball pit.

Well if baptisms are like my one, I'll have one each year please!

Thankyou everyone for travelling so far for my big day.

Visitors from Perth & beyond

Yes - grannie Florinda and grandpa Albert are in town, and so is my uncle Lyndon, all the way from London!

Mum had driven me to see them most days this week, and today they came to visit us!




Here's grannie looking very stylish, as she travels on the train from Sydney to Newcastle.








And here she is with uncle Lyndon and myself, as mum judges the 1st annual silly hat competition.

I'm not sure what "opthamologists" do, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with silly hats.

I've got even MORE relatives arriving in the next few days - it's pretty exciting!

First Indian restaurant experience

It's not long till my baptism now, and the relatives have started to arrive! Granny, Grandpapa, Margi, Tom,  Meville, Lisa, Benedict, Xavier and Imogen are all staying at a house in Caves Beach with a special guest: Uncle Lyndon from London! He lives far away, but was able to be here because he has a work conference in New Zealand.

This morning, we took Granny & Grandpapa to Raj's Corner in Hamilton for Masala Dosas. This is mama's favourite Indian food, and very hard to get in Newcastle!

Here you can see grandpapa showing how to eat dosas. They are thin potato pancakes that come with a tray of sauces.

I'm not old enough (at 11 months) to eat dosas, but I had some plain naan bread which was very yummy! 

After mama, daddy and the grandparents had their meal, they bought some Indian sweets which made mama very happy. Daddy says you should "click on the photo below - and start drooling", whatever that means.

Hmm, there's been a lot of cooking and organising in our house.  My baptism must be soon!

Two Month Catch Up

Sorry for the break in blogging about Oliver and his adventures - it has been a little frantic here for the past two months. We thought we would post a few pictures to catch you up and then try to keep up with Oliver's social calendar!

In the last two months aside from O becoming more and more fun, Annamarie has returned to work which is absolutely fantastic, Oliver has settles into Mondays and Tuesday with Yola - which is just brilliant and we bought our house!

On a sad note we had hoped to post good news today and let you know in late October Oliver would become a big brother.  Unfortunately over the past five weeks the pregnancy has not progressed well and after many scans and tests the pregnancy ended.

We are ever so grateful to Megan who has been a completely wonderful friend no wonder she is Oliver's Godmother and also to Trish. Between the two of them they have made this completely horrible time a little more manageable. Our hearts go out to any of our friends and family who have experienced the same situation.

On a happier note we hope to see many of you in a few weeks time for Oliver's baptism and a celebration of the wonderful joy he brings to our lives on a daily basis....in the mean time enjoy the pictures!