Little Bigfoot

It is official. Owen has enormous feet for his age. A friend and I compared her 2.5 year old daughter to Owen, who is 15 months old. She takes a shoe size 22 and he takes a shoe size 23. Not only are the feet a big thing but he has moved up to a number 5 size nappy whilst his friend still only takes a size 4. In the last week Owen has had a tummy bug which resulted in it coming out of both ends. His eating declined significantly and thankfully he was happy to drink fluids and a special juice recommended by the GP. Even before this Owens interest in food was starting to take a second place to playing and reading his books. He is such a book worm now (with parents like his he does not stand a chance) and he will even sit and read a book whilst the sacred vacuum cleaner is in use. Who thought the day would ever come.

The Shower Gene

Owen loves the water. Splashing is his thing. Saturdays he enjoys his shower and hair wash with Brendon. Now during the week, before work, Brendon's shower takes about 20 minutes. I comment on how long he takes in the shower but it still has no affect on the time period spent abluting.

When Lynese and Douglas came to look after Owen for the 5 days we were away I noticed Douglas also spends a long time in the shower. I asked Brendon why is it that he spends so much time in there. He told me he has more hair to wash than I do. I was not brave enough to ask Douglas what his reason was. So it looks like splashing in the shower is a time consuming event on the Morris men's list.

The unstoppable little man

Owen is nearly 15 months old. Only 2 months ago he was only crawling. Yesterday he started running. There is no slow or medium speed. Only fast. He does know how to throw himself onto the floor when he needs to stop. I fear this stage.

We have been having a lot of social time this week with both sets of friends. The bi-monthly outing to Joepie on Wednesday was enjoyed and yesterday was our weekly meeting with some friends from the International Woman's Club and their children. There was a new little girl of 2.5 years old that battled to control herself whenever Owen was near to "her" toys and I had to intervene in removing her hand whilst she was trying to take a chunk of Owens hair out of his head. Mmm, needless to say she is on my "watch this one closely" list. What one does not know is that Owen's mommy is not scared of anyone else's mommy! So the fun begins.

At home we still have our regular routines. Owen still sleeps twice in the day and between 1.5 and 2 hours (still with a dummy and Mickey Big Ears). We put him to bed later now at around 8 - 8.30pm so that he wakes up at a respectable time around 6 - 6.30am. He is sleeping really well now except when he is teething. Laundry is a daily occurrence, vacuuming every second day, loading the dishwasher an event that takes place after every meal time. Tuesday Elena comes to look after him for 6 hours. That is going well. She sings to him, takes him for a walk, plays etc. He is so exhausted by the end of the day he goes down like a bomb. Today is swimming so once he wakes up it will be go, go, go. Hopefully we will make it to the lesson otherwise Owen and I will just swim by ourselves.

I marvel at the development in the past week. He insists on walking with 2 toys/items in his hands with his nose screwed up and eyes closed which has us all saying "Owen, open your eyes". He loves the music and dances around in circles, with his hands in the air, which affects his balance and he falls down. Imitation is top of the list now. We show him something once and we needn't show him again. I wish this would would work when we tell him "No" once. Owen is obsessed with detail. He is the only one at Joepie investigating how the mechanisms work. All the other kids are running around screaming and Owen is sitting watching how the cogs on certain things turn. When we are at home the stair gates have to be shut, by him, when we leave the room to go upstairs. Then the bedroom doors have to be closed and opened and opened and closed. The clasp on the toilet is the funniest. When we are in the bathroom he makes a b-line to the toilet to put the clasp on it because that is what should happen with it. I am very happy he pays attention to such detail.





Brendon has showed Owen how to kick a ball and throw it around with much gusto, and throw oneself on the ball with the same amount of gusto. This is fine for me except that it is happening indoors at night when Brendon gets home. On the weekend they will have to go outside and do that. The boss has spoken.

Brendon & Wendy's mini ski break without Owen

Last year Brendon and I made plans to go on a 5 day ski break without Owen. It was the very first trip without our little cherub. We flew Granny Lynese and Grandpa Douglas over from the UK to take care of our precious bundle. His meals were cooked and frozen, the menu drawn up, emergency numbers printed. All set to go. The morning finally dawned. It was 5.45am. I was battling to leave the house. Teary-eyed I hopped in the Volvo and Brendon sped away with me still waving madly at the Morris clan left behind. The first day went well only a 7.5 hour drive to our destination. A call to granny and grandpa set my mind at rest. Owen had survived the day without mommy and mommy like-wise. Day 2: Brendon and I were distracted by our inability to get down the children's training slope on two ski's. One of us would wind up at the bottom in a pile of snow and equipment. Luckily by the afternoon we were feeling confident enough to venture onto the beginners slopes. Confidence = a lack of brain cells or too much Dutch courage. Who on God's green earth would classify a field with wooden huts dotted around a beginners slope. 3 x on this slope (including taking the ski's off and walking partly down) and it was time for a coffee. Eventually we left to look for greener pastures so to speak. Brendon and I did not escape unscathed - bruises, scrapped knuckles. All of our incidents occurred, funny enough, not whilst we were skiing down the slopes. Now I am not sure if I could let Owen get a taste of this sport. Eventually Brendon and I were timing ourselves down the slopes. Judging by Owens lack of fear I am not sure that I will allow him to ski, ever! Each evening we spoke to Lynese, Douglas and Owen on the Skype web cam. It was so good to see Owen having a good time and behaving in his usual cheerful way. After what seemed like an eternity I made sure we were in the Volvo by 8am latest and on our way home to our precious little boy. We missed him so and the last 2 hours of our trip felt like eternity. It did not help that every breakfast and dinner we had a 14 month old boy sitting next to us at the next table with his parents at our hotel. He made my heart melt and I was always tempted to pick him up and giving him a big love. We made it home. Owen was smothered with hugs and kisses. He battled to go to bed that night and was still singing in his bed at 8.45pm. Granny and grandpa did a wonderful job and we were pleased they had survived Owen.

14 Months Old

Finally we made it to the clinic for the monthly weighing and measuring. 12.48kg's and 83.5cm's. The clinic sister said that he is now getting taller in comparison to the weight gain. Still above average on the Dutchie charts. Luckily the bruises had faded!