1)About a year ago, Owen started to have an imaginary friend "Little bear". He was VERY little - he would sit in the palm of Owen's hand. Not long afterwards, little bear was joined by "little cloud", who appeared to be about the same size. These friends would appear unexpectedly anywhere (yes, ANYWHERE) we happened to be. Owen, being very inclusive, would insist that all and sundry acknowledged and included them in whatever we were doing at the time.
We now have a theory as to where these friends originated. Check out the photo below - of the twins enjoying a playmat (given to Owen by Nathan's colleagues in Germany). If you look really closely, you will see... a little bear and... a little cloud!!
One of our old posts shows proof that Owen once used this playmat; quite obviously, these toys were imprinted in his mind from a very young age, hid in his subconscious, and only now resurfaced.
More recently, Owen has added "big bear" and "big sister" to his posse. We have no theories yet as to where they came from.
2) Owen is rather obsessed with dinosaurs, not uncommon in young boys. For some reason, he has a favourite; the diplodocus. This was one of the first dinosaur skeletons that Owen saw, at the nature museum in Denver during our 2008 trip.
You may not know this, but there is a family of Diplodoci in Sydney! They consist of Daddy Diplodocus (Nathan), Mummy Diplodocus (Jo), Dabby Diplodocus (Owen), Abby Diplodocus and Sean Diplodocus. Owen can get quite upset if you call him Owen at the wrong time. In the photo below, you can see Dabby's diplodocus tail. Dabby must be the only Diplodocus in world history to play Wii tennis!
Fortunately, he understands that not everyone understands his imaginary world. "At preschool, I'm just Owen", he says.
I think our esteemed dinosaur researchers will be rather surprised to find out what baby diplodoci like to eat. "Bones, leaves, chocolate biscuits, mango biscuits and plum biscuits".
