puff and huff

It’s been a long while since the last post. We’ve finished the school holidays, Huff has started year eight, Puff has started year eleven, and we’ve celebrated Huff’s 13th birthday as a family (the celebration with friends is yet to happen).

A few photos as we look back: Dad and Puff were at a conference back at Stanwell Tops, with Puff helping again on the AV desk.

It was a long few days, and here we are heading home again, pretty tired.

We went down to Wollongong to catch up with some family (not pictured) for lunch; here’s Huff at the catch-up venue.

Dad and Puff and Huff went to watch Wonka at the movies as Huff’s last hurrah before getting braces – it seemed an appropriate film to watch for such an occasion.

Here’s Huff on the way to have the braces put on.

And here’s the after photo:

Huff wanted to spend some deliberate time reflecting on the end of being a 12 year old and starting to be a 13 year old.

One of her birthday presents was this bear, who we’ve named Jacque De Gaineau.

This was our family breakfast for Huff’s actual birthday.

Huff decorated the cake herself, which was an impressive effort.

Oh, and Puff had the chance to go to a school-day workshop, so Dad went with him on the train to Central.

And that brings us back up to date, with some obvious gaps.

A succession of events; Dad being away for a week at a conference, and then working furiously towards the work end-of-year camp, and then getting sick, and now about to head off to another conference (this time with Puff) has slowed the progress on the blog, but the parenting continues.

Here are a few highlights of the past almost two months. Cousin E had a drama performance that we went down to visit. She was excellent.

We went to cousin Gogo’s baptism.

It was low-key, but people were dressed up for it!

Huff is highly skilled at nail polishing, and occasionally asks for Dad to participate.

Dad picked up the kids from the last week of youth group and we went out for dessert. It was an exciting place to queue.

Huff and Dad raced out together with little warning to get to the end-of-carols fireworks, where Huff was aiming to meet a friend. We made it just in time, despite running through the park while some of the fireworks were going off.

We had an end of year dinner for Dad’s Bible Study group, and then we stopped to grab an end of year photo of the kids.

Puff had an end-of-year school concert where you had to dress as your favourite musician. He had 3d printed a fox as a mask to be Toby Fox.

We had some Christmas gatherings, and a first birthday party for Gogo, and Huff even had the chance to nurse her.

Mum and Huff had some bonding time together.

The cousins played Overcooked together (a cooking-themed video game).

Huff and Puff helped Dad prepare for camp; there was booklet printing and lanyard collecting and name tag laminating and they did great work. There was pizza for lunch.

We even managed some naan on the way home.

We also had the cousins stay with us and took them to see some amazing Christmas lights (it was a very late night for them but worth it).

Dad and Puff watched a movie – “the boy and the herron” – together.

We visited a different church for Christmas day.

There was a dress-up night at camp and we saw another outing of the Toby Fox costume.

We visited Doc and Uncle A.

Dad and Puff worked together on fixing the clogged nozzle on the 3D printer.

Huff and Dad went for a walk at night; there was a tall fence to walk along, so she took the opportunity.

Uncle M is also home, we caught up with several other friends, but those are the big rocks from the past seven (eep) weeks.

The reduced frequency of posts is a combination of factors. The sameness of life at this stage of parenting: much of the week is routines driven by school preparation, the kids (now amazingly doing most of the morning routine themselves and heading out the door to catch public transport to school) being at school and coming home again. A hectic season for Dad at work, and adding some travel into the mix means less quantity time and seeking more quality time.

Nonetheless, we managed some outings. Our annual trip to Sculpture by the Sea with the T family continued on. This sculpture, called Dave, is meant to be Da Vinci’s David, but having let himself go, and put on some weight. The kids insisted I pose with them, and then Huff came down to pose with me too.

Huff continues to pull faces and interact with the world in her own way: sometimes still struck with wonder, at other times weighed down with the burdens of being a high schooler with all its limitations and frustrations. 

Puff is quiet and thoughtful, and loves the things he loves: particular video games and books, and is finding more confidence in sharing the things he finds funny. If only Dad had more time to spend on that sharing. Dad is still spending some time connecting at least.

Friends of Huff and Puff from school have moved to western Australia, but were briefly back in Sydney and so there was a chance to gather them together. Though I don’t think they’ve appeared here before, the connection dates back to preschool – heartening to see them continue to be friends.

 

Puff is also quite competent at interviewing people on camera; a skill he had another chance to put to school in the preparation for Summer Camp later in the year.

Here’s one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments, where a trip to the shops to order some takeaway food has an added trip to the park for some nostalgia, and this time it was Huff, not Dad, who noticed the sunset.

With Dad having been away for a week for a training course, on return we had a family day out, and capped it with a trip to the cinema for Dad, Huff and Puff to watch The Marvels: far from the world’s best movie, but a fun experience to share together. I continue to be surprised at how much the cinemas are prepared to show and distribute ads for streaming services.

See you again soon!

End of an uneventful school holiday, where Dad and Huff spent a lot of time together cleaning up her room, making space to move furniture around, and then helpfully replacing a lot of the things again, so the work there isn’t complete. Hopefully the cousins are enjoying some of the toys we found in her room that she is now too old for.

One highlight was rediscovering Dad’s copy of the book “the Hungry Cat” – a classic book that perhaps hasn’t aged well.

Most of our holiday outings were food-based: the kids massively over-ordered at this cafe, where the shakes were bigger than anything we were expecting.

The kids are still playing together amazingly well. Here’s Huff holding the video game controller that lets them both play games on Puff’s laptop.

The playing continued into the part of the housewarming where all the food had been eaten and the grown-ups were talking.

For a combined celebration of Mum’s birthday and Puff’s end-of-exams, we went out for dumplings to a place with a robot cat waiter.

Puff really enjoyed the novelty of it all.

Here we are enjoying one of Mum’s signature amazing parking spots. Not photographed, when we were in the Blue Mountains, wanting to stop at a particular store in a very busy Leura, just as we arrived near the store, a car pulled out, leaving Mum to drive into the perfect parking spot. Again.

Dad decided to take Huff out for mochi ice cream to celebrate a mid-holiday milestone.

Oh, and we managed to go out to our favourite ramen place in Newtown in search of the kids school holidays special (possibly the last time either of the kids are small enough to participate in kids meals).

And now of course we are back to the normal throes of term four, the downhill run to the end of the year!

Lots going on this last month; Dad and Puff went to the UNSW open day to look at different study options. We started on the smaller campus at paddington; this was the experience being in one of the lifts.

There was a lot of equipment to look at (a room of 3D printers among other things) and we could talk to people who were doing VR research as well.

He had a good day looking around at different options, even though it’s a couple of years away yet!

Later we had a family breakfast at a cafe before church. It was good to spend some time together in the sunshine.

We had an afternoon tea for father’s day so we could see Doc, and Dad had a chance to spend time with the youngest nieces.

Dad was in a week worth of meetings for General Assembly of Australia, but Mum, Puff and Huff came to visit for one evening, and Huff had the chance to try on Dad’s suit jacket: it’s not yet a good fit, but it’s striking.

Puff (and Huff) also met a lamb.

Dad and Huff went out for a morning walk, complete with breakfast crepes.

And we went to Wollongong to visit the older nieces, and bring them back for a sleepover. They were having fun pulling faces for the camera.

We also went out for a fun dinner.

It was a good night overall, and clear weather for walking.

And now we find ourselves in school holidays, where the major project involves Puff studying for an HSC exam, and Huff helping with some tidying around the house.

Lots has happened in the last few weeks; time for an update. Dad was around for these three weeks, but busy with different work commitments. We had time for a quick family selfie, which was a good change of pace!

We had a day in the city with Huff; it was good to spend some time together and create some memories.

Puff had his first week of work experience. He’s super tall, but this was an exceptionally large door. He had a great week, and it was helpful for his confidence and a sense of what he might want to do once he’s finished school.

We visited cousin T’s hockey finals: she had a good game. Slightly out of frame was Pippin, who had a fun car trip with the rest of us.

We also took cousin E out for her birthday.

We bought some different treats for her, and she enjoyed having some time with her cousins.

Then the next week was Puff’s birthday. Fifteen. He was keen for a game of putt-putt with the cousins, and he won!

Using the dais slightly differently, and everyone is (almost) the same height. It’s heartening to see them getting along and enjoying some time together. Putt-putt golf is the great equaliser, more or less.

The parents also enjoyed their game of putt-putt. We all had burgers for lunch together, and then we headed back to Sydney.

Puff was keen for boba from a particular place in Burwood. This is what it’s like when he takes a photo with Mum’s phone.

This is how Huff and Puff look with Puff at age 15.

And this is all of us on the way back to the car, and to head back home to the dog.

We also had cake for another cousin’s first birthday, and cake for uncle A’s birthday at Doc’s house. So much cake at the moment, but there are many things to be grateful for, and cake is a good way of celebrating.

Three weeks have passed by with minimum fanfare; life continues on with walking the dog, kids going to school; there are parties, and church attendance. New was having two lots of high school parent-teacher evenings in successive days – good to get a picture of how the kids (and the schools) are going, and my entrepreneurial mind sees missed opportunities for the P&C to be selling snacks to parents and teachers alike.

But mostly it’s keeping the kids’ spirits up: Puff is heading to another trial maths exam soon, Huff has a mix of homework and assignments, and we keep trying to build them up in confidence.

Dad took Huff and Puff to see the Barbie movie – it was curious that they were both interested in it, for different reasons, and both found it funny. Dad felt vindicated in having showed them excerpts of the classic movie 2001 a space odyssey, which enhanced their understanding of the opening scene.

And then Dad was away for four days travelling for work, so we stopped to have lunch together on the Saturday once he was back. Huff was pleased to discover these birds at the cafe.

And Mum and Puff were similarly glad to see Dad again.

Another school holidays has been and gone. While there’s been some family time, Dad was also working especially during the second week of the holidays, so not too many photos.

Continuing the tradition of taking kids to see movies, Dad took Puff to see the new Indiana Jones movie; we both enjoyed it.

Puff continues to tower over everyone but Huff is catching up with Aunty C.

One of the cousins now has her build-a-bear. Which is an exciting milestone.

We visited Doc during the holidays too. The kids had homework and other laptop things to do. Pippin was very excited to be at Doc’s house.

We also needed to have Pineapple’s claws trimmed, which meant another trip to the pet store. Pineapple was in his harness so could look around the shop with impunity.

Huff had less success with this rainbow lorikeet who wasn’t as used to her as Pineapple. Eventually she was rescued.

We also had a couple of different people over for dinner at different times; something that we have been a bit slow to re-embrace post-covid, but it seemed to go well. Hopefully more of that sort of thing soon.

It’s been a big fortnight; the end of term and the start of school holidays. 

We caught up with a friend, and the kids brought drawing and sudoku puzzles as a distraction.

Dad and Puff took the dog for a walk from the cafe to IKEA. He’s a lot bigger than he was the first time he visited an IKEA!

Dad and Puff went to watch the new Spiderman movie together.

Meanwhile, while Dad was working, Huff had a chance to spend time with her cousin (cropped).

Elsewhere in the home, the bird is getting less and less scared of the dog.

Oh, and Dad and Huff went to see the new pixar movie.

We had an early start on Sunday morning to take Puff to his music camp.

And then just after the music camp there was a music performance at his school.

And now we’re on school holidays. See you next time! 

It’s been a couple of quiet weeks. Huff has been a bit unwell over the fortnight; there have been moments of her feeling better, and even trying out these earrings.

Huff went to a friend’s grandpa’s funeral as a support person, which seemed to go well.

We haven’t had a photo of the kids together for a while, so we took this one to celebrate the return to having dinner together in the dining room.

Oh, and we had the cousins come to church with us on Sunday, and then go for bubble tea afterward.

Just a quiet season of recovery towards the end of term. 

Huff has nearly finished reading The Ichabog to dad. And Puff has been doing more regular maths homework and the occasional violin practice.