Author: cafedave

Dad was busy working this past week, with a work gathering called the “General Assembly of the PCNSW”, which is a multi-day conference, so there wasn’t a lot happening in family life. Our puppy continues to settle in, the bird continues to be a bird, and the kids tried to make the most of the holiday while balancing the requirements of homework and not being able to catch up with friends because they had COVID.

In fact, our main family outing over the weekend was to go out together and get PCR tests after a number of friends reported they had unhappily picked up the popular virus. Here’s Huff, waiting for her PCR test.

Dad and Puff were similarly enthusiastic at this opportunity for family bonding.

With a negative result, Dad and Huff headed out to Fairfield after church, in search of exotic food. The place we were looking for was closed, but we found enough fun just walking around the suburb looking at unfamiliar sights, and then headed home again.

Hopefully another covid-free week awaits!

Not too much photographic evidence of the week that was. It’s the school holidays, we returned with our puppy, and Dad was back into working mostly from home, with the odd off-site meeting thrown in, and some evening activities. The kids spent most of their time at home, chasing up homework (Puff) or feeling a bit poorly (Huff).

We’re adjusting to life with a puppy; the sleep is more broken, but the puppy is relentlessly cheerful and wants to be part of family life (or nap).

Saturday we booked a table at a local cafe to make sure we would be able to navigate the morning rush. Huff liked it better than this picture when her pikelets arrived with a tiny jar of Nutella and a tiny shot glass of maple syrup.

Puff was just happy to have the chance to teach Dad some more cubing lessons.

So much so that after church the next day we went back out for more cubing lessons to a different place.

Having the puppy has helped us communicate better as a family, but has led to more chores and more work around the house.

So overall a win.

It’s been an eventful end of term and start of holidays. Finally Huff was feeling well enough that we could get the kids back to swimming lessons.

They like the last week of term, because everyone gets to choose what their group does for a lap.

On Saturday a friend came over for brunch, but then Dad was out for much of the day (trying a flight simulator with uni friends), and came back with takeaway for dinner.

Monday morning we dropped the bird off with Doc and uncle A, and drove to Tamworth!

In Tamworth, the next day, we picked up the newest member of the family: Pippin. Huff was very excited.

Then we drove home. Huff was still very excited.

Puff was moderately excited.

We’re looking forward to reuniting everyone soon.

Puff is back from music camp! He missed out on some sleep, but generally had a good time.

Puff had his music concert on Friday and Saturday night, so Mum went along on the first night, and Dad and Huff on the second night.

Saturday we went to the festival of steam at Thirlmere, including riding on a steam engine. The old carriages are in amazing condition. The one we had was in first class.

We managed a quick family photo.

The kids really enjoyed the experience of being on a train, and learning about steam engines.

It’s not clear who enjoyed it the most.

Huff suggested that she ride on a tiny train with Dad. Knowing there might not be too many more opportunities, Dad scrunched up into it and had a great time.

Saturday night Huff and Dad watched Puff’s concert. It was a late night for her, as she continues to feel poorly after a long day.

It seems like Huff is finally starting to feel better; she managed to get through the whole of pyjama day at school this week.

Hopefully more resting next week as we head into the school holidays!

It’s music camp week!

Last week, Puff was at swag, helping pack away the flag at the end of the night. It seems like just yesterday that he was learning the ropes.

We had lunch with Doc on Sunday, and had more of a quiet day on the Saturday.

Puff hasn’t been looking forward to camp, but he put on a brave face and headed off on the camp.He’ll be back tomorrow afternoon after a two-night camp.

Huff has been making the most of his absence; the bus was not long out of its parking spot before Huff joked “favourite child!” to make the most of being an only child for a couple of nights.

We have finally finished painting the lounge room. Huff set it up as a cinema; tickets, seat numbers, even menus for the snacks. It made for some fun family times watching the new season 3 Bluey episodes together.

A bit of a treat to have a long weekend in the middle of school term. We didn’t take the opportunity to stay away from home, but managed a long overdue day trip to see the cousins, some chores at home, and some family time, so that was enjoyable.

Dad managed a quick trip with Puff post-youth-group to grab bubble tea, which he was waiting patiently for.

While waiting for our breakfast to arrive at a cafe, Huff and Puff played boxes together on some paper retrieved from Mum’s handbag, with some pens from a pencil case whose progeny is now long forgotten.

After breakfast, Huff, feeling better after more days of school was feeling game enough to try walking with Dad to IKEA, which ended up being the better part of an hour. This was taken early on, in front of a cafe called “Sirius Black” which was closed.

The end result of the long weekend’s exertions, sadly, was that Huff has been unwell again: we’re trying to figure out exactly how to help her get better. More details next week!

Another week of Huff not being very well, and not making it to school. Another return visit to the doctor to see if we can figure out what’s wrong; seems to be a bad cold that’s just refusing to leave, but it’s starting to be a significant amount of time off!

With Doc’s birthday celebrations, Huff was reluctant to miss out, but wore a mask most of the time. Puff continues on in good health, even helping Dad return various items to the work storage unit before coming to the party. Meanwhile he’s learning more and more at school, raising some increasingly complex topics as part of ongoing family discussions.

A rare treat to see uncle M was compounded with new clothes for Puff (a shirt that I’d expect to see in a photo here sometime soon), and a new pair of pants.

It’s good to see the occasional flickering of Huff’s regular personality shine through the fatigue and sadness that goes with being sick for so long. We’re hoping to see her well enough to be back at school in the next week.

It’s been a week where plans have been somewhat derailed by illness. Huff continues to be sick with some kind of non-covid related virus, and has had some time off school to recover.

We were hoping to spend some time with the cousins over the weekend but they were also prevented by illness, so we had a quiet weekend mostly at home except for Dad and Puff going to church.

On a rainy week, and with Dad needing to run errands, Puff met Dad at a different train station to usual for a lift home on a very rainy afternoon.

And Huff, in a too-rare appearance at school, proudly carried home a giant jar of peanut butter a friend sourced from Costco for us.

You’ve never seen a happier transporter of peanut butter.

Another mostly ordinary week; Huff had some time off school as we try to work out what is going on with her breathing. She’s mostly fine, but occasionally needs to use a puffer: we are waiting to figure out what the issue is.

On Saturday, we surprised her with a trip to a dessert place she had seen on Mum’s instagram reels. She was very happy when she realised where we had taken her.

This was then compounded to a trip to the Rhodes fountain that is her current favourite place.

Oh, and the fairy floss place.

Sunday Dad was teaching Sunday School again, and then Dad and Puff went out for lunch. Here’s Puff showing off his latest 3D print, as he tries to work out how to make some kind of panel to go over the back of his hand. It’s great to see him figuring out how to do 3D printing in more detail.

Apart from that, and a catch-up with old friends on Saturday night, it’s been a fairly standard week, heading toward the next school holiday!

Lots of different activities this week – Huff’s school had a session for fathers and kids where they were offering pizza and paper plane making. It was good to meet some other Dads and see Huff in her element.

Friday night was the first night at youth group for Huff. Puff was happy to have his sister along too.

It was pretty dark, so this is the best photo Dad took of dropping them off.

Saturday was father-child day. Dad and Huff went to see a movie together.

On the way home we stopped for cookies.

At night, Mum and Huff watched some reels together.

What did Dad and Puff do for father-child time? Went to a shopping complex to look at new developments in tech, and in gaming. Both Dad and Puff enjoyed spending the low-key time together: something we used to take for granted years ago.

It’s been good to take some time spent with each of them and try and create some lasting memories together.