Category: week in review

It’s been a bit of a rainy school holiday week on and off. After a bunch of time playing inside, Mum took the kids on a public transport adventure. Despite their expressions in the photo, they enjoyed the bus ride and the train ride a lot.

There’s been a lot of colouring this week – Huff is getting into using the textas on her one-colouring-pattern-per-day desk calendar, and Puff continues to enjoy his Adam Spencer book.

Huff had a chance to sit on a motorbike this week, but – after it had been parked outside for a while – she found it was a bit too warm to be comfortable.

She cheered up later in the weekend, though.

Today there was climbing (Puff is climbing in the background) – it was encouraging to hear Puff spontaneously talk up Huff’s bravery at dinner time today.

It was finally hot enough for some water play.

And Puff had a great time on the giant inflatable thing at the pool, even trying out the rope swing at one point.

We also saw another movie (The Good Dinosaur) and had dinner out, but there weren’t really photos from that. Huff found the movie too scary, while Puff was okay with it.

Happy New Year! Another year of parenting begins. Lots of little things this week. An early-morning trip to the airport to see a friend off, followed by a cafe breakfast, followed by a photo-op in front of this driftwood horse before it was packed away for another year. Huff insisted on a photo in front of the horse.

Later in the day she was playing in the sandpit. She stayed in for quite a while, having a great time (and perhaps a little break from some of the bigger kids we were playing with).

On New Year’s Eve, we had a rare moment of cramming three kids into the back of our car so the cousins could spend some time together.

Back in Sydney, they managed to stay up late enough to see fireworks, but not late enough to talk about them afterward.

Huff is increasingly keen for one-on-one time with Dad, who had one day this week walking a couple of kilometres with each of them. It’s great to see the world through their eyes (even if losing the game of whose-species-of-bird-is-more-common on our walk can get a bit tedious). Huff in particular was keen to walk through what she’s dubbed “echo tunnel”, and wanted to walk on the dirt, spotting all the tree roots and birds along the way.

There was also a movie afternoon with a surprise extra family guest!

Huff continues to be a little obsessed with playing with her self-painted-Frozen themed dolls: at least this time they weren’t complaining about not being able to play because Dad was busy painting the remaining doll.

The kids were asked who was their favourite Peanuts movie character. Both picked Snoopy and Woodstock and then Huff added “and I liked the evil girl” (Lucy) because at the end there is (spoilers) a bit of character redemption.

We’ve had some family time together this week with Dad on leave, and so in addition to the extra time playing screens that go with the holidays, there have been various adventures with Dad. After a period of time playing Peasant’s Quest on the computer, Puff drew his first ever picture of Trogdor the Burninator. This could be the first dragon drawing that has made it onto this blog!

More of the week was spent preparing for different Christmas events. The kids decorated a gingerbread / shortbread house together. Huff is really the most interested decorator of the two, but they both contributed.

 After lunch at Grandma and Doc’s house, (we forgot to take a family photo), we stopped for afternoon tea at a friend’s place.

 Then before we knew it, it was Boxing Day, and time for lunch with another part of the family. When the kids weren’t having fun in the blow-up pool, they were playing with some of their gifts from the previous couple of days.

 There was some gardening to catch up on. Huff was keen to volunteer her services for some father-daughter time – she did a good job with the rake!

Each of the kids had received a gift from our next-door neighbour. Huff’s was a set of three plaster-of-paris Frozen dolls, and a bunch of paints. Dad helped with the colour mixing, and some touch-ups.

 Puff’s gift was a remote-control helicopter. Here we are on its maiden voyage (it flew wildly into the air, then stopped flying and dropped from a significant height, but looks like it can still fly… time will tell). According to the box, it’s for age 14+, so it might be a bit of a stretch. 

We celebrated the end of public holidays with a cafe trip. Huff is enjoying some of the colouring books that came her way over the Christmas period.

Overall, we were impressed with how the kids went through Christmas. Despite being given a huge number of gifts, they remained well behaved, polite and grateful, and have (for the most part) been patiently waiting for the right opportunity to play with them. It continues to be a joy to watch them growing up.

With all the Christmas celebrations, the kids have more access than usual to torches and glow-in-the-dark toys, which you’ll see in this week’s photos. Huff thought it was hilarious to put the candle-torch under her pyjama shirt, and to be fair, there’s a certain Iron Man aspect to it that works.

The exciting event for this week was the end-of-preschool disco. Huff had a necklace and bracelet to wear under the disco lighting.

There was a massive (20 min) queue for face-painting. Puff came along to the disco as well, and managed to persuade the poor face-painter that an Angry Bird was something she’d  be able to do. It’s odd to see Puff at pre-school, now that he’s finished another year of school. he seems too big for the place, but it seems like only yesterday he was there.

 Huff waited patiently in the face painting queue to get her rainbow. She was so happy with it that she slept with her face still painted, and wore a rainbow the next day as well!

The kids helped Mum with some shopping. They’re very patient.

Saturday, despite the heat, Puff was really keen to go for a walk with Dad. We ended up (after walking a few kilometres) getting cold drinks together. Puff was very glad to see his milkshake, and finished it (almost) in one go.

The kids (and Mum) had dentist appointments this week as well: there were some anxious moments, but no lasting bad memories, which is a tribute to modern dentistry.

Oh, and Huff was given a new pair of sunglasses.

Lots of other small events; we played Cluedo together as a family (Huff was bored fairly quickly, but still played for a while). We’ve been trying to make more time to do things together, and try and spend blocks of time offline – it gives the kids a lot more creativity and capacity to be observant, but there’s a lot of additional whinging. So it’s a trade-off.

Lots more end-of-year tasks at the moment. Huff was putting together Christmas ornaments and gifts for his friends.

Puff has finally reached the point in the school year where we get to see him perform his school drama. Here he is in costume as “Narrator 1” (there are 2 narrators in the play).

Huff decided that this toy would make a good beard.

Saturday morning we had a quiet day at home, and Dad finally retrieved and set up the Christmas tree. The kids decorated it.

Mum asked them to pose for a picture together. Puff has worked out how to minimise the height difference.

It was pretty late in the day will all the Christmas tree decorating, and we decided to go out for lunch. Puff was pretty hungry by the time we went out, so he was in a silly mood when we sat down.

Here is a brief time capsule of the kids at church morning tea, having some snacks.

After church we had the kids’ great uncle’s 70th birthday party.

After that, a violin performance by Puff, and then carols in the park. Huff sat in Dad’s lap to watch the fireworks – the first time she’s seen them in person.

Lots of final things. Dad took Huff down for her last day of preschool.

And then another carols evening. Thanks to Aunty S and Grandragon for braving the weather. And to Huff for being silly in front of the camera.

Only one more blog post until Christmas!

We’re getting into end-of-year concert season, and so there are heaps of reasons for us to be at school and preschool. Puff wore a tie for the first time this week (one of Dad’s ties). 

This was for a concert performance at school: the tie might (in hindsight) have been a bit long.

There have been a few late nights here and there: Huff makes up for it with the occasional nap, which – on awaking – she doesn’t admit to. I was just resting.

Sunday had the kids going to their grandmother’s work picnic day – a bus ride and a day at the beach. They had a great time.

Huff continues to pull strange faces when she knows the camera is on.

Huff ended up with a doll that can sing “twinkle twinkle little star”, and Puff ended up with a cricket set. It was Puff’s cricket set that was more fun, for both kids.

Huff had her preschool concert – 30 kids all singing songs and doing actions together. Grandragon and Aunty and Uncle and cousin E all came along to watch. She was keen to share her afternoon tea with Dad. 

Next step is to get the house ready for Christmas.

I’ve noticed there haven’t been many photos of Puff in the past few weeks, so I’ve been trying to correct that (while still trying to keep the technology away, so I can concentrate on being present for the kids). 

There have been some work commitments at the moment that have kept me in the office, so Mum has been overseeing a few things, like having Huff help with the green bean casserole for a friend’s thanksgiving dinner.

At the dinner there was a kids table, complete with colouring-in-friendly tablecloths.

Dad was a bit tired over the weekend after the time spent working in the garden, so there was a well-earned rest, and a chance to sample one of the cupcakes that the kids had made.

Saturday morning, Mum and Puff went out to try some zumbarons, and Dad and Huff stayed home. The original plan was to go out on an adventure, but Huff decided she wanted some time at home with Dad. We had a tea party of sorts; it ended up being a little intermediated by screens.

Meanwhile Puff was having his first couple of drops of cold drip coffee (he didn’t like it, but there’s still time for him to develop his palette).

 We spent some time on the weekend having lunch with friends, which ran so late we also had dinner out, in one of our old stomping grounds in Burwood – a turkish takeaway shop. The kids were their usual well-behaved selves for the day.

So here’s a photo of just Puff, thinking optimistically while waiting for dinner to arrive. 

Oh, and Huff is now in the habit of posing crazily for photos. 

Not many photos this week: it’s hard to tell if it is from a successful attempt to be more engaged with the kids (there were a couple of card / board game occasions this week with no screens), or just taking for granted the benefits of watching the kids run around.

Nonetheless, Dad took the kids for a bit of a walk on Saturday – we learned that regardless of the health benefits to the ducks, they’d rather eat bread than either apple slices or oats. Huff kept referring to our duck snacks as “bait” rather than “food” despite repeated correction.

Given the choice of walking along the footpath or take the bush track, the kids chose the bush track, and Huff was busily picking leaves as a bouquet to give Mum. Sadly the leaves didn’t make the full journey, but here they are captured.

Sunday we were at church and then a birthday party, and so Huff consented to wearing a dress for the day. She was a big fan, and was quite fond of twirling in the dress, at least for a while.

Puff had some maths adventures this week, tackling some tough problems with a mix of confidence and empathy for another kid who was struggling a bit; he’s also getting ready for an upcoming drama performance, so hopefully some more photos next week!

This week we took the kids out a few times; once to a sports club large enough that it has its own shuttle bus within the car park. The kids loved being driven around in the car park.

We stopped for dessert as well: the lady at the gelato place couldn’t believe how much Huff has grown.

There were some Christmas decorations, so we took the chance to get the kids in a photo together.

On Saturday we took a train into the city (despite the threatening weather) for breakfast and some family time. The kids were happy with the train journey (we played some distracting games in the train).

They were starting to tire after walking from Central to Pitt St Mall, so we rewarded them with some screen time while catching up with friends.

Oh, and this new thing happened – Huff is starting to ask her big brother for a piggy back, and he’s strong enough to do it, at least for a little while.

It’s great to watch them getting along well (when they do).

Another ordinary week has gone past. Dad was sick a few days this week, which mostly looked like resting for him, and some more sedentary activities for the kids. We watched Ratatouille together as a family: Huff found a lot of the first half quite scary, but started to enjoy it more in the second half.

We had a friend come over to watch a movie with us this week, so we had home-steamed dumplings. The kids were pretty excited about them.

Mum took Huff out for some Mum-daughter time after she sat patiently through some shopping activities.

Mum went to get a coffee, so Huff enjoyed every last drop of her babycino.

On Saturday, we went to have the kids’ eyes tested (there’s been some squinting and some complaints of headaches), and both are all clear! Huff probably enjoyed her test the most out of the two of them.

Afterwards, we had lunch together in a cafe. Not everyone was equally enthusiastic about the stop.

Huff is still small enough to go in the ergo-carrier, and was pretty excited upon waking from sleep to find she was riding on Mum’s back.

We visited one of the kids’ grandmothers on Friday, but didn’t really take pictures (Oops!). The kids also had a Sunday afternoon where they had their other grandmother to themselves.

Then for a special treat, we went to a place where the kids could ride on a golf cart to get to dinner. They were very excited.

We’ve had some time this week to reflect on the difference between academic development and social development. It continues to be a challenge to work out how the kids can move forward in different areas, but having a framework through which we can talk about it together as parents is helpful.