Category: week in review

Last post before Puff turns seven! Where did the time go? Well, I guess this blog documents the weeks as they’ve gone by. But it really happens fast. The kids are – for the most part – getting on really well. In the mornings of late they’ve been playing lego together.

With Dad working on Saturday, Puff had a few friends and family members over for the weekend. Puff was keen to help out, cutting up some snacks all by himself.

He had a few people bring gifts: he was pretty excited to receive this Lego submarine. He had to wait until Dad was back to build it, but it was up and being played with before church the next day.

Huff and Puff’s cousin was also over, celebrating her own birthday.

New shirt.

On Sunday we went out for some family time, and some drawing. Huff and Mum worked on some team drawing efforts, which she was loving.

Puff had more a geometric and puzzle-solving bent to his drawing.

We had afternoon tea at Grandma and Doc’s house: Puff continued to hone his knife skills.

It was also book week for Huff at preschool. She was dressed as Bottomley Potts (from Hairy Maclary)

Mum also did a great job at some face-painting to finish off the costume.

After school, they had a mini-picnic on the porch.

Stay tuned for next week, and Puff’s book week costume.

Again not many photos this week. We managed to capture a few high points. Huff was being very helpful in Puff’s music class, and so was awarded a star sticker. She was very proud.

Huff was keen to ice her own cupcakes for no reason; we ended up sharing them out for church morning tea, where they were very well received.

It’s been a week with not too many photos taken of the kids – Mum and Dad had a date night somewhere in the mix, and were trying not to use our phones as much when we’re parenting. Not sure if this will be an ongoing trend, but it makes for more conversations.

Huff managed to find a face-painting place in a shopping centre, so she ended up with a very intricate picture of rainbows and butterflies and clouds.

On Saturday, Huff and Dad spent some time together while Puff went to a baking class. We went on a train ride together and walked over a kilometre to get to breakfast. We looked around at the Grounds together – they have animals, and fancy lemonade, and lots of things to look at.

After that (the wait for a table at The Grounds was an hour) we went to a different cafe, called the General.

Huff was working on a drawing competition from a magazine Dad bought her (all her favourite TV shows were in there).

Puff was working on drawing some different shapes and mathematical things.

On the way back to the car, the kids practiced their quiet walking so they could talk to a friendly cat.

On Monday, Huff’s preschool had their annual walkathon. Huff had fun walking the full course with her little friends.

One of the challenges with Huff is helping her understand that any differences between her and her (two and a half year older) brother are due to the age gap, and nothing to do with whether she’s a girl. As with lots of second children, she will pick something that’s not already of interest to the first child, and concentrate on that. As a result, she tends to under-estimate how much she can do in terms of letters and numbers. To try and counter that a little, she now has a watch, and is learning how to tell the time.

Dad went up to Katoomba for the newly relaunched Men’s Convention event called Basecamp, and Mum and the kids came to pick him up afterward. Mum was feeling a bit unwell, and so stayed in the car while Huff and Puff checked out the lookouts – it was not far from here that Dad proposed to Mum, many years ago!

On the way home we stopped at a pizza place that had pizza plates; the kids waited fairly patiently despite the lateness of the hour.

Tuesday was another busy day of running different errands: somehow Dad managed to have dinner with the kids in amongst everything. For years the kids have been having this one dish at a range of Vietnamese restaurants. We would make these rice paper rolls at the table, and they would eat them. This dinner was the first time that Huff and Puff insisted they make their own rolls.

They did a really great job.

We’re now working out the balance between homework and the other things Puff wants to do; there’s no perfect solution. But that’s a topic for another week.

Lots of late nights this week. Friday night was the induction service for our new minister, and due to some miscommunication, both kids ended up being awake much later than we had hoped.

On Saturday for some father-son time, we went for some robotics and programming. On the train-ride in, Puff was mostly reading his science book.

Once there, he had some fun playing with circuits and a bit of time playing on Dad’s phone – there’s still quite a bit for him to learn before he’s keen to try robot-making on his own, but it seems like he’ll get there.

Meanwhile, Mum and Huff spent some time with Mum’s side of the family. 

After a day out, Dad and Puff picked up Huff so Mum could have an evening at a church activity. Both kids were keen to have dinner out (despite the lateness of the hour) so we had Vietnamese food.

There were chocolate spring rolls available for dessert, but the kids weren’t particularly interested.

The next day we had church, and after that we went to a new cafe for lunch. The kids get along really well. Most of the time. They were a bit restless after a series of late nights, so after a visit to see Grandma and Doc, it was time to go home for an early night.

Next year, Huff will be starting school – she thought she would try on a schoolbag for size: it still dwarfs her.

Huff also made a little greeting card for Dad called “love Dad”. And some realistic looking planet drawings, complete with labels that she’d written for some of the planets. It’s great to have a daughter: she’s well on her way to becoming an Astronaut medic. 

Not many photos this week: we’ve been concentrating on being present with the kids. Saturday we did a quick run for coffee, and then spent the day with some of Dad’s old friends visiting us at our place. We managed a walk to the park – two Dads and six kids walking across the suburb to kick the football around. The kids lasted about two kicks before spotting the play equipment.

Sunday morning Puff wanted to spend some time with Dad, so we walked across the bridge and fed the ducks. We have worked out the timing of a walk to church pretty well.

Sunday afternoon it was Huff’s turn, so we made some pasta together. She still needs some more practice rolling the pastry with a rolling pin.

And then in the afternoon, Mum taught Puff how to play Carcassonne – his new favourite game.

It’s the end of the school holidays. With Dad working during the week, most of the activities that we photographed were left to the weekend. Friday morning, Puff was so keen to go with Dad to coffee mornings that he woke Mum and Dad up at 4:30 (much earlier than we asked).

We were up so early that we went for a walk on the way in.

The high-point for Puff was getting his own Opal card – he’s been asking for this public transport card for a long time.

He was so keen to keep using public transport that he and Dad caught a bus afterward, until Mum came to pick him up.

The next day, it was Huff’s turn for some solo-Dad time. We too caught the train, and organised an Opal card.

With our annual membership, we went into the Powerhouse museum for free. For the school holidays, they had something for kids called “Paper Planet”. We went in for a look, and it was great fun. There was lots of paper and masking tape, and it was a celebration of creativity. Huff wanted a pirate hat, so Dad and Huff collaborated on it.

With Paper Planet done, we explored some more of the museum – there was some cardboard building to be done.

After the museum, we headed back to swap parents around – Huff went with Mum, while Dad went to take Puff to a Star Wars birthday party. Afterwards, the newly public-transport-obsessed Puff wanted to catch a train with his pool-noodle light sabre. Huff was keen to have a go with it too.

The next day, after church, we headed in to the city again so everyone could try out paper planet on its last day.

Puff wanted to be a newly-minted super hero named “creepy cat”. He was really happy about it.

Huff eventually consented to some wings (after spending a lot of time delivering some carefully made envelopes).

They caught the train home together.

So we felt like we made the most of the weekend! See you next week.

It’s the school holidays, and to some extent the first holidays that Huff has really been aware of: she’s in a pattern of expecting to go to preschool, and she doesn’t have to go, and her brother is around. Puff is enjoying it. He’s big enough to have some opportunities in terms of activities – here he is at a holiday baking class.

We had a morning where Dad was able to be around, so we went to the park after a frantic trip to the Physio. Despite the cold weather, the kids have been consistently desperate to remove layers of clothing and run around like it’s summertime.

Huff is getting more and more into drawing: her current obsession is smiley butterflies of different colours. 

On Thursday night we had dinner with our friends from bible study. The kids had a great time playing whatever games they could get their hands on. Here they are trying to play battleship together.

Saturday Dad needed to go to the physio, and then after that we went down to the Science centre and Planetarium in Wollongong. The kids had a great time with science experiments, and then we whisked them home again to get some rest.

Sunday we went to our old church in the morning and caught up with some people, then went to the zoo. Huff’s favourite thing about the zoo was the slide near the lemur enclosure.

We stopped near the elephants for a family photo, which the kids were not too interested in.

Puff was really keen to see the fishing cat – this is an animal he’s passionate enough about to want to sponsor it. 

It took a while, but we found the cat eventually, and watched it run around for a while. No fishing, though.

We also came back to the penguin statue area, to find that Puff is now taller than the emperor penguin and that Huff is bigger than the king penguin.

It’s a bit of a milestone for both of them!

The next day was a day off work for Dad, to have some family time after a busy period at work. After a quiet morning, we went for a walk to the library. Walking with the kids is one of Dad’s favourite things.

Monday night, while Puff went to bingo with Mum, Huff stayed home to make pasta with Dad. It was a great time – she was keen to try all aspects of working with the pasta dough, hanging it up, and then it was time to eat, and watch videos about making pasta.

See you next week!

Dad had a busy week with work, the end of several busy weeks at work; and so had some extra time to spend with the kids this week.

Meanwhile, Mum took Huff shopping, where she spied a Minions poster. Huff is a big fan of the minions, as you can tell.

The kids were blowing bubbles in the morning before school; this week Puff had “historical games” at school, which were (in many cases) just games that Mum and Dad played when they were at school: it’s an easy way to feel old!

Friday morning was parent/teacher interview time, and Friday evening Huff had her first girls-only birthday party to go to (with Mum in tow), so Dad and Puff went out to play Putt Putt golf. We had the whole course to ourselves, and the course allows people to play another game for free. We played 3 games in total. Puff was having multiple attempts at some of the holes, and managed to beat Dad in one of his games. It was good to see his confidence pick up, even if it was probably a bit too long to be playing.

After Putt Putt, it was time to reprise an old photo experience, going back to a previously visited pizza place. Puff was – as you can probably tell – pretty tired, but glad to have some time with Dad.

The next morning we caught up with one of Dad’s old school friends and his family. The girls in particular were fast friends, but all the kids had a great time exploring Fagan park.

Huff and Puff both really liked the ducks (and the eels) and we learned about the amazing hydrophobic properties of nasturtium leaves.

After that, we went to a friend’s house for a 40th birthday party, and so by the end of that, the kids were pretty well exhausted. They both – for once – fell asleep in the car. Puff was probably first to sleep.

Huff managed to stare out the window for a while before giving in.

The next day, after church, we headed into the city to make the most of family fun day. We caught a train and a tram to the fish markets.

The kids wanted to pretend to be on a tram as well. Mum helped.

On the way back, we stopped for ice cream at a place called Aqua S. The kids liked the odd take on ice cream that they have there.

The next day was the first of the holidays. Dad had to head off to work, but the kids walked him to the station.

The kids had their first official visit to the dentist, assisted by Dr Bunny. Puff was excited to have the full cleaning process, and not to suffer any of the queasiness from fluoride that Dad suffers.

Huff assured me in the evening that Dr Bunny was very helpful, but she was “just a toy”. She talked happily about the “buzzy bee” toothbrush that was used to clean her teeth, and the “blue stuff” (fluoride). Overall, a very positive experience.

More next week!

Dad has been spending more time than usual at work, getting ready for a website launch, and so it’s been bursts of high-quality time, rather than the preferred quantity time on offer. Mum and the kids picked up Dad on Friday night and we went out for dinner – the kids tried a range of different dips.

The next morning, Puff wanted to mix and cook pancakes, so we made that happen. Huff helped a little bit, and ultimately Dad finished off the cooking, but it was a heroic start.

Dad took the kids out for a while: we went to the library, and the kids wandered through a sculpture afterwards, as is their custom. There’s something about arriving at a library 7 minutes before it closes that wonderfully concentrates the mind.

Dad had some one-on-one time with Huff as well; we played a lot in this playground. Well, Huff played: Dad watched and offered encouragement. She wasn’t sure about sliding down the roof of this climbing equipment, but once she’d had one successful attempt, she was keen to keep trying it.

We stopped for hot chocolates, and her favourite: catching a train. As the train pulled in, a pigeon flew alongside the train on the platform, and then walked into the carriage we were in. Hilarity ensued. Dad also let Huff play a jigsaw puzzle game on his phone: it was just the right mix of challenging but achievable – she was really delighted with her success in putting the pieces together.

Dad was getting some more work done over the weekend, but there was still some time to play PhotoBooth on the laptop, and also to watch a particular lullaby video.

 Sunday morning before church the kids wanted to play board games, so we played Tsuro together as a family. Dad bravely threw himself off the board so the kids could keep playing, but it was Mum who won the day.

 Monday night Dad was out, and Huff decided to see if she could look at her brain. She’s been experimenting with pulling different faces.

 Puff thought he would try too.

 Mum may also have tried, but we’re out of space for this week. See you next week!