Category: week in review

Busy week. Mum had a last-minute chance to do something fun, and so Dad had the chance to take the kids for swimming lessons. Puff is getting ever stronger at his swimming, floating along and wanting to show off his backstroke.

Huff was full of beans having a babycino with Mum the next day.

On the weekend we went to a party for a friend’s combined birthday. Huff had a great time playing in a range of different contexts with lots of different kids. She doesn’t use the term “friends” for everyone she plays with, but even if she’s not prepared to make that commitment, she happily plays with other kids in a range of different games.

Puff had his wheelie shoes with him, and was (when he wasn’t playing ball games with a bunch of different kids) having fun walking across rocky terrain.

The party had a piñata for the kids to try and break. Huff was enthusiastic at trying to open it up. Once it had broken, the kids swarmed on enough candy to last them (we hope) a few weeks.

The kids had a chance to play with their cousin at the party, too!

The next day, Dad had a chance to walk to church with Puff (no photos taken), and in the afternoon, the kids went to a play centre with their Mum and grandmother, while Dad stayed back to do some work, and some long-neglected household chores.

Huff’s latest obsession is serving tiny cups of turkish apple tea. She is super excited to bring people these cups, and then offer top-ups.

Puff is getting more and more impressive with his wheelie skills, and his ability to solve different puzzles.

See you next week!

Lots of people and adventures this week. Huff and cousin E had a great time playing at a play centre, despite the anxiety in the photo.

Puff continues to adjust to life after losing another tooth: he’s now lost all his front teeth, which is giving him a new approach to eating certain types of foods.

Dad and Puff spent some one-on-one time together over the weekend, getting a haircut, and then playing chess again. He’s continuing to improve.

We caught up with Aunty S, who came over bearing gifts: new toy kangaroos, and a new book to read. They even played “collect the chicks” together, a game that Huff and Puff picked up again the next day, with the two kids playing against their toy kangaroos.

While Dad took Puff to a post-church birthday party, Mum and Huff headed into the city to get custard puffs (really, the train is enough of an adventure for her at the moment).

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for a weekend, we went up to the Central Coast to a friend’s farm, where they were having a bonfire. It was a chance for Huff to wear her Kitten Mittens again.

Puff had a great time toasting marshmallows and talking to other kids his own age, which was encouraging to see.

Huff, tired towards the end of our time in front of the bonfire, was happy to sit with Dad for a while and watch the flames.

The family went to the movies on Monday for a cheap ticket special on Home, and then Dad took Huff for a short walk afterwards to get a babycino. When we were waiting for the babycino to be made, and the barista offered her a marshmallow, she said “we toasted marshmallows at a bonfire the other day”, so it definitely made an impression!

Still a few night activities this week, despite the kids being a bit sick. Friday night was the night foodie markets. With Dad still commuting home, the kids had an early dinner before the queues picked up at the markets (Huff is eating dumplings, Puff is eating crepes). They were pretty happy with that, and then we went out to get Knafeh afterwards, with Dad.

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast with Grandragon for her birthday. The kids had a great time sharing the presents they’d made or recommended for her.

Though they really enjoyed playing in the park afterwards. Puff is probably reaching the edge of the physical challenges afforded by these kinds of playgrounds, and will be looking for fresh challenges. Huff is a bit anxious about trying new things, but having had a single success on a piece of equipment, she’ll go back and try it again and again. She still likes being pushed on the swings by her Dad, though.

Puff is getting to be quite the confident wheelie-rider (though he had a stack today, which dented his confidence a little). We had bit of a wait for food here, so Huff amused herself by pulling faces.

Puff ordered a giant milkshake here, which he managed to finish, impressively.

Later that day, while visiting his grandparents, Puff lost another tooth!

Then last night, cousin E was visiting, and stuck around for a couple of stories before bedtime.

We visited Doc for his birthday this week, and uncle J read stories to Huff. She has a big appetite for books at the moment, and is putting up with a few more questions than usual about what letters and words she might be seeing on the page.

Both kids were well enough to make it to swimming lessons at different times; Huff hit a milestone when she managed to jump in the pool (“Cannonball!”) and swim across in one go.

Puff has had a lot of coughing this week, so we kept him out of school on Friday; he managed to read a Roald Dahl book in about a day. 

The kids went for a walk with Dad on Saturday morning looking somewhat similar. They talked to everyone they saw who had a dog, so it was a fun adventure for them.

We also went to a putt-putt golf place as a family. It was Mombasa themed, with lots of African things. Huff made it to hole 11 before saying that she was bored.

After golf, we dropped Mum off so she could go to the EQUIP conference, and washed the car. Dad was only mildly sprayed with water while helping the kids wash the car.

After that, the kids were pretty tired, so we had a quiet evening at home. The next morning, Puff was ready in time to walk to church with Dad. We stopped very efficiently for a 1-minute duck feeding.

Huff had her cousin visit for church this week. They had fun together – as you can tell.

We stopped for lunch with Grandragon, Aunty C and Uncle J and cousin E, and after hours playing in the park, he wanted to walk back home. He made it another few kilometres.

Then this week, Puff had Musica Viva at school, so Huff went with a friend from preschool to go see it.

Huff is more and more confident at preschool – she loves the opportunities to be creative, and is enjoying exploring the world more.

And that’s about it for the week.

The competition is on between the local supermarkets. Huff was given this amazing face decoration for free as part of an in-store promotion. I would imagine this is a new attempt to leverage pester power from even the youngest kids.

Friday night was marshmallow roasting with a friend. The idea of the roasting seemed to be more fun than the actual roasting itself, but it’s still a favourite activity.

Dad had a chance to play Jenga blocks with Puff and Huff. Huff built these little houses – one for Mum, Dad and the two kids. “Dad has to go off to work in the big tower building for an important meeting, then go back home again”. It’s fun to see how her imagination plays out.

We went to Bicentennial park on Saturday to spend some time with friends.

Huff is loving her scooter at the moment, and Puff has been having a good time playing with his remote control car. We chalked out some paths, and he had to drive the car over them.

There was lots of photo-taking, including this photo with Dad, Huff and cousin E.

The kids were also playing with a cardboard box. Here’s Puff hiding in the box.

Huff was eating some jelly this afternoon (in fact, the kids were both tucking in to jelly as an after school snack). She’s starting to be able to recognise letters with increasing regularity, but despite that, she can navigate the video player on-screen like a pro.

Mum went out on Saturday with a friend, so Dad had the chance to spend several hours with the kids on Saturday. After a fairly slow start to the morning, Dad packed a satchel and headed out  for an adventure. First stop was the library. We borrowed some books, and then the kids played among the sculpture. 

By then it was lunchtime, and we went for lebanese pizza. The kids managed to persuade Dad to get them these juice blocks that come with toys underneath.

We then caught a train, did some shopping for Mother’s Day, and then went for a walk, fed some ducks, and then had to race back for a toilet stop. Huff wanted to pause for a photo at this sign.

And then insisted that her brother also stop for a photo. You can see the height difference between them.

Sunday was Mother’s Day with lots of messages being exchanged. Grandragon stayed overnight so she could be around for breakfast and morning church, then we went for lunch at Grandma’s house. Huff was sporting a new dress, made by Aunty C.

Puff received a gift from an uncle back from an overseas trip, and started reading about Hong Kong.

Dad paused during reading bedtime stories for a quick photo with Huff.

Puff also had his fun run this week – he had a good run – here he is stoping for a post-race drink.

See you next week!

At the risk of making a milestone out of each missing tooth, Puff lost another tooth this week – while brushing his teeth. It was a close call – it was nearly lost down the sink, but he caught it in time! 

The kids have been a little sick during the week, but we figured they were healthy enough to make the journey to the mountains on Saturday. As we had last year, we went to the apple orchard, had a look at the mountains from its lookout (Huff doesn’t think she’s been to the mountains until we look at a mountain from across a valley), and then, after a big lunch, we went to Katoomba to a second-hand bookshop.

Dad read some different stories to the kids, and we bought a few books.

Despite the weather, we also made a stop at the Leura candy shop. The kids were mostly well behaved, if a little distracted at times. Here’s Huff being a bit cheeky about which lollies she takes, and which she puts back.

Sunday had a chance to spend some time with her cousin over the weekend. The cot already seems very small.

Dad celebrated his birthday this week: the kids were really excited to think about presents to buy, how to decorate the house, and even created a treasure hunt around the house (with a spy pen) for presents. It was encouraging to see them channel their creativity into a show of affection.

What a rainy week! Lots of time indoors, and some extra screen time, and – once the rains finally stopped – a very excited little girl looking for puddles to jump in with her gumboots.

Her old umbrella was a casualty of poor construction so now she’s the proud owner of this bundle of dots.

We’ve been eating at home a bit more often; it’s even heading into dressing gown weather.

Friday night we went out to a night markets, where the kids luxuriated sitting on a concrete step for dinner (just out of frame was a weber filled with hot coals that gave us a few anxious moments).

We went straight from the relatively late Friday night to get up early for the Anzac dawn service. Puff had had his school Anzac service the day before, and was able to say “lest we forget” along with the assembled crowd, which was a little parenting milestone.

Later in the day we had an Italian pizza for lunch; the kids weren’t feeling very adventurous, so they had the cheese pizza half, but they really enjoyed it.

Huff fell asleep when we were driving, but Puff managed to stay awake for the whole day, with some judicious use of books to stay awake.

Continuing in the winter clothes pattern, we had Huff wearing this poncho to church on Sunday. After having a couple of weeks off, she was a bit unsure about going to Sunday School, but we persuaded her, and she was happy enough once it started.

Sunday night dinner was a bit low-key, with Dad steaming some prawn dumplings, and the kids pretty keen to watch some iView.

See you next week!

This week Huff received a new dress from her clever Aunty C.

At first, she wasn’t sure about the dress, but she grew to really like it.

Huff has an interesting relationship with clothes: often she doesn’t care about them at all, and will just wear whatever she’s asked, but on occasion, she has a strong opinion one way or the other. We’ve tried to give her a framework for understanding “beauty” that it’s about your actions: the way you treat other people, rather than how you look. The language we use in how she presents herself is more around looking “neat” – being appropriately dressed for the occasion. Sometimes this has worked well, and other times it leads to some arguments. For whatever reason, she doesn’t like being called a “princess”, and when we tried to figure out what she was unhappy about with the dress, it seemed to be that people would say they liked the dress. Once we told her that she could say “My clever Aunty C made this for me”, she was much happier about the situation, so it seemed to be more about having a way to navigate the social situation than anything to do with the dress itself.

Huff (and Puff) also had some time with their cousin. There’s some forced perspective in this photo – Huff is still taller.

With school term starting up this week, we had a new occurrence – Huff had her first day of preschool while Puff had a pupil free day, so he had the chance to spend a day with Mum. They had a great time, drinking hot chocolate together and Puff learning how to play marbles (a game he has quickly decided to teach his sister).

Puff is getting so tall now. We have been handing down some clothes from Puff to Huff, and it’s very odd to see her wearing something that we have clear memories of him wearing – Dad for one hasn’t come to terms with Puff’s increased size.

See you next week!

With Mum’s high school reunion a five hour drive away, Mum and Dad decided it was time to have a night away from the kids, and so Grandragon stepped in and looked after them for the weekend, so there are not as many photos as usual!

Here’s Huff helping with the pancake making.

Puff’s help on the pancake-making was more supervisory.

With Mum and Dad back, Dad was mostly straight back to work, and so has been trying to catch up with bedtime stories and morning chats. Mum took the kids out today, and their obsession with facepainting has moved to arm decoration. Huff had a flower, complete with glitter.

Puff had a puppy – he was keen to show it off when Dad was home.

Overall the kids had a fun day out.

There was also a catch-up with a whole bunch of families from the old youth group: the kids all managed to get along well, which was great!