Category: week in review

A few adventures to report on from this week. Mum and Dad had lunch with Huff while Puff was at school: she was playing with an old phone, and started taking photos of coffee: I have a feeling Dad’s hobby might have advanced to the next generation.

Huff went with Mum to the dentist. She officially has 20 teeth.

Puff went with Dad to a cafe on our way to a friend’s house. He picked a cupcake based on looks, not realising the tiny stars were made of fondant. Dad had to finish the cupcake for him.

At the friend’s house, Huff played with an excellent kitchen-and-tea-party set, which she enjoyed a lot (Dad may have stacked the cupcakes in this multi-layered presentation).

On Sunday Dad and Puff went on an epic walk, including slurpees. Warning: if trying the pop rocks that go with slurpees, they will probably jump back out of the cup – keep your eyes clear of the danger zone!

Out shopping with Mum, Huff almost lost her lunch to a new feathered friend, and then asked if we could get one as a pet. 

Overall it was a good week for counting our blessings, and enjoying family time together wherever possible. We even met a new baby (though oddly, we have no photos: it’s someone else’s news.

We spent some time outdoors this week. A fairly traditional normal week, and then the weekend we had a birthday party, and then – with the car not behaving as well as we’d hoped – we resorted to some public transport and some walking to get to and from church.

We start with a birthday party for a friend: Dad and the friend’s Dad went to school together: it was good to catch up, and see how much everyone had grown. Huff’s favourite thing was blowing bubbles around the place (she was much smaller than most of the kids there).

One of the games, in pairs, was to see who could wrap someone in toilet paper the fastest. Huff gave up after a while, saying “this is boring”, and Puff was relatively co-operative, but there were still some technical problems. Points to Mum for suggesting a stick in the middle of the toilet roll would help the unrolling process go much quicker.

Sunday morning Dad made pancakes, and then he caught the train (one station) to church with the kids. The extra pancakes were a welcome surprise.

We all walked home again afterwards, taking a bit of a bush track some of the way. Mum was full of lessons about various plants and other things Dad knows little about, and the kids were soaking up the knowledge.

We saw this sign near the end of the trail, and it seemed an appropriate spot for a family photo.

This week has slowed down: Dad was sick for about half the week, but there were a few things we managed to fit in.

We’ve picked up some rosin for Puff’s bow, so he’s been spontaneously practicing a few times this week.

Saturday morning Dad was feeling better, so he took the kids for a walk from one suburb to another: we’ve driven past the pathway a few times, and the kids remember the walk!

From there we headed south to visit some relatives and see their new place – they have a lot of autumn trees, and the kids were enjoying some time playing in the leaves.

This one is a bit staged, but it was worth slowing Huff down enough to snap a picture of her face.

Saturday night we visited Grandma and Doc’s house briefly, and Puff saw his uncle working on a motor bike – he was impressed with the complexity.

Saturday night Dad and Puff took Doc out to the Sydney Observatory  – we had a great time learning about the universe.

We walked back through the Vivid festival, but there were so many people taking photos that it was hard to stay around for any length of time, but Puff enjoyed it.

Week 300! It’s been a long time of blogging about the kids: everyone has been a bit sick this week in different ways.

We had dinner out one night with the kids mostly trying dips: Huff had been randomly throwing up (“spilling”) during the week, with no other symptoms, and seems to have stopped now.

Puff continues to stretch his skills out with loom bands.

Friday night we went to see the vivid festival, though we brought our own glow sticks.

There wasn’t as much for kids to interact with as previous years, but they had a good time.

Dad took Huff through a blue tunnel of light that was testing the forward-facing camera of the phone to its limits!

And Puff didn’t manage to stay up as late as Huff, after a week of school.

We have Peppa Pig to thank for Huff’s enthusiasm for puddles – she was excited to be able to play outside after church in a selection of puddles.

Visiting Doc for his birthday, Huff had a chance to try on O’s helmet. It’s still a bit too big, but she loved it.

We’re hoping that next week will be less impacted by sickness.

A bit of a week for selfies. The struggles of weaning Puff in particular off the screens continue, but the kids play together so much better with the screens out of the picture. It’s great to listen to them (and watch them) playing together in a generous, considerate way, though that only makes up a fraction of the week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday Dad had some time off work: there was a cafe visit where he and Huff snapped this picture.

There was some time one morning watching videos in the early morning, so Puff was still wearing pyjamas. In the background you can see the Mother’s Day flower he made for Mum.

We visited Grandragon to help with a few things. The kids enjoyed some time running around.

On Sunday Dad was helping out with church youth group, but we still had a window of time for a lunch out as a family. It was fun reading some stories to Huff, who paused here for a drink of water (in a glass).

Puff just reads his own stories now, though on occasion he’ll still sit and be read to.

And a couple of food-in-trolley shots. Huff testing out some (cooked tuna) sushi.

And Huff, very much just testing the waters with this giant dessert.

Puff and Dad walked to church together on Sunday. The conversation was mostly about video games, with some brief sidebar conversations on other topics.

See you next  week!

A sad week this week with Mum attending a funeral for a friend and an Aunt in hospital for most of the week. We managed to fit in a few happy things as well. Mum and Huff visited and old friend and a new friend respectively.

We thought that it wasn’t going to help to have the kids attend the funeral, so Dad spent the day looking after the kids. There was the school run, Huff’s Kindermusik class, a trip to the library, some time at the park, but we managed to fit in a quick coffee break.

Friday night after work we went out for dinner – we were hoping for a Japanese restaurant, but ended up having some delicious pizza instead. Afterwards, we took the kids to Enmore for Gelato. Huff was dancing to the music there, which was very cute.

Saturday we had breakfast together then went down to Wollongong so Mum could visit Aunty C. Dad took the kids out for a run around in the park, then up and down a big hill. It should be noted that she wasn’t a  fan of the static electricity zaps from the playground in Wollongong, refusing to go back on the slide after a while.

They were very resilient, but were soon asleep in the car.

The next day, after a big week of late nights, Dad had a rest at home while Mum took the kids back for another visit. It ended up being another time of playing the screens.

Huff is building up her personality and confidence – she’s learning how to jump, and even play on a trampoline: not sure quite what happened to her hair, though. 

One last photo: Huff cuddling with Mum while waiting for the school pick-up.

A bit of a quiet week in terms of photos. Puff had his follow-up visit with the specialist after his tonsillectomy: all clear. Lots of conversations about video games still, and trying to broaden the topics of conversation that are on offer, but always good to spend time with him.

Saturday morning we put the different mums together for an early Mother’s Day celebration.

Huff was the flower girl of sorts for the occasion. On the way home, after bumping into J&C at a cafe, Puff and Dad ran and walked over the Sea Cliff bridge, which was lots of fun. Huff, who had walked over the bridge with Dad before, knew it was not her turn, and was philosophical about it.

On Sunday, after visiting Grandma and Doc for Mother’s Day, we had just enough time left to have a go at flying a kite. It did not fly, but we had fun trying.

 

Huff also visited Dad at work, and stopped in for one of the largest babycini I’ve seen yet. 

See you next week!
 

Back at school again now, and getting used to a different pace of life. Also, it was Dad’s birthday this week, so we had some birthday celebrations. 

Huff came into the city with Mum and Dad for a quick coffee. They had some cool tables that made her look like she was floating. She was watching a TV loop of old DC super heroes with no sound – it was very compelling.

Puff’s obsession with video games continues, but we’re trying to channel it into more analogue pursuits, so we came up with some other games he could play instead. Here he is playing the Monty Hall game with Dad.

Huff spent some of that time enjoying cuddles with Mum.

On Dad’s birthday, we headed to the Blue Mountains. First stop was a cafe in Glenbrook Dad had wanted to visit for a while. They had an outdoor playground, and a couple of outdoor cages where we could see roosters, chickens and piglets.

For lunch, we went to Blackheath and Dad had soup. The kids also had soup. Dad’s soup.

After lunch, we went to a nearby park where there were a lot of autumn leaves.

After being in Glenbrook and Blackheath, Huff asked when we were going to get to the mountains. When we asked her, she wanted to see “rock on top of stone”. We took her to a look out, and she finally understood we were in the mountains.

We went to an Apple orchard, and the kids picked an apple each. They were pretty excited about it.

One last thing. Puff had his school cross-country (a 500m fun run), and had a great time running, though he was pretty keen to have his ice block after the race.

We’ve had some challenges with the kids getting used to the cooler temperatures, and being up in the middle of the night. We’ve given Huff a sleeping bag to sleep in, and had to coax Puff back to sleep a few times, but it seems to be settling down.

Puff has bounced back from his tonsillectomy, at least enough to be able to go to school for the first day of term 2, so we’re getting to the end of that chapter. All we have to show for it is a doctor’s bill, and a freezer full of lemonade ice blocks.

We ventured out of the house a little more often in the second week of the holidays. Huff wore her dress with the fairy wings on the back of it, which she identified on sight as fairy wings, and enjoyed wearing the whole day.

Puff and Huff both have their own ways of expressing themselves in chalk. From the “happy easter” method below, Puff went on to draw representations of various iPad games he’s been playing in the last week.

We also went out to dinner at a friend’s house. Huff enjoyed playing with their cats.

And lately she’s been quite interested in taking photos: they’re not necessarily selfies, but she is very fast on the capture button, taking as many as 30 copies of the same photo before we can stop her!

The above photo-of-photo-taking was in our quick refreshment break before the kids saw the LEGO movie (with Mum and Dad). Everyone enjoyed it, though Huff pronounced it “a bit scary, but not scary at the end”, and Puff noticed a few scary parts, but coped pretty well.

We found this promotional sticker in a phone booth, and stopped for a couple of pictures:

After the movie, and a lot of singing “everything is awesome”, which Huff had understood to be “everything is awesome, when you want to be be part of a team”, we went home to play LEGO.

The next day Dad was back to work, but Puff had a day off school, so everyone came in for lunch. We went to a place that had a table-top video game, which – despite a forthcoming supply of coins – both kids wanted to play.

The kids have also been enjoying some reheated soup, only noteworthy here because Dad cooked the soup.

It’s been a very quiet week; we’ve been taking it easy for the most part, trying to let Puff recover from last week’s tonsillectomy.

Dad took Huff to church on Good Friday; she spent the majority of the time drawing.

There has been a lot of screen time this week. Here’s Dad playing Peppa Pig swimming race with Huff and Puff.

On Saturday Dad and Huff headed out on a train for an adventure together. Huff spent a lot of time asleep in the ergo carrier, but when she was awake we had a good time.

When Dad was younger, his Mum used to take him into the city, and we’d come home with a new book, so Dad thought he’d try this out with Huff. She spotted this Octonauts cushion. We ended up with an Octonaut book for the trip home (which we read three times on the way home).

While we were waiting for the train, Huff took a lot of photos of other trains, and this “selfie”.

After that adventure, we settled in for much of the Easter weekend (though we saw Grandma and Doc on Easer Sunday after a quiet rip to church) – Huff was a fan of the eggs.

We managed to fit in a trip out to see Grandragon and Bandit.

Today we took a bit of a trip out of the house. Puff tried to have some hot chocolate, but Dad ended up going off in search of an ice block for him instead.

Hoping that by the end of next week, everyone is back to normal.