Category: week in review

This week Puff had a couple of dress-up days at preschool. He decided he wanted to be a green cat, and so Mum made him a costume, and even painted his face for one of the two days! Here he is with the trial run face paint on. He looks serious, but he was having a great time.

After work a couple of nights this week we went out to eat. They kids were pretty tired, but dessert made it all worthwhile (for them at least).

Huff and Puff had a cupcake and a babycino each while spending time with their friends.

Puff’s performance in swimming lessons has picked up a lot with the addition of goggles to his swimming gear. Huff is jealous, but there are no pairs of goggles small enough to wrap tightly around her head!

On Friday night Mum went into the city to meet some work people, so Dad took over the parenting for a little while. We looked at fish, and ate pizza and gelato, and generally had a great time.

The place we were eating had a big TV above the table. Huff managed to give the impression that she was listening (and even spent a lot of time eating her dinner). Here she is hamming it up.

Puff was rather less subtle in his TV watching.

We had so much fun on Friday night that we went out again in the morning while Mum had a sleep-in.

Sunday was the end of daylight savings. The kids slept in, but it still wasn’t enough for Huff – she fell asleep in her Dad’s lap while he read her “the 11th hour”.

Tuesday night saw us eat dinner out. Afterwards, we played a bit of family air hockey, girls vs boys. Girls won – here’s their victory dance. 

Huff is creating more and more sentences, but we still struggle to understand the individual words that she’s using for some things (e.g. “manooes” for “my shoes”).

See you next week!

Biggest news of the week: Huff’s first pair of shoes. She loves them. Insists on wearing socks with them. Was upset to realise that she would need to wear a different pair of socks the next day. After a couple of days, we were able to get her to prefix “ooze” with a “sh” sound so that we could tell what she was talking about.

Another high point was a visit to a friend’s house to catch up with some mutual old friends. The kids argued about which toys they would play with, and then settled in for some pretending-to-be-train-drivers action, despite the carpet. They had a great time.

Perhaps the driving force for deciding to get shoes for Huff was the Easter Show. We went on Easter Saturday, took public transport, and arrived just before 9am. First stop was the chicken pavilion, then we queued up for the farmyard nursery. Puff had a great time feeding the animals.

Significantly shorter Huff was a bit stressed out when she was surrounded by goats who were all eager to eat the food she was holding. Dad went in to rescue her, and some other animals came along for a feed.

Later, we went to see a shearing demonstration. This is what you get when asking them to say “Baa!”

Puff managed to be in the right spot in the crowd so that he could make it on stage to try out shearing a sheep.

One other high point for Puff was getting this bubble machine.

Easter Sunday we had a miniature easter egg hunt in the backyard. It’s a fine balance between hiding in plain sight, and sufficiently challenging, but Dad managed to do a good job.

There was one last egg that they had especial trouble with.

Church on Sunday was a chance for Puff to help out with the kids talk, while Huff watched, fascinated.

Later that day, we made a trip to Grind. Huff was sleeping, so Puff had his, and his sister’s babycinos.

Other events

• visiting aunts, uncles, and grandparents
• catching up with Uncle M

Oddly we’ve reached the end of this week with not much photographic evidence. The kids are coming along in leaps and bounds with their swimming lessons. In much the same way that they interact with the concept of a bath or a shower, despising the very idea at first and then, once in, refusing to get out. Puff was swimming for long enough that Mum needed a sustaining beverage in the midst of her lifeguard duties.

We reached another milestone in family gardening, retrieving the first cob of corn (note the gardening gloves he insisted on wearing) after the epic planting session at the end of last year. Puff was very excited to have picked the corn, but found it a bit too chewy for his tastes. Dad was just impressed to have kept a plant alive long enough to be able to eat something that tasted like the originally planted foodstuff.

Huff had a very relaxed week – both the kids took the opportunity this week to catch up on sleep.

We managed to have at least one dinner out. Here are the kids checking out the fish in the fish pond. In something of a first, they decided they were too tired for dessert, so we went home at the end of dinner.

Huff continues walking everywhere she can, talking in long sentences describing what’s happening and what she’d like. Puff and Huff are still getting along well for the most part – they occasionally have disagreements about how things should be done, and we’ve had to say “X don’t antagonise Y” more times than usual this week. Hoping that they’ll settle down now that our travelling is done for a while.

A few funny photos this week – the kids thought that it would be fun to make some arrowroot biscuit faces and take them into Dad’s work, so they had some fun with some of the lollies.

This is a little chilling, should it be a precursor to dental bills of the future.

This one is a bit more fun.

The kids love playing together. They bounce between playing together and exploring a space independently. Here they are at a water park.

It might look like we’re not immune from the secular celebration of Easter: the kids have been wearing a couple of different sets of rabbit ears this week, and pretending to be bunnies. Puff is big enough to actually jump when he’s pretending to be a rabbit. Huff is cute, copying the crouching down and trying to jump, and then standing up again.

On the weekend, we drove down to Canberra to see friends. There was a bit of a harmonica duet for some of the trip.

You can get a sense of how Huff looks to her big brother to work out how the duet is going to go.

Down in Canberra, there was time for Dad to read to Puff (and our friends’ kids some of the time)

After the other kids had gone to bed, Huff and Puff had a bit of a late night. They were happy to watch Peppa Pig and play Enigmo respectively, but if we had our time over, we would have put them to bed earlier.

The next day we went to look at the national arboretum. There was a natural amphitheatre that was covered in grass, and Dad ran up and down the hill a couple of times with Huff.

Between that and the late night, she slept for most of Sunday afternoon, and most of the drive home.

Huff was a bit sick Sunday afternoon, but bounced back again after a good night’s sleep. Here she is making up her own game with the percussion instrument toy that Puff was using in a more traditional way.

This week saw us make a sad trip up to Queensland for the great-grandragon’s funeral, which has led us to a number of complex questions from Puff to try and answer. We’re doing the best we can, but you never know what will be next!

The kids have been going to Kindermusik for so long that Huff is now running around to the dusting song that Dad clearly remembers being something that Puff was singing when Huff was a newborn.

For the Queensland trip we hired the largest car yet (an 8-seater)! Thanks to Aunty C and uncle J for their help with the kids, and to H and her family for hosting us. While we organised the baby seat and booster seat, an unexpected person took the wheel (don’t worry; the car was parked and the keys were nowhere near the front of the car).

A brief pause in the midst of a sad week to talk about a few of the other things that happened this week. Dad has been spending more time reading to Huff, and she has a few favourite books that she never seems to tire of hearing.

Somewhat more troubling is that her most complex sentence constructions to date have been “[huff] watch peppa pig on iPad mini” – a little more commercial than we might have hoped.

A trip to the Zumbo lab this week afforded Puff a chance to meet one of his favourite chefs. There was even time for a photo (he impressed his parents by refusing the offer of a macaron,  as “he’d already had two” and “too much sugar makes me crazy”).

Saturday was a chance to celebrate Uncle J’s birthday. We had a party in a backyard, and the kids had a great time playing around, despite the rain: they were under some tarps, and could run around.

Puff had been feeling a bit unwell, but managed to stay healthy almost the whole day, and then, right around dinner time, started to relapse and get a temperature.

As a result, Sunday was a quiet day, at home for the most part. Huff had some fun with her Mr Potato Head sets. She knows the names of the various things that she can add to the potato but suddenly decided that the glasses were about the right size for her.

Puff was a little too sick for pre-school, but still managed a few quiet outings, including one to a little arcade.

Huff is getting more involved in nightly prayers, filling in some of the words, and enjoying it, as far as Dad can tell.

This coming week we have a short interstate trip for Great Grandragon’s funeral. Vale Nan.

Dad took some time to grab the DSLR camera and make sure we had an updated picture of the two kids. It’s good to see them getting along well.

On Friday, Dad took the kids to swimming lessons for the first time. It was less stressful than he thought it would be. They are making some good progress being safer and more confident in the water.

After swimming lessons, we went for babycinos.

And then to the park to play. It was good to see them both exploring the playground and having fun. Sometimes Dad was included in the games, sometimes they were just trying out different things on the pieces of equipment – they were even kicking a ball around a little.

After the playground we went to a friend’s place for dinner. The kids had rainbow piñata cookies for dessert, which they were pretty excited about.

Saturday was very rainy. Dad was tired from sermon preparation, so Mum took the kids out to a play centre. They ran around for a long while – it was a very sweaty time for them, and then they both slept in the car for a couple of hours.

In the evening we drove through the fog to Aunty C and Uncle J’s house, and Huff and Puff had some fun drawing with chalk. Huff would draw a couple of lines, and then said “two [s]nakes”.

Sunday was a church day. Church in the morning, then church lunch afterwards, and then we headed down to Cronulla for a coffee.

Today, Mum brought Huff in to Dad’s work to have lunch. Huff (who had already eaten) had a great lunch break sitting on the table with her giant babycino while Mum and Dad ate.

Another week, another couple of family birthdays. Uncle J and Aunty S both hit new milestones, and – though we spent time with both of them – we don’t have photos of the events that work for the blog.

Instead, more musing about how much the kids have grown up. Here is Puff, fresh back from his latest Kindermusik class. He’s getting to be really quite tall.

Here’s a picture he drew of Dad this week. Dad was especially pleased with the little features – like the beard. Amazing what he’s capable of doing now.

And here’s Dad and Puff back from a trip to the barber to get haircuts.

Now that Puff is at pre-school, Mum and Huff get to spend more time together. Here is Huff at a recent IKEA trip, trying out the furniture.

On Friday night Mum brought a late-napping Huff and Puff to meet Dad at the train station. We all went out for dinner, and then walked and strollered back home. Here are the kids, looking very cool in their sunglasses.

Saturday afternoon, after seeing uncle J for his birthday, and playing in the playground at Cronulla, we went to the beach at Kernell: it was a great spot to take the kids, and they had a great time splashing in the water and playing with the sand. 

One last anecdote for the week. Puff and Huff have been playing a few times this week with these toys – they have a bunch of little fruits and vegetables, and they play at making pies. Puff pretends to cut up the vegetables with a toy knife, and keeps the toy knife away from his sister, as she’s not old enough to use a pretend knife. Huff for the most part is happy with this state of affairs.

Happy birthday to our little girl – who’s turned (if you ask her) 2 weeks old this last week. In fact, it’s more like 2 years, but there’s not necessarily any telling her. She’s drifting back to referring to herself by her full name, and certainly throws in the possessive S at the end of the short version of her name when she’s talking about things like presents.

Mum was out on Friday night, so Dad took the kids out to a play centre for dinner and a run around. In contrast to the last time we went there, Huff was more confident exploring and playing on some of the smaller equipment, but a little anxious about the bigger equipment – she wouldn’t go on the bouncing castle, even with Dad.

We had gelato for dessert, but the kids were far too tired to get the most out of it. 

We had a little gathering at a park for Huff’s birthday. Here are the two siblings reading Huff’s book presents.

Despite a whole playground to choose from, Huff’s favourite thing, when Dad wasn’t carrying her, was to scoop wood chips up onto this shelf.

Sunday we visited some friends who are about to move overseas – the kids were given skateboards to grow into. Puff was very keen to try it out.

Monday night, Dad went to the dentist after work, so we ate dinner out as a family. Can you tell if there was a TV in the room we ate in?

On the eve of Huff’s birthday, Dad was overcome by a sense of how quickly the years were going. It seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, but it’s already been two years: she can walk, and tell us what she wants much of the time: she makes us laugh with the way she sees the world sometimes.

Only a couple of days until Huff turns two: it’s a cliche, but where does the time go? An unexpected theme of this week has been the kids laying down. Perhaps the tiredness of previous weeks is catching up with them.

Mum bought Huff a little backpack, to match Puff’s backpack. She loves it, and regularly asks to have things out of it (usually snacks). This expression of hers reminds me of her tendency to keep looking for her big brother. While he slept during a car trip, she kept telling Mum that he was asleep before finally giving in herself.

The kids also started swimming lessons this week (yes, long overdue). Puff took to it fairly naturally, and Huff was okay playing in the water, and ultimately doing a little bit of pre-swimming with the teacher.

Sunday was another trip to Marrickville markets – Dad called in solo to a cafe that he and Puff had visited the week before, and they asked where “the boss” was. After that, with Huff asleep, Puff and Dad went to Blaxland riverside park for some running, sliding and climbing.

Puff was reasonably confident on the rope bridge, pausing occasionally. Puff and Dad climbed to the top of the “cubby house” together, but then he needed help being carried down each step. As it turned out, this wasn’t a problem for him, as he then did the whole thing by himself!

Once Huff woke up again, she was keen to try out some of the equipment. Dad took her on the slide, and she had a great time.

When Puff came home from pre-school, he and Huff spent some time pretending to sleep. This is a pretty good indicator of how well they play together these days.

Next time, some coverage of how we celebrate Huff’s birthday.