Huff is 12 weeks old! It’s all gone so quickly, despite this week being unusually rainy, with lots more time spent indoors than we would have liked. She’s still sleeping well (though she’s in the middle of a course of eye drops at the moment), and is interested in her surroundings, spending more time awake and looking around.
On Sunday, Mum looked like she needed some extra sleep, so after an early morning feed for Huff, Dad took Puff and Huff out for breakfast. It’s a big expedition to leave the house with two kids – stroller, sling, snack pack, nappy change mat (with two set of nappies), a bib for Huff and making sure that everyone has enough clothes for the temperature or any change of temperature, but Dad figured it all out without waking Mum to ask questions.
Dad had to take an umbrella to work, and Puff, saying “U is for umbrella” ran back inside to get a letter U. He knows how to spell an ever-increasing number of words, and has started to guess which letter a word starts with, based on how it sounds (he guessed that “oregano” started with an “R”).
On Saturday we went to a friend’s birthday party, and there was face painting. After a very brief period of decision making, he opted for a “slinky malinki cat”.
He wasn’t a big fan of playing with the other kids (being a 5 year old party, a lot of the kids were bigger than him, which he always finds off-putting. He seemed happiest playing in the cubby-house with the kitchen things, where he was pretend-cooking a variety of meals that Dad and Puff have prepared before.
On Sunday we all went out for yum-cha: Puff’s favourite was the calamari, which he ate a lot of, without any prompting.
Happy Easter, and Anzac Day. It’s been an interesting week – five days off work and study, so lots of family time. We’ve tried to balance some day trips to different places, and ended up with an overtired and sniffly Puff needing some downtime to recover. He spent today at home, and was in bed asleep before 7pm. Hoping he gets better – there are only so many times you can wipe someone’s nose before it starts to be sore just from the wiping!
Huff is 11 weeks old now, and is definitely interested in spending more of her time in between feeds looking around at her surroundings. She continues to sleep long hours at night, and then in the day when she wakes up she’ll cry in her hammock, but be perfectly happy sitting in a bouncer where she can see family life unfolding.
Obviously she has other facial expressions than just smiling, but that’s the one that we keep seeking after.
We went to visit E&O over the weekend, and had a chance to put Huff and Puff down on a mat with them for a photo – yes, it was a bit staged, but they seemed to enjoy the attention!
After church on Good Friday we headed up to see J&M at Katoomba. The traffic was worse than I’ve ever seen it, and we had to stop and feed Huff – in the end, a 2-hour drive took around 4 hours. We paused at Lawson for a rest break, and Puff enjoyed running around in the autumn leaves.
Once we finally arrived up there, we had a chance to catch up with our friends and their 4 kids – and Puff watched part of Stuart Little 2 with them.
It was a very late night by the time we made it home, and we decanted a very sleepy Puff into bed around 9:30pm, but then he was up again around 6:30 the next morning – very inconvenient for trying to sleep!
Saturday was a trip to Mittagong to see T&R. We drove down for lunch, and stayed for the afternoon – Puff shared cupcakes with E that we bought at Colo Vale markets
Sunday was a bit quieter. In the morning we had C&J come and visit and we exchanged chocolate. Mum had made Puff a pom-pom lamb, that he was quite fond of.
His grandragon gave him a toy lamb and some chocolate eggs, which were also gratefully received. We went to Grandma and Doc’s house for a delicious lunch, and Grandma read some stories to Puff.
Monday saw us take a trip down to Kiama to visit some family who were staying in a caravan park. Puff had fun running around outside, but seemed to prefer standing over near the barbecue to sitting in a circle. Huff enjoyed cuddles with a few people, and getting to look at some new scenery.
Tuesday has been a day of rest, but some extra sleep in the morning brought about a better mood, and so we gave him a new toy that we’ve been saving for a rainy day – an electronic book with alphabet and number buttons that can speak and give him things to do.
Parenting has its emotional extremes – some days it’s incredibly frustrating, and you’re doing your best just to keep a consistent sense of discipline. There are also moments of amusement. We checked on Puff once this week, and instead of being asleep on his bed, he was asleep on the floor, with all his toys.
We were given this mask as part of our trip to the zoo. One day this week Puff insisted on wearing it (I think it was when we were on our way to church).
Huff is 10 weeks old now – it seems like she’s been with us forever. You probably can’t tell from our selection of photos, but she doesn’t spend all that much time smiling. She mostly looks around with an indifferent expression and wide eyes.
Dad is still trying to balance spending time with Puff (so he doesn’t feel left out or overlooked) and Huff. It means that he only really sees her at night, with the occasional carry in the morning. Things will change once she can move around of her own volition, I suspect!
Here’s a photo of her happy on the bouncer at Grandma and Doc’s house.
We’re encouraged to see Puff and Huff interacting in different ways. While playing with one of his favourite books (and having done something similar with a few toys), he held Huff’s hand while pushing the buttons. It was a very cute moment.
For Dad’s last day of parental leave, we decided a trip to the zoo would be a good idea. We didn’t tell Puff where we were going until we saw the sign, so he was back to his usual tricks – insisting on wearing mittens in the car.
When he saw the “Taronga Zoo” sign from the car window, he realised where we were, and was mildly excited. We took a photo on the way in (knowing that we’d be pretty tired by the end of the day).
After looking at a few animals, we queued up for the Seal Show. Puff handled the queueing admirably, though he was a little manic for a little while.
From there it was time for Huff, Mum and Dad to grab some lunch while Puff played in the zoo pond. Lots of other kids were playing too, but he was the only one avoiding the giant sprinkler, giving him lots of space whenever it was running. He had a great time splashing around (and we’d brought a change of clothes for him, to be on the safe side).
The highlight of the day was watching him play with the penguins. They would swim up to the glass, and then they would follow his finger around and he would giggle. This happened a few times.
After the zoo, we went to a friend’s house for dinner. He lasted through the meal, but was very tired not long afterward.
Later in the week, over dinner at C&J’s house, Puff learned his first Dean Martin song.
This week is a study week for Dad. Puff is increasingly interested in reading the words that he knows (numbers, people he’s met, some animals, and a few Christian terms). When Dad was reading his notes, he was pointing out some of the numbers in the text, and Puff decided to help by grabbing one of his numbers, presumably to help.
Another high point for Dad this week was a little story that Puff made up:
At night the sun goes to bed and the moon comes up and [Puff] has a sleep. Then the moon goes to bed and the sun comes up and [Puff] and Daddy will do stuff.
It’s good to know that he looks forward to spending time with his Dad.
What a packed week! Huff had her 2 month immunisations, everyone was up very early to take Dad to hospital for half a day, we saw a lot of friends in different places, had a family outing to a cemetery, went to evening church together, and had our first successful use of the potty.
First, here’s Huff at 2 months: she’s still having epic night sleeps (6-8 hours) most days, and is spending more time awake and looking around when she’s up during the day.
She coped as well as might be expected for her 2 month immunisations. The nurse had Dad hold her up while she had the drink part of the immunisation, and then we had to lie her down on the bed, while she had the needle in each leg, and then, after less than a minute of crying, she calmed down enough to have a snack with Mum. She’s putting on weight nicely, having reached 4.87kg with a singlet and nappy on.
She continues to be happy to lie down on flat surfaces and wriggle around. Here we see (Puff’s toy) Cat posing with her.
We made a lot of jelly this week – enough that Mum found lots of ways that Puff could help in the kitchen. He continues to be good natured much of the time, though (not seen in this video) he has an increasing sense of what he wants, and what he doesn’t want.
The phrase of the week has been “Don’t talk to me [mummy or daddy]” in any context where we might give him an instruction he doesn’t want to obey. We’re not letting him get away with that particular approach, but it’s interesting to see his sense of self develop.
Sunday morning we made pancakes – Puff wolfed down 2 of these, and then finished a third, which is no small feat when you consider they were made of wholemeal flour (Dad only managed 4!)
After dropping Dad at the hospital, Mum called in on Aunty C, who took this photo of Mum, Huff and Puff (very cute). It was also Aunty C’s birthday this week, and they all, with Uncle J, went to our favourite bread shop/cafe to celebrate.
Saturday saw us make a family trip to Surry Hills for breakfast together, and we looked at the Surry Hills festival. Puff had a shaved ice drink with no flavouring, which he loved. After that, we headed to Woronora cemetery for their open day. Puff had a great time looking around, enjoying a free sausage sizzle, but his favourite part was getting to operate one of the excavators (with the keys out of the ignition). He was using every one of the controls he could reach!
Friday night saw us catch up with S and meet her 3 kids, and also see N&S and their 3 kids. Lots of fun, and a late night. Sunday we saw A&D for lunch, and then made it to night church as a family. It’s getting trickier to be out at that particular hour, but we somehow made it work.
Puff is spending a lot more time drawing: on paper with pencils and crayons, outside with chalk, and (regrettably) on his little wooden table with pencils when no-one is looking. His hand-eye coordination is improving, and he’s starting to draw big circles, and sevens.
A problem with the trains on Tuesday saw Dad get a lift to work, and so Huff and Puff made their first appearance back at Dad’s work since Huff’s arrival. Everyone was very impressed with how cute a baby Huff was, and Puff acquitted himself well with good behaviour, even if he was a little overwhelmed with how many people were there!
One other exciting (to his parents at least) milestone. After months and months of sitting on the potty as part of the pre-bath routine (to get him used to sitting still, and standing up without tipping anything over), we had two consecutive nights of revealing the train on the heat-activated sticker. Exciting stuff.
This week is the day before Huff is due to have her 2-month immunisations: how quickly the time has gone! She’s very cute, and putting on weight nicely.
On Sunday, when Dad cooked pancakes for breakfast, he was also watching Huff while Mum slept a little more. Huff is far too young to have pancakes, and didn’t seem to happy about it!
Now that there are two kids at home, it tends to be Dad’s job to look after Puff, while Mum looks after Huff. Dad felt it was time to get another photo of just the two of them.
Puff is being increasingly helpful in the kitchen. This week’s challenge was to learn how to sift the flour for the pancakes. There were some difficulties – he wasn’t convinced that the sifter had to be upright, nor that it needed to be over the bowl!
The prize purchase of the week has been Puff’s new slippers. He loves them, and has already slept in them twice.
One last story around helping in the kitchen: Dad has been looking for ways to involve him in different processes. Here he is moving the chopped vegetables into the microwave steamer!
We also managed to fit in a family reunion for Dad’s side of the family, and lunch with Uncle M.
Today is day 50 for not-so-little Huff. And it was a big day – the four of us went to a funeral, a burial, and a wake, complete with bagpipes at each stage. Attending the funeral of someone who was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather gives pause to think about how you’re spending your own life, and what you want to look back on and do differently.
Dad’s challenge at the moment is finding the balance between living a life that he’ll be proud of when looking backwards, and doing a large enough volume of work (full-time plus some extras) to keep all the bills comfortably covered.
This week was the second time had her nails cut. The first one is always a bit too stressful to photograph, but the second one is a little easier.
With Huff’s sleeps being a little further apart, Dad is getting a few moments where he’s in charge of both kids at once! While he still gets used to it, this means Puff gets extra time playing games on Dad’s old phone. Here’s a favourite video.
Huff’s smiles are starting to seem more deliberate – and highly contagious.
With Dad having taken Puff to a morning service at church, and Puff not having napped at all that day, Dad and Puff stayed home for dinner (Puff fell asleep with his hand still on the spoon as it sat in the bowl) while Mum and Huff went to church by themselves for the first time.
Yes, this means that Mum is driving by herself again, and getting back to normal. Huff even had a 7-hour sleep this week!
The culinary adventures continue with Huff. Dad and Huff have tried cooking bacon and eggs together, preparing cereal, making toast. Here he is negotiating his serve of bacon.
On the way back from Kindermusik, Puff and Dad walked past a fire engine. They were parked, waiting to get some food (we think) and when Puff waved at them, we were ushered to sit in the fire engine, and even to take a photo at the front – a great little moment that Dad suspects he liked better than Puff did.
Saturday was a big day. A trip to the markets in the morning (to buy more ingredients), then yum cha with Uncle Jonathan and Cathy.
After Yum Cha, we voted. From there Puff and Dad walked home together, stopping for a coffee and then Puff had a nap. After that, we stayed up late watching some of the election coverage on TV. Puff loved it – all the numbers on the TV screen for once.
Huff had her 6-week checkup today, and passed with flying colours, though we’ve decided to wait until 2 months to give her her 2 month immunisations (a lot of people are having this done at 6 weeks instead of 2 months).
Now that Huff is a little bigger, we’re getting more comfortable having her and Puff pose for photos a little more. Puff really likes his sister and, though he’s been worse behaved than pre-Huff, he’s generally still an incredibly obedient and cheery little boy.
We have the occasional challenges with encouraging Huff to sleep in her hammock – sometimes she just won’t settle there, but has a much better chance of sleeping in the corner pillow.
She’s continuing to love having a bath, and as she builds up her neck control and her tendency to smile at random (we still don’t have many photos of her smiling). It’s tough to find time to fit in both evening routines, and still have time to study, but Dad enjoys having the time with her.
We went back to the hospital today to see the Physio to make sure Huff’s feet are turning correctly. They’re getting better, and Puff had a great time playing with the toys they had there. He likes book and animal noise toys in particular at the moment.
We tried out a cafe today that had a blackboard wall – Puff had a great time drawing with chalk: another first for him.
Going to bed has changed slightly this week, as Puff now insists on having extra toys to sleep with – it’s getting quite crowded!
Mum is getting more creative with how she spends time with Puff. This week she made an alphabet, and the numbers up to 30, and taped them to various surfaces around the garden. Puff had a great time running around the yard with a bucket, taking all the letters and then the numbers in order.
And let’s not forget now that Mum is having an easier time of getting around, Mum, Huff and Puff went out to the local shops together. The ensuing rain meant that what was going to be a trip to the park became a smoothie in a cafe, where Mum ordered a lemon meringue pie. This photo captures just some of his enthusiasm for that particular order.
The rain brings its own challenges: the clam shell toy in the backyard has a lip at the top that collects rainwater and dirt. Puff has worked out how to get into the backyard by himself, if he’s quick, and surprised us by saying “I drank the dirty water”. He didn’t get sick, but gave us a bit of a start as to potential hazards being around every corner.
We also had a catch-up with a number of friends this week, including one of Dad’s old flatmates, and a group of relatively new friends with their kids.
Another week has passed by, and the Grandragon has headed home after a long stay with us. Puff had lots of adventures with the Grandragon, and was a little disappointed when he went looking for her this morning and she wasn’t there.
One of the challenges with integrating Huff into our family is keeping Puff engaged with what we’re doing. Continuing on in having him participate in more cooking activities, Puff and Dad have been making breakfast together.
This has had mixed levels of success. The first thing he did when he saw the eggs on the counter was to grab one and break it, making a bit of a mess. After that, he did much better, and – despite a long cooking time encouraging him to start eating his toast while the eggs were still cooking – it was a good little activity.
For a bit more exercise, Dad took Puff and Bandit for a bit of an adventure – walking along the bush track of a nearby creek. There were a few challenges involved – other people were walking their dogs, which was causing Bandit some stress, and Dad some stress too, as he only had one hand per companion!
He’s really, really enjoyed having Bandit around – even watching videos of himself playing with Bandit is enough to cause rampant giggling.
About once a week we break out the Wii and weigh everyone – Puff loves playing the balance games, and is even starting to get the hang of some of them. He especially likes the penguins.
Saturday we all (Mum, Dad, Puff, Huff) went to Eveleigh market for a family outing, and afterwards we went back to visit Grandma and Doc. On the way, we had to stop to feed Huff, and so we needed to distract Puff. We returned to the old faithful trick of buying a smoothie. This, combined with the well-timed arrival of a pigeon (think Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) distracted him for plenty of time.
On Sunday, Dad took Puff out for some father-son time. We ended up in Cronulla, looking for a place to have – again – a smoothie, and some toast. This breakfast was a bit of a struggle – there’s a narrow window in the mornings to feed him breakfast, and we missed it on this particular day. After struggling through breakfast, we went to the park a bit to play on the equipment. He’s in a phase of not wanting to go on the slides, but his new behaviour was to tell some of the other kids (unfamiliar to him) that they weren’t allowed to climb up. “No. Don’t climb!”. They mostly ignored him, but it’s interesting to see him start talking to others.
Finally coming to terms with his unruly hair, we went to the local barber to have his hair tidied up. As you can see, there was a lot to get rid of!
Here’s the finished product. He looks so grown up!
And now a quick update on Huff. Her face continues to change on an almost daily basis: here’s a recent photo.
She’s finding an increasing interest in her surroundings, but having trouble with going to sleep some of the time, and needs to be held a bit more often to go to sleep. Sometimes it’s 2 hours in between feeds, sometimes it’s 4, but the fours are usually in the middle of the day, which makes it increasingly tough for Mum to get any amount of sleep.
This is the week where we’re starting to get used to Mum being at home with the two kids, and Dad spending more time at work. This is going to be a tough challenge, but hopefully life will continue to settle down into something a little more predictable.
Life is starting to return to a new kind of normal. Two kids instead of one means that the days are even longer, and there’s even less free time on offer, which is making it a bit tricky for Dad to get his college reading done. Still, we’re getting lots of help from family, and Huff is going along well.
Normally she gets around in body-suits, but on occasion we dress her up in something prettier. Mostly for church so far.
She’s getting more interested in what’s going on around her – she can turn her head to look at the TV if it’s on, and when placed on her tummy, she has a bit of a go at doing push-ups. Well, one push-up.
It’s amazing how quickly her face is changing – she’s already starting to develop features that are distinct from her big brother.
This week has seen us make a lot of trips to the park. Several of them have been with Bandit. He really likes Puff – here he is trying to play with him while on the swings. We don’t have footage of the way he throws now, but he’s starting to get the hang of it!
On Thursday, Dad and Puff headed to Kindermusik. It was a beautiful sunny day, but nonetheless, Puff felt like wearing his mittens.
It was worth getting a photo of what it’s like when we give him a phone to play with while we’re still trying to get some extra sleep. It doesn’t usually work, but it’s fun to watch him be swept up in what’s happening there.
On Saturday, Dad and Puff drove in to Redfern to go – again – to Eveleigh markets. We zoomed around there, then headed across town to a cafe, then headed back home for lunch. It was great to spend the time with him. Really. It’s hard to unplug sometimes: to switch off the podcasts and the emails and the tweets and just be present with him, but that’s been my big challenge to attempt this week (and into the future).
One of the things we picked up at the markets was some buttermilk, and so Puff persuaded the Grandragon to make pancakes for breakfast. He did a great job helping her pour and mix everything. Dad’s increasingly trying to get Puff involved in little, safe, kitchen tasks so that he can be better involved in family life, and for the most part it’s working.
One of his favourite diversions, oddly, is a book he calls “Mummy’s book” – a little phonebook we picked up somewhere. He loves it for its letters, numbers, and pictures, and will happily sit “reading” it for much longer than you might expect.
The key theme of this week, though, has been Bandit: his constant companion. Not sure how well he’ll cope when it’s time for Bandit to go home!
This week we have the Grandragon and her dog Bandit staying with us, which has been a source of much amusement for Puff. Like Homer Simpson, he loves to chase Bandit around and say “fluffy! fluffy!” and pat Bandit’s tail. Here he is playing with Bandit and a ball.
On Saturday, Dad took Puff out for some father-son time. We went to Eveleigh markets, and had blini for breakfast – his was the lemon and sugar, and Dad had the ham, cheese and mushroom. Very tasty.
From there, we drove to Milson’s point, and walked down the 111 steps to water level (he counted every step, and then counted the subsequent steps that we encountered on our way back to the car). We walked around by the side of the water, cut through Luna Park as it was opening for the day, and then went back up the hill to the car.
On Monday night, C&J came over and provided us with dinner – baked potatoes with a choice of toppings. Puff made his own (under Aunty C’s watchful eye), and managed to eat them all!
Puff’s troubles getting to sleep appear to be winding down now – he goes to bed more readily, and even stays in bed until our agreed time to get up!
And while we wait for Huff to settle into a better sleeping pattern and get her own blog, here’s an updated picture. She’s spending more time in each feeding cycle awake, and looking around with big eyes.
) distracted him for plenty of time.
