Category: week in review

Another week where Dad is on parental leave, and so a lot of extra father-son time.

We’ve had a variety of breakfasts together – some mornings we had boiled eggs with Vegemite soldiers, and other mornings, we’ve gone out for breakfast. Here he had raisin toast with a babycino.

Another morning we went a different way to the shops, and stopped at the park. We ended up on the see-saw, where he counted the bounces, from 1 to 100. We did this 4 times, and then finally he was prepared to get off the see-saw.

Thursday was a big day – it was time for Mum to head out of the house for an adventure. We all (with Aunty S) walked up to the shops to have lunch together. Puff was so well-behaved that he was given an extra juice box to go with his lunch, and the waitress didn’t know Huff was there either (although as you can tell by the sling, it’s pretty hard to see her).
 

On Friday night we went out to get some Indian takeaway. They were very busy, but Puff did a great job waiting (45 minutes) in the stroller, putting up very little fuss, and staying cheerful despite the lateness of the hour.

The book from last week – Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats – has now been largely committed to memory, and he’s had a lot of enthusiasm for cats. As a result, we saw him use the stickers in a slightly different way.

 
Walking around another suburb in search of cafes on Saturday, Puff decided to play a game of hide and seek with the stroller. Here too, Dad had the awkward experience of seeing Puff go from calm and happy to throwing a tantrum with no apparent warning. More practice is needed, it seems, to spot the warning signs: surely there are warning signs, right?

 
We haven’t said much about Huff here yet: we’re still looking for patterns in her routine to see if we can predict when she will sleep longer or shorter. The high-point with a newborn is having her sleep.

 
Yesterday we went to IKEA: he was very well behaved, and then ran around in the play area at Rhodes afterward. It was a good day out.

 
He’s still enjoying being a big brother, although he’s not able to have much other interaction with her than rubbing her head.

 
He has a tendency to lose himself in his thoughts sometimes (when he’s not quoting one of his favourite books).

Here’s an update on what Huff looks like.

Oh, one random thing – one morning he was really excitedly running in to check the time on a few different clocks, and then spelling it out with his floor numbers.
 

 
The biggest difference between looking after one child and two is the loss of sleep: with a newborn, you don’t get to sleep in big blocks, but when the newborn sleeps, you can try and sleep. Add a toddler into the mix and you can’t sleep unless both of them are asleep. So far, with the parental leave, Dad has been taking care of Puff, and Mum of Huff, but it’s hard to see what life will be like once Dad goes back to work!

Time will tell.

A little late with the update this week – the house is working on a somewhat different sleep schedule to before, though we’re trying to keep things as normal as possible for Puff. Obviously this is impossible to some extent – family life has changed forever – but we’re trying to keep his usual bedtime and wake-up time.

This last week has been a mix of hospital visits (Tuesday, Wednesday) and home (Puff and Dad went to hospital on Thursday morning to bring Mum back home).

We had the Grandragon stay over on Tuesday night (Puff was asking about her later in the week, and remembered that she’d gone back to the airport), and we saw a lot of different visitors – mostly in the hospital, but a few people have come to visit at home.

It looks like the prep-work we’ve done with Puff to have him ready to be a big brother has paid off – he’s gentle and affectionate towards Huff when they’re in the same space, and he seems happy with the amount of time that Mum has to spend with her.

On the way home from the hospital, just as we did when Puff was born, we stopped in at Grind cafe in Cronulla, though this time we took a family photo instead of one of just the baby capsule.

It certainly hasn’t hurt that Dad has been off work all week, and that he’s had lots of extra time to spend. Dad has been trying to take him out of the house for an extended period of time, so that Mum and Huff can get some extra sleep, and Dad and Huff can get some time together. After being cooped up on Friday, a trip to the ATM and to the park was called for. Dad was expecting that he’d just have some time on the play equipment, but he actually went for an extended run around.

The next day (Sunday) we went for a longer walk around, played in a different park, looked at the farm animals that can be found within walking distance from the house, and then looked at all the different house numbers on the way back home.

Having bought some lunch on the way home, he managed to eat about 1/3rd of a chicken kebab that had all his favourite Lebanese ingredients in it before falling asleep holding the kebab.

And getting sleep right has been the biggest challenge of this week. He’s taken some backward steps in his ability to put himself to sleep, and his naps are a bit all-over-the-place.

When we gave Huff a bath, he was really interested in helping. We gave him the job of helping to empty the bath, which he approached with great enthusiasm (if not great success).

Monday was a trip to the library where we borrowed a few books, including Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats – this was the perfect storm for him, as it features the alphabet, numbers, and cats. He’s become a little obsessed with it, and has already memorised a lot of it.

Dad took him out today on a bit of an adventure – driving instead of going in the stroller. In a moment of weakness, he bought a babycino for Puff at Roselands and let him drink it in the stroller. It was easily the most messy babycino he’s ever had. The difference, perhaps, between Mum’s expert care and Dad’s more haphazard approach?

Tonight, Dad’s craving for a Slurpee was realised by Uncle J, who came over and stayed for a bit of a chat. Here he is reading the aforementioned book to Puff, who enjoyed the change of faces.

Here’s a short video of Puff helping out with emptying the bath, if you’d like to get a sense of how he’s travelling.

Is there any significance in the appearance of Puff’s little sister as we settle in for week 128 (two to the power of seven) of Puff’s blog? No. But it might make it easier for Dad to remember!

A great many thanks must go to C&J, who have done a fantastic job looking after Puff these past few days. He’s enjoyed spending time with them, and with their alphabet puzzle (which he uses to ‘write’ peoples’ names) and their cats (who often get a big mention in his free-form speech during the day).

He spent a bunch of time today talking about Bentley cat and Slinky.

The lead-up to Huff’s arrival was packed with different activities, last minute purchases and the like. Here we were grabbing a smoothie in between one lot of shopping (nappies) and the next (groceries). Oddly, he started shivering not long after drinking it (it could well have been the long-awaited Sydney cool change, and it stopped soon after leaving the store.

Adjusting to being a big brother is still in progress. Initially, he was happy to meet with Huff, and even to gently stroke her head. The tricky part – surprisingly to us – was that he was a bit standoffish with his Mum. We fixed this on day 2 with the tried-and-tested method of using food. Here he is having a picnic with Mum on her hospital bed. They both had a great time!

With lots of time sitting still and being quiet required, he’s spending a lot of extra time on screens at the moment. His use of the iPhone is interesting: he uses voice recorder to record and listen to the sound of his voice. He uses calculator to write numbers, sometimes watching a clock radio, then typing up the numbers he can see.

One of the options for avoiding the iPhone is to give him a puzzle to do. Here he is playing with his Penguin puzzle.

Lots of visitors today, mostly family members and a few friends to pad out the numbers. Some concentrated solely on the new baby, some on Puff as well. At the moment, he’s tired and out of sorts, but is still generally quite well behaved (thanks again to C&J for bearing the brunt of his bad behaviour). Looking forward to having him back home, and back to a more comforting routine.

What a week! We’re now counting down to Huff’s arrival, and should have photos of the new addition for next week’s blog post.

We’re trying to fit in as much as possible in these last few days. There are people and places to see, and lots of things to do. Of course, this needs to be balanced with trying to catch up on rest as much as possible.

On Australia Day, we caught up with some friends (and their kids, C&J) for breakfast. Having just returned from the states, they brought Puff a gift. Here he is trying it on.

After breakfast (a big fruit platter), he had a lot of energy to burn off, and so he spent some time running back and forth from this statue.

On Friday night we visited some of Kel’s family: the place where he’d tried M&M’s for the first time at Christmas. As soon as he reached the table, he asked about M&Ms, and so when he’d eaten his dinner, he was rewarded with a few, in his own bowl.

Saturday we bought a new stroller: – one that we will be able to adapt into a two-child stroller when the time comes. It was a bit pricey, but it’s really easy to push, and packs up smaller than our old stroller, so hopefully it will be worthwhile.

Saturday night we went out for dinner, to a Japanese restaurant. Dad was being a bit silly and asked if Puff wanted to eat dinner with a fork or with chopsticks, and he chose chopsticks. It was a bit beyond his skill level, but he had a great time trying.

Today we had the last visit with the midwife. Keeping Puff amused was a challenge, but he was pretty enamoured with the digital scales. Here he is climbing on and off them, with a surprise backing track courtesy of Huff.

One last thing: Puff had been getting out of bed by himself and finding us, but that was getting earlier and earlier. On Saturday, we bought him a clock radio that he calls his “seven oh oh clock”. We’ve had some problems with having him wait until 7am to get up and start his day, but we’re trying to stay consistent with him as much as possible.

See you next week!

With not long to go now until the arrival of Huff, we’re trying to fit in as many firsts as we can while we’re still a family of three.

Here’s a picture of Dad and Puff sitting on the front steps of our house.

On Saturday, he tried out painting for the first time. As you can see, he takes it very seriously. He had a lot of fun making a few different paintings before it was time to head out of the house.

In eating news, he has new trick (that he finds hilarious). Instead of taking a reasonable-sized bite of whatever he’s meant to be eating, he’s decided that he can take a really small bite, and say “it’s a nibble”. This is repeated several times.

He goes through a range of moods when it comes to being picked up. Sometimes he’s happy to be cuddled, other times he wants to “get back down and play with Duplo”. Here’s a moment of the former.

The big milestone for this weekend was making changes to the cot. We’ve removed the side rail, and convert the cot to a bed of sorts (technically, it’s in “lounge” configuration, I think.

We were persuaded to make the change as he’s been getting into the habit of taking his nappy off if we leave him in bed too long after he wakes up. Three times in one day, and that was enough. Here he is getting used to climbing out of bed.

He still has’t figured out that he can leave the cot of his own volition, preferring instead to wait until someone comes into his room and says it’s okay, which is great for Mum and Dad. It’s a bit odd that he hasn’t tried to escape yet, but he’ll figure it out in time.

On Sunday we went to a family birthday party for S, who was turning one. He had fun running around in the park, including playing with the bubble machine.

Next week will probably be the last update before we have pictures of Huff to show. Stay tuned!

A few new activities for Puff this week, as we count down to the arrival of Huff.

This one is old news – the activity centre at the ultrasound place was the source of some distraction during the queueing process. The high point was after the ultrasound, when Puff was playing with some other toys. Another family showed up, waiting for their turn to have an ultrasound, and Puff said “Mummy’s getting an ultrasound”, to the amazement of the other parents.

Mum set up some play-doh for him to try out. He had a great time stamping out the different numbers, and made all the numbers from 1 to 10.

On Saturday, having lunch at a friend’s house, he was completely transfixed by this cash register. It had a noise-making calculator, a drawer with some fake money, a set of scales, and a card swiping spot that also made noise. He had a great time playing with this toy for over an hour, on and off.

By initiating a strict policy of not letting him touch the machine, we managed to have fun with a bunch of bubbles, and with no spills!

Friday night Mum and Puff picked Dad up from work, and we went to get some pasta from Leichhardt. For dessert, Dad and Puff shared a banana split. He really liked it, and made a good effort at eating it with a spoon.

Sunday afternoon we visited friends in hospital to meet new baby E. When we started to walk into the hospital Puff said “Mummy can have the baby at the hospital” – it seems he’s starting to understand that Huff’s arrival is just around the corner.

We’re seeing him be more and more enthusiastic about life: he will regularly jump up and down with excitement about what’s going on, and likes to run and chase people on occasion.

Odd to start with a picture like this, but what we have here is the first pair of shoes (size 8) that he can not just take off, but also put on! This has added a new ritual to leaving the house, where Puff puts his shoes on before leaving the house.

This week, after a trip to Bunnings to find a plant to put at the front of the house, Puff helped with a light spot of gardening. Everything was going well until some dirt found its way under his shoe. He complained about it in the cutest way, and was fine again once his feet were cleaned up, and went back to digging in the dirt.

At the Rocks Markets on Friday night we had dinner together, and then Puff tried this little item as a dessert treat. He wasn’t really interested in the chocolate, or the marshmallows, but he was happy to eat the strawberries.

Life is a series of experiences changing gears for Dad. One moment he’s at work, the next he’s in the car, then he’s out at the Rocks market. Puff still seems to prefer Dad’s company when it’s available, though it’s really whichever parent has been away from him the longest.

The big first for this week was a sleep over at Aunty C & Uncle J’s house on Saturday night. Playing with some blocks was enough to distract him as Mum and Dad left him overnight for the first time.

He had a great time at Aunty C & Uncle J’s. A big dinner.

Bedtime story with Uncle J.

Uncle J even made him a babycino!

Slinky, already getting bigger, was keen to help out with the blocks.

With Huff’s arrival due in only a matter of weeks now, we’ve taken the opportunity to introduce him to babies, so he’s not caught by surprise. Here he is with baby O.

And here’s Mum and Aunty C checking on Huff.

See you next week!

Happy New Year! It’s been another week of late nights, but with Dad’s work closed, it’s been a rare treat to have the extra time to spend with family. Today was the first day back at work, and so it’s been an adjustment to change gears from full-time dad over to working dad.

Some of the highlights of the time off. Dad has an enthusiasm for heading up to the Blue Mountains whenever possible, and so – despite a busy week for Dad, preparing a seminar and two sermons – we made some time to trek up there.

We spent some time wandering around Leura, including lunch at the cafe where Mum and Dad went on the day Dad proposed marriage to Mum – Wayzgoose cafe. Puff enjoyed a smoothie.

On Thursday, we headed down to Austinmer, where Puff had the chance to spend time with baby R, and play with his foot keyboard. He slept through dinner, and then was wide awake for the car trip home somewhere around 11pm.

He’s had some problems with blocked ears over the last little while. The doctor said that Cerumol ear drops were the way to go – you put the drops in his ears, and then cover them with cotton wool. The trouble is that he needs to stay still for 10-20 minutes. How do we make that happen? He plays games on Dad’s old iPhone.

Another high point for Puff this week was meeting Aunty C and Uncle J’s new kitten – Slinky. Here’s the first hold.

A few too many eating shots this week perhaps. Mum made an epic breakfast on Saturday (for Puff it was a second breakfast) of eggs and bacon. He made a good effort, but Dad had to finish off a few pieces. And then head to Yum Cha with Uncle J and Cathy.

There have been a lot of babycinos this week. To help make the most of Dad’s last day of holidays, we went to a cafe for breakfast, and was pretty excited when the marshmallows came out.

We’re getting closer and closer to the arrival of Huff, and trying to savour these last few times where it’s just the three of us. Becoming a family of four is going to be really exciting, but it’s a daunting prospect too.

Without photos, we spent New Year’s Eve at S&K’s house where a tired Puff had his first chance to sleep on a bed – he lasted a little while, but then woke up and climbed back down. From there, we went to the airport to pick up one of Mum’s uncles, and then – still before midnight – he went back to sleep.

Thanks also to the Mills family who this week helped us with our horribly overrun backyard (bringing it back to a usable space), and especially to C&J, who had the chance to frolic with Puff’s bubble machine (a gift from Aunty C & Uncle J).

Let’s put the lateness of this entry down to the craziness of the holiday season, and the sudden irrelevance of the day of the week. It was almost 1am before I realised that I still had to put together this week’s entry. With the way Puff has been sleeping in, and not needing to be anywhere in the early morning myself, I’ve been staying up later than usual.

So of course, Puff woke up this morning around 6am, and wanted to “sleep in mum and dad’s bed” instead from there “because I’m a bit upset”. He waited patiently, “watching the numbers” until “700” and thrashing around only in a minor way. He’s now watching videos with me on the screen while I write up this week’s blog.

This week he’s learned how to count to ten in Spanish. We met a Spanish lady at Dad’s Aunt’s house, and she was pretty impressed with his counting in English, French and German. Dad counted to 10 in Spanish with him (looking to the expert for correction), and then, with the help of a video, he seemed to consolidate it pretty well.

This week was also Puff’s third Christmas. He didn’t seem overwhelmed by the prospect of new presents, but he was very happy when he had the chance to open up his presents.

On Christmas Eve, we visited one of Mum’s cousins, and Puff had the chance to see some Christmas lights up close. He really liked them.

Probably his favourite present was this drill set: he opened it, and then played with it pretty consistently for at least half an hour. Impressive for something to hold his attention that long.

Another favourite, but one that has caused its fair share of mess so far, and been dubbed an outside toy, was the bubble machine. It creates an impressive number of bubbles in a short space of time.

One of the joys of having some time off work is being able to do a little more with Puff. Yesterday, Dad and Puff worked together to make a dozen (packet mix) cupcakes. Puff did a great job decorating them, with the promise that he could eat the leftovers.

He was also given some Duplo of his own (after lots of visits playing with his friend E’s Duplo), which has led to some bouts of creativity. Here we see one of his first creations – a “coffee machine”.

One last little anecdote: we had some heavy rain on Boxing Day, and Dad foolishly asked Puff if he wanted to have a warm bath, or to play outside in the rain. He said “play outside in the rain?” and so we let him splash around for a while. He wasn’t completely sure about the rain, but he didn’t want to go in for a little while. We put him straight into a warm bath after he’d been playing outside, and he seemed fine afterwards, and – if anything – a little happier about playing outside in the following days.

A couple of new things to talk about. We’ve had a lot of late nights, and so he hasn’t had as much chance as we’d like to sleep. In a related or unrelated note, we’ve seen him start to have trouble pronouncing some simple words (like that or this).

With a couple of days resting at home (and a bit less time playing Fruit Ninja on Dad’s phone), he seems to be back on top of it, but it gave us some anxiety for a couple of days.

When visit C&J’s house, he loves playing with all the different toys. Despite the lateness of the hour, he had a great time playing in this kitchen. Just like Mum, he was continuing to work away in the kitchen while talking on the toy phone.

This week has seen Dad get back on the horse with making lattes before work – with his new stool, Puff is more easily able to watch the process (without being as stressed by the grinder) and help out – he asks if he can hold one of the coffee beans, which I’m taking as a good sign.

Saturday of this weekend was spent watching video games and playing at a friend’s house, but he did manage to squeeze in some outdoor playing time. He also had a great time playing at the pool with Aunty C and Uncle J.

Bible study dinner saw him wear what I think is his first paper hat. He liked it, but his head was a little too small for a good fit.

He’s also learned to climb up on his stool and say “ta-da”, which has been really cute, but a tough video to upload for some reason.