puff and huff

Life in lockdown is a bit like groundhog day; the days blur together, but there are still highlights.

Huff spent some time on Saturday morning cooking pancakes (Mum made a stack of normal coloured, large pancakes, and then Huff made some smaller, more heavily food-coloured ones).

There was a lot of excitement when it was time to eat them.

 

 

 

Dad cooked a simple dinner on Saturday night; the kids were happy to interrupt their TV watching to try it.

In an effort to break free from the costs (and out-of-home travel) of bubble tea, we have been trying some make-at-home options. Puff was pretty excited to try his first one (despite this particular frame taken from the making-of video).

School from home continues, the kids are going okay with it for now: we’ll see if the weeks rolling on makes much difference, but at the moment we are still enjoying one another’s company, though missing extended family and friends.

Holidays with stay-at-home order are over. Learning from home has begun again.

A few scenes from the last week – walking across the suburb with Dad, pausing to do some essential shopping, and support the local chip shop with some chips. And this was before the lockdown rules increased in strictness; we’re now at one person doing the shopping each day, which is usually Puff, to give him some more autonomy and opportunities to leave the house by himself.

Despite her focused expression, this is Huff enjoying her new Oodie.

and this is Puff, enjoying his Oodie.

We’ve made a bit of progress encouraging them to tidy their rooms, but the broader scale tidying of the house and decluttering still eludes us, and may have to wait until Dad finishes his uni studies at the end of the year.

Monday was a pupil free day, but today, the kids were back to learning from home. Puff managed to get himself well set up for his 7:30am maths lesson, but it was more of a scramble for Huff, who started the day and needed to be on a zoom call 5 minutes later; lots of scrambling and installing software, but she managed to get there.

Most disappointing for her was the news that there would still be homework, even though everything else was happening from home! 

Maybe it’s just lockdown, but we didn’t really take photos of the kids this week – we were at home, doing home things; some craft, a lot of screens, playing some games together. Dad was working from home all week, doing some more overtime, and being in zoom meetings so there was a certain amount of enforced quiet. Dad managed a walk with each of the kids over the weekend, which was quality time talking, but nothing particularly photo-worthy.

A few more days of school holidays remain, but it’s likely that these too will be under lockdown conditions. But hopefully more photos next week

The kids are on holidays from school! And, thanks to the most recent Sydney lockdown, on holidays from being able to leave the house for most reasons. Nonetheless, there was cause to celebrate and the kids made pancakes for brunch.

Puff, who missed out on the speed-cubing competition over the weekend (cancelled due to COVID) was given another Rubik’s puzzle, which he has already mastered.

Huff was able to experiment with some hair colouring, since there is no school for two weeks.

Puff has been on a roll making breakfast – here’s Dad taking a break from working at the table next to the dining table to have breakfast with the kids.

Huff was trying her hand at tie-dyeing in the backyard. Come back next week to see how the different items turned out!

Puff is back from Music camp! Dad picked him up and we grabbed a quick bob tea on the way home.

Despite everyone being quite tired from the camp, Puff’s school put on a music concert. Here he is on stage.

It was a busy season – Puff was also on Bible reading at church this weekend. Dad and Puff had already been out for breakfast together, then we raced back to grab Huff, and go to church together.

Taking advantage of a break in the weather, Dad and Huff went for a walk together, and shared some lunch too!

Other highlights were having lunch on Saturday with the cousins, and some of Mum’s cousins, and having most of the family together on Sunday afternoon to remember Grandma.

We had a long weekend with no camp, and so there was time to do some uni work, and some family catch-up time.

Saturday we were at a friend’s house for lunch, and ended up spending the day there. The kids weren’t too sad about it, as they had a chance to play some video games.

Sunday Dad took the kids to church (Mum was home on zoom church), and then out for lunch. We went across to Canley Vale for Vietnamese food, and to enjoy some sunshine together.

Monday was mostly a home day, though Dad and Puff went out to get him some new sneakers and spend some time together, before Dad disappeared back into uni work.

Tuesday morning was an early start, dropping Puff off for a school camp. We were working hard to remain in good spirits.

Then afterward we stopped for breakfast on the way home. 

Dad is still looking for small windows of time to spend with the kids, even in this busy year; there are occasional moments, where the kids are looking forward to seeing Dad, that are a sign that it seems to be working in building some kind of lasting connection. Still much to learn.

A bit of everything this week. Huff’s school had a fundraiser where the kids could wear their pyjamas to school. She wasn’t sure about that exactly (especially on a sport day) so it was a bit of a mash-up of regular clothes and pyjamas, but still convincing.

Friday night after youth group we went out for dessert, and at the same time explored some outdoor light sculptures.

Saturday we had lunch for Dad’s cousin’s birthday. The kids enjoyed spending time with family and friends.

Sunday morning Puff and Dad were up early to go for a walk and grab breakfast together before church.

Then this week Dad had the opportunity to pick up Huff from school; it was fun walking and listening to her reflect on what’s happening in her life (we also had hot chips).

Another school week, a visit from the cousins, and Huff had a school excursion into Haymarket (and the Friendship Gardens in Darling Harbour) for geography, but the highlight was a Saturday trip to Cockatoo Island on Saturday, with Puff’s boys group.

Puff had a great time laughing with his friends.

Huff enjoyed taking photos of the harbour, and other sights.

They were enjoying spending time together, even by the end of the day (though Puff stayed around to watch a movie with friends, while Huff was happy to go home and rest).

There’s lots of history to examine on Cockatoo Island; a mix of the old prison colony for convicts who had re-offended in Australia. Here’s Puff emerging from one of the old cells. They’re very cramped.

Huff really wanted a toy cockatoo, but hadn’t brought enough money, so made do with (and ended up being delighted with) a finger puppet version instead, dubbed “Flamey”.

Dad enjoyed spending the time with them, and Mum enjoyed a little well deserved rest.

The slow return to post-covid normal continues. Puff had his first school music event where we could go on-site.

We all went along to watch him play.

He was playing saxophone in one piece and violin in another.

On Saturday night we had a 21st to attend. Dad and Puff went to the city to get a gift, and some ramen.

Huff managed to walk away with quite a haul from the party, including parts of the piñata!

Also this week we had the cross-country race.

And Puff had another upgrade for his braces.

Just missed this on the last week’s post, but Huff, on emerging from the pool in too much of a hurry, was distracted and hurt her head with a big bruise that might feature in some photos for a little longer.

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast as a family.

Puff has been experimenting with drinking some decaf coffee; this is a decaf “cereal latte”, with fruit loops.

Saturday night we had dinner at a friend’s house, which was a bit of a late night. Then on Sunday, after church, Dad took the kids out again; this was to catch up for being away for so long the previous week.

It’s good to have had the chance to reconnect, even as this week has been very busy, so the routines have been disrupted. Only six months to go until the end of study, then it will be time to establish some new routines.