puff and huff

With the car needing an obscure part, we had lots of trips to the mechanics this week, and only short drives allowed, which made for a fairly quiet last-full-week of the school holidays. There was lots of family time, but Dad managed to get a bit of one-on-two time with the kids in there somewhere.

We played a couple of rounds of putt-putt golf (which is much more fun when you relax your strict rules for how the 4 year old needs to have proper technique).

The kids had enough time to notice the creatures that adorned the park. While we did stop in the first game to let a few other groups play through, the occasional drizzle kept the overall numbers down, and we were able to pose for a few photos. I think they’re saying “elephant”?

A friend posted a photo similar to this one on Facebook, so Dad took the kids to see it – and then Puff wasn’t interested in being in the photo at all. At least Huff is keen on giant comic-book-themed sculptures.

Sunday after church we went out for family lunch. Puff was probably feeling a bit game-starved, as you can tell from this photo.

We managed to snap him out of it though. If you look carefully, you can see the gap from his 7th missing tooth – it came out while he was doing some colouring in at church!

Monday we had a choir rehearsal to take Puff to, so we headed into the city with enough time to help him realise his final goal for the holidays – to play video games at an arcade in the city! Huff had fun with some of the bopping and the fishing games too.

After choir practice, Dad went to the mechanic to fix up our now-healed car, and took Huff out for some Dad-Huff time. We rode on two shuttle buses, and had some chocolate treats.

Tuesday (today) was Australia Day, so we caught the train into the city so Puff could sing in his school choir event.

This is them – the area was cordoned off because there was a 21-gun salute in the same space: when the kids finished singing they put in earplugs!

Puff did really well, and was excited to be able to drink cold water straight from the esky afterwards.

It was time for a rare photo-op with Dad (Grandragon photobombing in the background).

Afterwards we went out for a ferry ride (Puff read his book on the ferry) and lunch, and the kids took turns taking group photos of everyone. Here’s Huff’s one!

Hard to believe it, but by the next update we’ll have two school children!

It’s the count-down to the start of big school for Huff. We’ve seen school uniform fittings, an increased sense of attachment to both parents, and some minor acting out, but for the most part she’s still the same little girl.

One new skill: doing Mum’s hair.

A second new skill: advanced rope-bridge climbing (she was telling me she’d dreamt of a bridge like this one).

Both kids were glad for an outing with Dad where we took a scooter (Huff) and wheely shoes (Puff) for a walk around a big garden.

Oh, and Huff has helped Dad a couple of times this week with some scrambled egg cooking.

Also in this week’s events: a public transport adventure from home to the Illawarra and back by public transport. No mean feat on a hot day.

See you when we’re a week closer to the start of school!

It’s been a bit of a rainy school holiday week on and off. After a bunch of time playing inside, Mum took the kids on a public transport adventure. Despite their expressions in the photo, they enjoyed the bus ride and the train ride a lot.

There’s been a lot of colouring this week – Huff is getting into using the textas on her one-colouring-pattern-per-day desk calendar, and Puff continues to enjoy his Adam Spencer book.

Huff had a chance to sit on a motorbike this week, but – after it had been parked outside for a while – she found it was a bit too warm to be comfortable.

She cheered up later in the weekend, though.

Today there was climbing (Puff is climbing in the background) – it was encouraging to hear Puff spontaneously talk up Huff’s bravery at dinner time today.

It was finally hot enough for some water play.

And Puff had a great time on the giant inflatable thing at the pool, even trying out the rope swing at one point.

We also saw another movie (The Good Dinosaur) and had dinner out, but there weren’t really photos from that. Huff found the movie too scary, while Puff was okay with it.

Happy New Year! Another year of parenting begins. Lots of little things this week. An early-morning trip to the airport to see a friend off, followed by a cafe breakfast, followed by a photo-op in front of this driftwood horse before it was packed away for another year. Huff insisted on a photo in front of the horse.

Later in the day she was playing in the sandpit. She stayed in for quite a while, having a great time (and perhaps a little break from some of the bigger kids we were playing with).

On New Year’s Eve, we had a rare moment of cramming three kids into the back of our car so the cousins could spend some time together.

Back in Sydney, they managed to stay up late enough to see fireworks, but not late enough to talk about them afterward.

Huff is increasingly keen for one-on-one time with Dad, who had one day this week walking a couple of kilometres with each of them. It’s great to see the world through their eyes (even if losing the game of whose-species-of-bird-is-more-common on our walk can get a bit tedious). Huff in particular was keen to walk through what she’s dubbed “echo tunnel”, and wanted to walk on the dirt, spotting all the tree roots and birds along the way.

There was also a movie afternoon with a surprise extra family guest!

Huff continues to be a little obsessed with playing with her self-painted-Frozen themed dolls: at least this time they weren’t complaining about not being able to play because Dad was busy painting the remaining doll.

The kids were asked who was their favourite Peanuts movie character. Both picked Snoopy and Woodstock and then Huff added “and I liked the evil girl” (Lucy) because at the end there is (spoilers) a bit of character redemption.

We’ve had some family time together this week with Dad on leave, and so in addition to the extra time playing screens that go with the holidays, there have been various adventures with Dad. After a period of time playing Peasant’s Quest on the computer, Puff drew his first ever picture of Trogdor the Burninator. This could be the first dragon drawing that has made it onto this blog!

More of the week was spent preparing for different Christmas events. The kids decorated a gingerbread / shortbread house together. Huff is really the most interested decorator of the two, but they both contributed.

 After lunch at Grandma and Doc’s house, (we forgot to take a family photo), we stopped for afternoon tea at a friend’s place.

 Then before we knew it, it was Boxing Day, and time for lunch with another part of the family. When the kids weren’t having fun in the blow-up pool, they were playing with some of their gifts from the previous couple of days.

 There was some gardening to catch up on. Huff was keen to volunteer her services for some father-daughter time – she did a good job with the rake!

Each of the kids had received a gift from our next-door neighbour. Huff’s was a set of three plaster-of-paris Frozen dolls, and a bunch of paints. Dad helped with the colour mixing, and some touch-ups.

 Puff’s gift was a remote-control helicopter. Here we are on its maiden voyage (it flew wildly into the air, then stopped flying and dropped from a significant height, but looks like it can still fly… time will tell). According to the box, it’s for age 14+, so it might be a bit of a stretch. 

We celebrated the end of public holidays with a cafe trip. Huff is enjoying some of the colouring books that came her way over the Christmas period.

Overall, we were impressed with how the kids went through Christmas. Despite being given a huge number of gifts, they remained well behaved, polite and grateful, and have (for the most part) been patiently waiting for the right opportunity to play with them. It continues to be a joy to watch them growing up.

With all the Christmas celebrations, the kids have more access than usual to torches and glow-in-the-dark toys, which you’ll see in this week’s photos. Huff thought it was hilarious to put the candle-torch under her pyjama shirt, and to be fair, there’s a certain Iron Man aspect to it that works.

The exciting event for this week was the end-of-preschool disco. Huff had a necklace and bracelet to wear under the disco lighting.

There was a massive (20 min) queue for face-painting. Puff came along to the disco as well, and managed to persuade the poor face-painter that an Angry Bird was something she’d  be able to do. It’s odd to see Puff at pre-school, now that he’s finished another year of school. he seems too big for the place, but it seems like only yesterday he was there.

 Huff waited patiently in the face painting queue to get her rainbow. She was so happy with it that she slept with her face still painted, and wore a rainbow the next day as well!

The kids helped Mum with some shopping. They’re very patient.

Saturday, despite the heat, Puff was really keen to go for a walk with Dad. We ended up (after walking a few kilometres) getting cold drinks together. Puff was very glad to see his milkshake, and finished it (almost) in one go.

The kids (and Mum) had dentist appointments this week as well: there were some anxious moments, but no lasting bad memories, which is a tribute to modern dentistry.

Oh, and Huff was given a new pair of sunglasses.

Lots of other small events; we played Cluedo together as a family (Huff was bored fairly quickly, but still played for a while). We’ve been trying to make more time to do things together, and try and spend blocks of time offline – it gives the kids a lot more creativity and capacity to be observant, but there’s a lot of additional whinging. So it’s a trade-off.

Lots more end-of-year tasks at the moment. Huff was putting together Christmas ornaments and gifts for his friends.

Puff has finally reached the point in the school year where we get to see him perform his school drama. Here he is in costume as “Narrator 1” (there are 2 narrators in the play).

Huff decided that this toy would make a good beard.

Saturday morning we had a quiet day at home, and Dad finally retrieved and set up the Christmas tree. The kids decorated it.

Mum asked them to pose for a picture together. Puff has worked out how to minimise the height difference.

It was pretty late in the day will all the Christmas tree decorating, and we decided to go out for lunch. Puff was pretty hungry by the time we went out, so he was in a silly mood when we sat down.

Here is a brief time capsule of the kids at church morning tea, having some snacks.

After church we had the kids’ great uncle’s 70th birthday party.

After that, a violin performance by Puff, and then carols in the park. Huff sat in Dad’s lap to watch the fireworks – the first time she’s seen them in person.

Lots of final things. Dad took Huff down for her last day of preschool.

And then another carols evening. Thanks to Aunty S and Grandragon for braving the weather. And to Huff for being silly in front of the camera.

Only one more blog post until Christmas!

We’re getting into end-of-year concert season, and so there are heaps of reasons for us to be at school and preschool. Puff wore a tie for the first time this week (one of Dad’s ties). 

This was for a concert performance at school: the tie might (in hindsight) have been a bit long.

There have been a few late nights here and there: Huff makes up for it with the occasional nap, which – on awaking – she doesn’t admit to. I was just resting.

Sunday had the kids going to their grandmother’s work picnic day – a bus ride and a day at the beach. They had a great time.

Huff continues to pull strange faces when she knows the camera is on.

Huff ended up with a doll that can sing “twinkle twinkle little star”, and Puff ended up with a cricket set. It was Puff’s cricket set that was more fun, for both kids.

Huff had her preschool concert – 30 kids all singing songs and doing actions together. Grandragon and Aunty and Uncle and cousin E all came along to watch. She was keen to share her afternoon tea with Dad. 

Next step is to get the house ready for Christmas.