puff and huff

Last week of term was fairly busy for the kids, and we have been looking forward to things being a bit quieter. After a slow start to the day, we went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday for lunch. Huff had a chance to spend time with her cousin.

Huff had a great time at the park, balancing on things and climbing on things. She is going through her usual pattern of not entirely trusting something new, then succeeding at it, then running through it effortlessly.

Puff is looking for tougher challenges: he balanced his way along this rope and then…

Tried some sloth-ing (with some encouragement from Mum).

Then all the kids from lunch had a (carefully orchestrated) go at the see-saw. There were several nervous parents just out of frame.

Tuesday was movie day with Mum, Huff and Puff and Grandma (Dad was at work). 

Sunday morning the kids wanted to have a go at Settlers of Catan (a board game for Dad, for Father’s Day). With some careful management, the kids enjoyed their first go at it, and are keen to try it again. Dad had an epiphany that board games are more about helping kids learn to communicate and collaborate than about winning the game. It’s taken a while but it was a good insight to have.

Sunday afternoon we visited an uncle, and the cousins had the chance to spend some more time together.

Oh, and Monday night a very tired Puff made it through Bingo again with Mum. 

Dad has been spending some extra time with Huff practicing her reading skills: she’s getting a few new words, and building up her confidence.

Another big week; Dad has been a bit unwell, and even had a couple of days out of the office. Mum brought Huff in for a lunchtime visit, though she was already pretty tired (but too tired for cuddles).

Grandparents day was at Puff’s school, and there was a chance afterward for Huff to visit Grandma’s work.

On the weekend we went to a couple of cafes. Huff found one of the taller plants to be hilarious, calling it her “umbrella”.

Puff was in a bit more of a sombre mood, reading about maths for fun.

Sunday we went to visit cousin; she might look unhappy, but this was actually a happy moment where they were mugging for the camera.

This, perhaps, better captures the mood of the afternoon.

We also managed an updated family photo (thanks C&J).

Then, on the way home, Huff and Dad had a quick gelato break. After Dad and Puff getting to go for a walk earlier in the day, it was good to be able to have some one-on-one time with each of the kids.

Huff is continuing to make progress with her reading. Like everything new, she brings a stubbornness to it, wanting to learn in her own time. She will put up with reading a few words here and there, and then wants to move onto the next thing.

Huff fell in love with a toy Baymax, from Big Hero 6, which we watched with a friend. It was the friend’s toy, which made her very sad when she realised it wasn’t going home with her.

Puff’s health too has been up and down this week, but he – like Dad – has a hard time resting when sick. Let’s hope for better health next week!

A bit of an under-photographed week as we tried to spend some time together as a family without the devices (and then the kids were sick, so they had a bunch of extra time with the devices… so there’s that). Dad and the kids watched “Big Hero 6” on Sunday night, which was a fun, relaxing way for everyone to rest and try and get healthy.

Huff was in good spirits on Thursday, walking along a high fence, and quite reluctant to be helped down, even as the fence was higher than Mum’s head!

Friday morning was the Father’s Day breakfast at Puff’s school, so Puff and Dad went over for some bacon and egg rolls and some father-son time. He seems to be responding well to having regular access to Dad one-on-one, which reduces the pressure on any one particular encounter to be “now tell me everything that you’re unhappy about”.

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at a friend’s cafe. The kids loved its outdoor environment, and climbed all over and under our table while we were waiting for food to arrive.

Saturday afternoon was another father/son thing, this time with church people instead of school people. Dad and Puff played catch which, if not the first time we’d done it, was the first time in a long while. Puff’s skill at throwing and catching was improving as we kept at it: need to make this a more regular occurrence.

Huff had a birthday party to go to, and despite being increasingly interested in an Elsa costume, she was persuaded to try out this dragon costume. She loved it, running around the house saying “Ra!” in an uncharacteristically loud voice.

Here she is with full face paint on, doing craft.

That’s about it for the week. Mostly we had the kids being a bit sick and tired, a quiet father’s day celebration (including a visit to Grandma and Doc’s house), with not many photos being taken. See you next week!

Happy birthday to Puff, whose name is seeming less and less fitting as the years go on. He has his own preferences and personality, brings his own insights to the world as he’s experiencing it, but still has a great time with imaginative play, and talking with his sister about a range of different topics.

For his birthday Mum, Dad, Puff and Huff went out for all-you-can-eat food (and dessert), and he declared it his best birthday yet.

The next day was book week. Huff reprised her costume from last week’s blog post, and Puff had his matching costume, complete with ears.

Dad had the chance to watch the parade at school – lots of book characters (and still quite a few from movies and video games) before heading in to work.

On the weekend we headed down to Canberra to see some friends, stopping over at an aunt and uncle’s house. It was cold enough for Huff to spend most of the weekend in her new jumper (which seems like it will still fit next year!)

Where we were staying there was a wood stove, and Huff was keen to learn how to put wood into it (only when carefully supervised, but it held her attention).

There was also a shed with a mezzanine floor to explore. The kids loved it.

We spent Saturday mostly in Canberra with friends, looking at the miniatures in Cockington Green, and what would in some cases be the miniature dinosaurs at the National Dinosaur Museum.

Sunday was a surprise (for the kids) trip to see the Lego Expo, where there were various people in different costumes, and a broad range of Lego creations to look at.

Puff met some storm troopers (Huff was happy to high-five them, but didn’t want to be photographed with them).

Puff had the chance to drive a Lego front-end loader, with a Lego remote control.

It will surprise no-one to learn that the kids were keen to play with Lego when they returned to Sydney. Huff had a new, ice-themed Lego Mixel toy to assemble, which she did with almost no help (impressive effort), and then managed to work some kind of Princess Elsa from Frozen concepts into the way she played with it. Kids! 

Last post before Puff turns seven! Where did the time go? Well, I guess this blog documents the weeks as they’ve gone by. But it really happens fast. The kids are – for the most part – getting on really well. In the mornings of late they’ve been playing lego together.

With Dad working on Saturday, Puff had a few friends and family members over for the weekend. Puff was keen to help out, cutting up some snacks all by himself.

He had a few people bring gifts: he was pretty excited to receive this Lego submarine. He had to wait until Dad was back to build it, but it was up and being played with before church the next day.

Huff and Puff’s cousin was also over, celebrating her own birthday.

New shirt.

On Sunday we went out for some family time, and some drawing. Huff and Mum worked on some team drawing efforts, which she was loving.

Puff had more a geometric and puzzle-solving bent to his drawing.

We had afternoon tea at Grandma and Doc’s house: Puff continued to hone his knife skills.

It was also book week for Huff at preschool. She was dressed as Bottomley Potts (from Hairy Maclary)

Mum also did a great job at some face-painting to finish off the costume.

After school, they had a mini-picnic on the porch.

Stay tuned for next week, and Puff’s book week costume.

Again not many photos this week. We managed to capture a few high points. Huff was being very helpful in Puff’s music class, and so was awarded a star sticker. She was very proud.

Huff was keen to ice her own cupcakes for no reason; we ended up sharing them out for church morning tea, where they were very well received.

It’s been a week with not too many photos taken of the kids – Mum and Dad had a date night somewhere in the mix, and were trying not to use our phones as much when we’re parenting. Not sure if this will be an ongoing trend, but it makes for more conversations.

Huff managed to find a face-painting place in a shopping centre, so she ended up with a very intricate picture of rainbows and butterflies and clouds.

On Saturday, Huff and Dad spent some time together while Puff went to a baking class. We went on a train ride together and walked over a kilometre to get to breakfast. We looked around at the Grounds together – they have animals, and fancy lemonade, and lots of things to look at.

After that (the wait for a table at The Grounds was an hour) we went to a different cafe, called the General.

Huff was working on a drawing competition from a magazine Dad bought her (all her favourite TV shows were in there).

Puff was working on drawing some different shapes and mathematical things.

On the way back to the car, the kids practiced their quiet walking so they could talk to a friendly cat.

On Monday, Huff’s preschool had their annual walkathon. Huff had fun walking the full course with her little friends.

One of the challenges with Huff is helping her understand that any differences between her and her (two and a half year older) brother are due to the age gap, and nothing to do with whether she’s a girl. As with lots of second children, she will pick something that’s not already of interest to the first child, and concentrate on that. As a result, she tends to under-estimate how much she can do in terms of letters and numbers. To try and counter that a little, she now has a watch, and is learning how to tell the time.

Dad went up to Katoomba for the newly relaunched Men’s Convention event called Basecamp, and Mum and the kids came to pick him up afterward. Mum was feeling a bit unwell, and so stayed in the car while Huff and Puff checked out the lookouts – it was not far from here that Dad proposed to Mum, many years ago!

On the way home we stopped at a pizza place that had pizza plates; the kids waited fairly patiently despite the lateness of the hour.

Tuesday was another busy day of running different errands: somehow Dad managed to have dinner with the kids in amongst everything. For years the kids have been having this one dish at a range of Vietnamese restaurants. We would make these rice paper rolls at the table, and they would eat them. This dinner was the first time that Huff and Puff insisted they make their own rolls.

They did a really great job.

We’re now working out the balance between homework and the other things Puff wants to do; there’s no perfect solution. But that’s a topic for another week.

Lots of late nights this week. Friday night was the induction service for our new minister, and due to some miscommunication, both kids ended up being awake much later than we had hoped.

On Saturday for some father-son time, we went for some robotics and programming. On the train-ride in, Puff was mostly reading his science book.

Once there, he had some fun playing with circuits and a bit of time playing on Dad’s phone – there’s still quite a bit for him to learn before he’s keen to try robot-making on his own, but it seems like he’ll get there.

Meanwhile, Mum and Huff spent some time with Mum’s side of the family. 

After a day out, Dad and Puff picked up Huff so Mum could have an evening at a church activity. Both kids were keen to have dinner out (despite the lateness of the hour) so we had Vietnamese food.

There were chocolate spring rolls available for dessert, but the kids weren’t particularly interested.

The next day we had church, and after that we went to a new cafe for lunch. The kids get along really well. Most of the time. They were a bit restless after a series of late nights, so after a visit to see Grandma and Doc, it was time to go home for an early night.

Next year, Huff will be starting school – she thought she would try on a schoolbag for size: it still dwarfs her.

Huff also made a little greeting card for Dad called “love Dad”. And some realistic looking planet drawings, complete with labels that she’d written for some of the planets. It’s great to have a daughter: she’s well on her way to becoming an Astronaut medic. 

Not many photos this week: we’ve been concentrating on being present with the kids. Saturday we did a quick run for coffee, and then spent the day with some of Dad’s old friends visiting us at our place. We managed a walk to the park – two Dads and six kids walking across the suburb to kick the football around. The kids lasted about two kicks before spotting the play equipment.

Sunday morning Puff wanted to spend some time with Dad, so we walked across the bridge and fed the ducks. We have worked out the timing of a walk to church pretty well.

Sunday afternoon it was Huff’s turn, so we made some pasta together. She still needs some more practice rolling the pastry with a rolling pin.

And then in the afternoon, Mum taught Puff how to play Carcassonne – his new favourite game.