puff and huff

We’re almost at the end of the school year. Puff won an award at the school assembly, so we planned to go out for celebratory gelato (I asked him to spell “celebratory gelato” – he hesitated, but managed it). The kids actually picked a yoghurt shop over a gelato shop, and they ate everything we’d picked for them.

Dad may have helped Huff a little with her yoghurt.

There has been a fair bit of Christmas shopping this week. Huff paused to watch iView on the complementary iPad.

On Saturday, we went to watch the new Paddington movie. The kids found it a bit scary in places, but mostly enjoyed it.

Huff borrowed Grandragon’s glasses to see how they’d look.

With the end of year, all Puff’s schoolwork is coming home with him. Dad had a flick through, and found this picture in the midst of a story about umbrellas. It’s great to be a Dad sometimes.

It’s been another big week. We’re heading into Christmas party season, and the kids are starting to enjoy the trappings that go with that. We had our church Christmas event over the weekend, where we had a dinner open to anyone in the community who wanted to come along.

This will be the first Christmas that Huff understands what’s happening. She’s enjoying the Christmas traditions (like paper hats), and understands that it’s something to do with the baby Jesus.

Offered without comment: a picture of Bandit going for a ride in Puff’s car seat.

The kids went out with us to breakfast at a cafe that’s becoming an increasingly regular part of our weekend.

After breakfast, we went to the Christmas party for Dad’s new work. The kids were really well behaved, and enjoyed some time in the outdoors. Check out this giant picnic blanket!

Sunday was church, and after that, we took the kids out for slurpees (it was a hot day) and then lunch. Puff is mostly looking happy here because he had a chance to play screens.

Huff, on the other hand, is looking happy because she can. Or perhaps the toast. But mostly because she can look happy.

Oh, and today was presentation day at school. Puff won an award for his violin playing at school. As good an occasion as any for a selfie.

Just over two more weeks until Christmas!

Heading ever closer to the first Christmas that Huff is going to remember. This week saw a lot of photos taken in preparation for a cake for one of Mum’s uncles, some of which ended up being beautiful portraits of the kids. here’s what Puff looks like now:

Huff had some big days this week: one afternoon she was asleep in the car, and then came inside and went back to sleep on the couch!

When she wasn’t asleep, she was helping Puff with some important colouring in (better than screens as an in-cafe distraction).

We took both kids into a shoe shop for a size upgrade. Puff wasn’t sure about the shoes we picked for him: he’s more interested in the light-up variety, but Mum and Dad were concerned that such light-up shoes would not be deemed school uniform for sports days.

After a late night on Sunday, Mum was happy for a sleep-in. Dad took the kids out for a walk to a local cafe. Huff and Puff like the cafe because it has a wall-mounted TV. Can you tell from Huff’s line of sight?

Later in the day, we visited a friend with a new baby (and saw cousin E as well). Huff enjoyed playing with the bigger (and smaller) kids, but her favourite thing was something that created some peace and quiet.

Come December 1, Puff was allowed to help set up the Christmas tree, which he did with great fervour, enthusiasm, and a step-stool to help him reach the top branches. Huff helped too, but was harder to photograph. Dad was busy cleaning up messes from one of the other household visitors, so didn’t get a usable photo of the two of them decorating the tree. Next year!

Huff has been in increasingly good moods posing for the camera. Here she is with a leaf.

Some extra father/daughter and father/son+daughter time this week. Dad is starting to understand what each of them are looking for when spending time with them one-on-one.

For Puff, it’s a listening ear when he talks about his ideas for future (or current) ideas for video games or other ways of solving the world’s problems. For Huff, it’s catching as many trains as possible, ideally the ones where the seats can be reversed. Such seats are *amazing* – and she’s happy to tell anyone she encounters that little gem of information.

Wednesday, Mum took Huff to connect – she was a mix of good behaviour and more challenging behaviour. Here’s the calm before the storm.

We also took her for her pre-school orientation: she made seven artworks (4 paintings and 3 collages) in an hour and a half. We’re going to need bigger walls (or more strict curation processes).

A few screen-related treats this week, including the kids playing different games on the Wii: it seemed to be a war of attrition, each choosing a longer game than the other. Puff’s 41-minute bike riding effort seemed to be the high water mark, but there’s still time for that record to be broken!

On Saturday morning, Dad was doing sermon prep, and then in the afternoon we took the kids out for lunch. Huff slept through the whole thing, so it was a great chance to listen to Puff tell us his take on the world.

The next day, after Dad’s sermon was preached, we visited friends who were in Sydney for the weekend, and had Yum Cha. Our kids are big fans of the desserts at least!

While Mum took our friends for a drive, Dad offered to take the kids home via public transport. We had a great adventure, looking at the Christmas decorations that already adorn the QVB. And catching *three* trains on the way home, due as much to trackwork as to an attempt to create childhood memories.

Monday Huff and Mum had new haircuts. Huff’s is slightly easier to tie up than it was… is there any other criteria for a toddler’s hair style?

Today Dad had the rare chance to spend the day doing all the kid stuff. The school run, then a trip into the city to – well, to catch a train – drop off some paperwork, then go through the botanic gardens, past the opera house, to grab a coffee, and then two trains home. We stopped for a couple of photos.

Huff did an incredible amount of running. She runs with such utter conviction and happiness. It’s hard to imagine something more completely happy than the way Huff runs on the grass in the botanic gardens.

Huff is getting taller, Puff is getting taller.. the tiny children we used to have are slowly being replaced by these little people. Huff is showing more interest in reading letters and numbers, in her environment. As we walked through the gardens, she was asking me to read statue plaques and bench seat dedication signs to her. It’s great to watch her mind develop.

We’re still in search of the perfect lunchtime distraction for Huff when Mum and Dad try and have lunch together: we could be onto a winner with the noodles. Huff was a big fan.

Dad had the chance to spend some extra time just with Huff this week. The two of them went into the city on Friday for coffee mornings; Huff was really well behaved (pretty keen on spotting jacaranda trees on the train) and had enough energy to manage all the walking involved in the day’s adventure.

Saturday morning was a chance to have breakfast with a friend. The kids had fun jumping around on the footpath outside the cafe, and then relished some coveted screen time while we caught up.

Swimming continues to progress: both kids are moving forward in leaps and bounds. Huff was reclining here after taking one of these chairs and climbing up onto the trampoline while she waited for her brother to finish his lesson. She managed to get on and off the trampoline by herself, a first.

It wasn’t all time with Huff (though it was mostly photos of her). Puff and Dad went for a slurp walk after church on Sunday, and caught up on the week’s events, plus Dad has had a chance to do the school run a few times.

Taking photos is getting to be a distraction on both sides of the camera: it makes the kids think about playing screens, and can distract the adults too.

Quite a few adventures this week. Puff and Mum spent some time together on a couple of occasions. First up, making bread. Puff did a great job with the dough, and was very proud of the end result, looking for ways he could share it with people.

After that, Huff was pretty desperate to make bread with Dad, but Dad talked her into making a delicious (and easy) chocolate cake instead. 

Later in the week, Puff went to his school disco, and had some time with Mum afterwards. The glowing star was Huff’s new favourite toy for the next couple of days.

Huff continues to be very cuddly, sometimes as an expression of her own general outlook on life, other times to try and avoid punishment for something she’s done wrong, and sometimes just to annoy her brother when he’s playing screens.

With some spare time at the moment, Dad was able to go to Kindermusik with Huff, running around crazily with the other kids in the class.

Huff was a bit worn out afterwards, and slept through lunch.

She was very sad to have missed out, but it wasn’t long before there was another cafe, and some more babycinos and brawniest (the current favourite cafe food).

Saturday was our annual pilgrimage to Sculpture by the Sea with another family. We had great fun looking at the sculptures and running around outside, but the kids were persuaded to sit still at least long enough to try out this “junk” throne.

Sunday morning we were up early enough to have breakfast out: Dad took the kids for a drive there, and they behaved themselves reasonably well.

Huff was watching the photos being picked for this week, and asked to have one with her babycino included, so here we are. You can see the mischief in her eyes, but she’s very cute.

Another week where we haven’t taken many photos of the kids. Breakfast on Saturday with Grandragon we let the kids have some screen time while they were waiting for the food to arrive. They’re pretty good at putting the screens down when asked, which is encouraging.

Mum went to a parenting information evening on Saturday night, and is trying a few new approaches to how she interacts with the kids. 

Sunday morning Puff and Dad went on a walking adventure together. On a steep hill, Puff was motivated enough to run ahead. Once we found a cafe, we stopped for breakfast and a game of chess. 

We also called in to see Grandma and Doc, and play some boardgames and make some imaginary tea and coffee to hand around.

Monday and Tuesday continue to be swimming lesson days: Huff would rather bounce on the trampoline than watch her brother’s lessons, though she’s a trooper.

Huff shows a great desire to understand what people like, and organise it for them in the form of small gifts. Dad managed a walk to a cafe with Huff and share some father/daughter time too: at this stage, she’s more interested in kissing him on the cheek than engaging in conversation, but it seems best to keep the lines of communication open.

Dad had some extra time with the kids this week, including some extra adventures on the weekend. We took advantage of the new Slurpee promotion by grabbing a bracelet for each of the kids to go with their sugary treats.

We stopped on the way home from a meeting for some lunch and a play in the playground. The kids liked the vegetables better than the nuggets and chips, which remains a good sign.

Sunday morning we went for a walk before church. Huff is showing more interest in recognising numbers, and we’re trying to stretch her into learning longer numbers: letterboxes are a good combination of proximity and height. Puff – who knows all his numbers was impressive in his restraint: staying quiet and letting Huff figure it out for herself.

Mum and Dad had some time together today, bringing Huff along to share lunch and dessert (her latest achievement was eating an entire Brewnut by herself). This picture captures the combination of tired and happy that characterises her at the moment.

Puff is continuing along with his schoolwork – some weeks homework is a challenge, other weeks it’s much easier to have him get through it: we’re trying to help him learn resilience.

Another big week: some travelling adventures and a visit to Puff’s school where his class was running the school assembly.

We realised at the last minute that Puff needed a black t-shirt for the assembly, so there was a late-night-shopping trip: the size 8 shirt we ended up with was a bit big, but still seemed to do the job.

Huff did pretty well, enjoying the assembly and having a good time with her friend in some of the gaps.

After the assembly, Dad caught the train into the city with Huff; we had babycinos and she took a few photos with Dad’s phone.

We then met Mum for lunch: here she is being very cute with Mum.

On Saturday, Dad took Huff and Puff on a public transport journey. We caught a bus together. Being a Saturday morning, we had the back of the bus to ourselves. Puff was busily counting white cars during the trip.

Huff was more interested in the scenery.

We managed a visit to see Grandma and Doc, and Puff tried his hands at being a mechanic.

Puff’s swimming is coming along nicely. Both kids really enjoy their swimming lessons – it’s amazing how quickly they have surpassed their Dad’s skills in the water.

 

It’s been a big week, finishing with Grandragon’s release from hospital, so we’re expecting a more traditional week of activities next week. This week has looked – especially for Huff – a little more like this:

Dad has made the most of his availability to spend time with the kids – he had the chance to walk Puff to school (and pick him up a few times too). A good opportunity for some chats.

Saturday morning we had a chance to head into Eveleigh markets: Puff had his traditional favourite breakfast – a cinnamon apple crepe. Huff had some fancy yoghurt, and Dad had a rather disappointing Pho soup.

Back at the hospital, Huff and Puff learned to play skip-bo (Huff was more interested in watching the game be played).

Hospital visits have made for some late nights this week, but the kids have been resilient (and certainly haven’t varied their wake-up time).

Dad took the kids out for dinner on Saturday night after leaving hospital for tiny burgers, but they weren’t very interested.

Sunday night it was noodles in a Thai restaurant: much more successful (perhaps starting with some screen time while the food was prepared helped).

Monday was the expected leaving day, so Dad took Puff to school, then took Huff to swimming lessons, then off for a quick snack before visiting Grandragon.

Huff somehow worked out that there were “invisible fairies” in the cupboard next to Grandragon’s bed, and that they could be transported home safely in a rubber glove.

On the way home from the hospital on Monday night, we called into another place for noodles. This too was very popular, despite Huff’s insistence that she was still hungry, then falling asleep, then struggling to wake up at dinner time.

We had lots of feedback from people (especially at the hospital) about how well behaved the kids were, which was encouraging. Thanks to those who offered help during the past two weeks.