puff and huff

Another week has rolled past: we’ve been a little unwell as a family, but we’re doing okay in general. It’s been a bit of a challenge to get Puff to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and when we have, he’s been staying in his bed reading. The first night was a single book (Fox in Socks) but the second night was 8-10 different books all in a pile. We’ve been warding off the bedbugs with a couple of night lights, but the brighter of the two is too bright for him not to give into the temptation to read.

Huff has been increasing in activity: – she is loving being on the play mat, and reaching out for anything that is nearby.

Another little milestone was her rolling over, and then rolling back.

With her added abilities, we’ve started to put her in the stroller for little trips – here she is on the way to Eveleigh markets.

Like most kids her age, she explores things by putting them in her mouth. Sometimes she brings the object to her mouth, other times it’s the reverse.

She also had fun playing with her friend baby O.

Puff, on the other hand, has been pushing the boundaries of what he can do in playgrounds. Exploring the heights, playing on big slides.

And generally wearing himself out.

Puff and Dad went on an epic journey from one suburb to the next, in search of (a long walk and) a playground, and he had a great time climbing and running around.

And on Sunday morning, Puff and Dad went out for a pre-church breakfast and some sticker-book. He’s worked through a lot of sticker books, learning some basic reading, addition and subtraction, and improving his motor skills. It’s one of his favourite things to do.

Mum, Puff and Huff were driving along when Puff suddenly said “that sign says one way, and I think it’s right”. So it’s not just the things that he’s memorised.

We’re seeing a little bit of jealousy between the two of them: when Huff monopolises Dad’s time, Puff starts to misbehave a little bit. Dad is trying to balance out the time spending, but it’s a tough needle to thread!

Dad is still trying to convince Mum to post some updates here, so that the things that Dad misses end up on the site.

Everyone is healthy again! Everyone can breathe, tempers are getting better, and life seems good.

Huff continues her attempts to try eating things by putting them in her mouth, and – more confusingly, by leaning forward to put her mouth on them directly.

Puff and Huff are getting along well. Puff regularly shares his favourite toys with her, and she continues to be fascinated to watch him.

Puff had a particularly good week for treats this week – here he is trying out churros with chocolate (afterwards he had a big chocolate moustache).

Having a new car has changed the way we spend time: Puff likes the height of the car – he can see more out the windows. He’ll happily read, or act out role plays with whichever soft toys he’s brought with him, or eat snacks in the back of the car, and listen to songs on the car’s CD player, and even sing along.

On Saturday morning, the four of us headed to Eveleigh Markets where we bought him his first Keep Cup. It’s our plan to break his sippy-cup habit with the Keep Cup for his milk drinking, and it seems to be working so far.

Here’s some footage of Puff tracing his online name with Aunty C.

This week everyone has been sick to a greater or lesser degree. Dad jumped to the head of the list after a trip to the doctor on Monday, but everyone is starting to get better again.

Huff and Puff had some time playing with Dad while Mum slept. Here she is playing with the toys on her playmat.

She’s getting more interested in eating, and – though we haven’t had any success giving her solid food yet – we’ve started her out on (gluten-free) rusks.

It’s good to see that Puff continues to love his little sister – today (until a little disagreement about who should have her blanket) he was sitting down, sharing her blanket, and almost managed to “read” her a story.

Reading is a big thing, especially in the winter months, and when everyone is sick. It’s fun watching my kids hearing the same stories I remember from my own childhood. Amazing how the old Dr Seuss books just sink into your memory.

It’s not just reading, though: this weekend Dad took him into the backyard to kick a ball around a little bit – he loved it! After church this week, he was having a great time bouncing a ball around, and even (out of character) splashing around in the puddles. It was messy, but he survived it. We’re going to do some more outdoor things as soon as the ground dries.

Puff is making progress with his knife skills – a few mornings this week he’s been having bananas with his Weetbix, and he’s been keen to peel and slice them himself. He does a good job: even slices, and eats it tidily.

For Dad’s birthday, Mum gave him a big edition of the works of A. A. Milne. We’ve been reading Winnie the Pooh together. Tonight we reached the last chapter of the second (and final) book, which (not to give too much away) is about growing up, and leaving childish things behind. It made me sad about how fleeting childhood is, and how this stage of life – as frustrating as it is at times – will be over before I know it. Puff will be all grown up, and my role in his life will be completely different.

Helped me to resolve to take advantage of the time I have with him a little more, and indulge the electronic distractions a little less. Perhaps.

For the first time in a long while, we started using the “good” camera this week: see if you can tell the difference from the usual camera-phone pictures!

This was the last week of Grandragon’s stay with us – she headed back home today, which Puff coped with surprisingly well. Dad has had to stay back working on occasion, and this meant that one evening Mum had to read all the bedtime stories. Dad was home in time to do the reading, but Puff turned him down, preferring Mum to have a go instead.

On Saturday, we went to Wollongong to see Aunty C and Uncle J, and to look at a farmyard nursery. We made it just as the animals were being packed up, which meant that Puff managed to pat most of the animals on their way back to the horse float. He handled the situation well, although he wasn’t a bit fan of the squealing pigs.

Huff is having more and more interest in food – she has a small cache of favourite toys – bright coloured, and with lots of options for gripping. She has a tendency to drop things, but it doesn’t seem to phase her.

Most of the time, Puff is happy. We’re starting to understand what the normal variations are of his mood, and what is reasonable to expect from him. Until everything changes again.

Puff is getting more and more into his craft – we’ve given him some clear plastic boxes that he’s allowed to play with. He’s been very good at packing up when we tell him, and has even started helping to set the table on occasion.

Huff and Puff continue to get along pretty well most of the time. He’s happy to bring her toys back to her when she drops them, and doesn’t seem too jealous of the attention she gets – he prefers to go back to doing craft.

Grandragon had a couple of chances to bathe her granddaughter, and Mum managed to take a few tasteful photos of the event – here’s one of them.

One other major factor of the week was Puff having a great time playing with Bandit. He laughed and played, and was – for the most part – very responsible in the way he was helping look after Grandragon’s cute little dog.

One last thing – he’s starting to learn how to write letter and numbers, and loving it.

Our time with Huff is changing – she’s starting to be strong enough to sit up with some assistance. This week saw her trying out some new favourite toys.

She made her first appearance at a high tea, in Katoomba, looking very elegant in her party dress (thanks to our guest photographer for this shot).

And she had her first go in the high chair. Puff had a bit of trouble sharing this high chair with her, but it seems to have worked out okay.

Friday night saw us (Mum, Dad, Puff, Huff and the Grandragon) head to Bankstown Sports Club for dinner, with gelato for dessert.

After a long walk around the facilities with Dad (some lift rides, seeing some live piano music, and looking around at lots of lights and numbers), there was still gelato to be had for dessert.

Saturday while Mum and Huff were having fun at the high tea, Dad and Huff went to Scenic World for an adventure. We took the train down the mountain (Puff was fine with the big gradient, but didn’t like “the dark”), went on a long walk along the raised walkway, and then caught the cable car back up.

We’re not sure what the highlight was for him, but he was certainly a big fan of the yoghurt that was on sale in the kiosk – it was the first thing he asked about once off the cable car.

Puff’s negotiation skills are improving too. Instead of his usual, somewhat lengthy, bedtime story, he chose a book for a much younger reader, but read “lots” of times. I offered “3” times as “lots”, and he said “a hundred”. I offered “10”, as that was the number of butterflies referred to as “lots” in a recent library book. He met me half-way, with “99”. And then, his next step was “98”. I decided to cave, and read that book once, and his choice of another book once as well.

Another week with the Grandragon staying with us, and it’s been long enough that she has knitted Huff a new travel sleeping bag – here she is modelling it.

She is increasingly interested in the world around her, and likes watching things that have bright colours. Occasionally she will lift up a toy and bring it to her mouth: otherwise, she just looks amazed when she does something new, like watching her feet move around.

In the mornings, she’ll wake up before she’s hungry, and be happy to spend some time in the bouncer, or looking out the window at the light and colours.

Puff has given us some grief this week in his night routine: from somewhere, a fear of bed bugs has crept in, and he’s wanted to have a series of long reassurances from Dad that everything will be fine. It’s tough to convince him that it’s okay for Dad to leave the room, and that he doesn’t have to “stay until eight-oh-oh and then [Puff] and Dad will get up and turn the light off and go out of the room and make breakfast”, but he seems to be getting his groove back.

We’ve had a few cold evenings this week, and so the heater has been on in Puff’s room a little more often than usual. For whatever reason, he hasn’t worked out that getting dressed in front of the heater is much more pleasant, but really we’re happier that he doesn’t play with appliances, so that’s a good thing.

Saturday was a trip into Newtown for breakfast with Dad, Puff and Aunty S, and then a trip to the park, and a stroller ride. We had a great time watching the dogs in the park, and talking and playing in the park.

From there we went to another friend’s house, where we played with their kids and had lunch together, and then a quick trip to Koorong to try out the play equipment. Sunday was a day of two different church services, with a trip to the shops in between.

This was an odd moment during the week. Puff had spelled out the names of various numbers, and had all of them right, except that the seven was backwards. Once this was pointed out, Puff couldn’t help himself but fix it right away.

We were asking Puff what he wanted for dessert, and he said “10 jellybeans in a cup”. Dad went to the cupboard to fetch a small plastic bowl, but Puff said “No, that’s a bowl”. The next plastic receptacle retrieved from the cupboard was deemed a “container”, and then “Yes! That’s a cup! Good Daddy.”

Not much by way of photos of Huff this week, but we managed to snag this brief photo of her after her bath.

A couple of new behavioural traits from Puff emerged this week. One was his tendency to say “Not yet, soon” when asked any to do anything he doesn’t want. The other one, which he’s already outgrown, is to take his rubber ducks, and then sit on this inflatable chair while he “hatches” them.

On Friday night we took Puff and Huff out to dinner. At the table there was a little display of Keno cards (the ones for betting) and little pencils, and he had fun drawing lines between the different numbers (at least until we found him something else to colour in). Another challenge – the enormous “kids meal” portion sizes – are you really meant to have the same portion when you’re 2 and when you’re 12?

Saturday was some father-son time, and Dad and Puff headed to Eveleigh markets, and then across Newtown to Sydney Park. For whatever reason, Puff didn’t want to go down the slide, and preferred to climb down the wall instead. He did this a good half-dozen times and had to be coaxed to explore anything else!

Sunday saw us make the trip down to Mittagong for a friend’s baptism. Once the eskies were no longer needed, Puff had a great time playing with the ice.

He also saw his first jack-in-the box. Given his tendency to be stressed by surprises, he coped really well with it.

One other thing that is a regular part of Puff’s week is a trip to some kind of play equipment or other. No matter how engrossed he gets in what he’s doing, though, he still has time to look up and see what his parents are doing.

We’re still struggling to make progress with getting him to feed himself an entire meal. This week saw him make some direct requests to be fed, even when eating easy meals like toast. No number of explanations about what “big kids” should do seem to resonate. Still, next week is another chance to fix it.

We managed to make the purchase decision for our replacement car this week, so there was a mix of public transport, borrowed cars and our new ride. We’re driving a 4wd car now, with a bit more space than we had before (and still a high ANCAP rating).

Huff continues to grow up ever so slowly. She’s starting to get interested in holding toys, and enjoy interacting with people – if left alone in her bouncer, she will yelp a little bit until someone looks at her again.

Huff spends a lot of time playing in the bouncer – it’s a good in-between zone between being carried and being on her playmat on the floor. With Bandit (and the Grandragon) visiting at the moment, it doesn’t seem like a wise place for her to be!

Puff continues to surprise us with his ability to remember larger and larger sections of Beatrix Potter books, and to point out words that he’s memorised.

One benefit of having no car this week was that Puff finally had a chance to take a couple of bus rides. He enjoyed them immensely, though there’s a major lack of convenience involved in taking strollers on and off the bus, and waiting for timetables to line up.

To celebrate Public Holiday monday this week, we went on a long-ish car ride. We travelled up to Hornsby, and then back down to Cronulla for play equipment and gelato respectively – it worked well with everyone’s sleep patterns, and provided an opportunity for some family time. Despite the cold-ish weather, Puff was happy to have an ice cream (except, oddly, the cone).

Sunday morning, in a vain attempt to give Mum a pre-church sleep-in, Puff and Dad trekked up to the local shops. Dad was hoping to have a breakfast pizza, but Puff insisted on a “babycino with sprinkles”, and there was only one place where that could be found. He managed to eat half his banana bread (showing some skill in slicing with a plastic knife) before tiring of the whole endeavour, and the trip home.

Pre-work breakfast with Puff continues, and Dad has been taking photos of his breakfasts of late. Puff – ever involved in whatever Dad is doing – asked to be part of the photo, and then made sure that we added a photo of Monkey into the mix. This continues to be Puff’s favourite toy, and is increasingly personified into Puff’s daily adventures.

Other events this week
* travelling down to Wollongong for Aunty C and Uncle J’s housewarming

* visiting Grandma and Doc
* not quite making it to Vivid Sydney, but having Japanese food for dinner on Friday night instead

We’ve been hoping for a while to be able to upgrade our car to something that would work better for Mum’s back, but this week, our hand was forced when (don’t worry, everyone is fine) our car was in an accident – sandwiched in between two cars.

Here is all the stuff from the car, on the side of the road.

Today Huff makes it to four months: she becomes more and more interested in her surroundings, and can even pick up a toy occasionally, before letting it go again.

Huff had her immunisations yesterday (we had to line it up while we still had a hire car) and was weighed – she’s going well, at 5.84kg.

Sunday brought some new challenges to encouraging quiet play while Mum had a much needed sleep-in. We went outside and played with chalk, and it took some careful negotiating to have Puff wear a jumper, despite the low temperatures. Dad had to write out the whole alphabet in chalk, and then some numbers.

To make the most of our hire car, and as a crazy surprise, we called in to see Uncle J and Aunty C. Puff played ever so briefly with their cat Slinky.

A couple of times this week Puff was asleep on couches or in arms: – he’s been running a bit short on naps this week, but has caught up the last couple of days.

There were a lot of disagreements about the suitable spoon to eat one of Puff’s dinners this week. This was caused by tiredness, we hope!

Today Puff made ‘block sandwiches’ – he even went to get a plate for them, and then put the smallest one in the fridge! It seems that there’s no shortage of imagination in his life!

Mum brought Puff and Huff to pick him up after work today, and then we had dinner in the city. From there, we jumped a tram to get back to the train station.

After that, there were some disagreements over how many Beatrix Potter stories Dad should read before bedtime. Puff thought ten, Dad thought one. Unusually, Dad won out this time, due to the lateness of the hour.

The highlight of the week for Dad was taking Puff to the park on Saturday afternoon. We went late, close to sunset, and had to go to the shops afterwards. Puff ran around the park with Dad, holding both Monkey and Cat the whole time. There were some big kids on the play equipment, but when they left, we headed for the brick wall around the climbing frame and the slide. Dad and Puff walked around in a circle arguing about whether it was dark enough to leave the park, talking about where the moon might be, looking at helicopters and stars in the night sky. It was just one of those great moments of being a parent, and Dad wanted to remember it.

It’s been a tough week. Dad has finally handed in all of his assignments, but everyone remains sick to a lesser or greater extent. Dad took a day off to look after Puff and help Mum get some extra sleep, and today was a work-from-home day with a lot of unhappy child noises.

Dad has a new appreciation for how hard Mum’s job of looking after the kids is: the relentless grinding away of the emotions that comes from the screaming and the negotiating.

But there are a few moments that make it all worthwhile. After a few moments of unhappiness, we managed to capture this picture of Huff looking happy in a new dress.

When sitting down, Huff has a tendency to play with her fingers. The cue that she’s hungry is when she starts to put them into her mouth, but until then, she does a great little Montgomery Burns impression.

In the mornings, around breakfast time, she likes to wake up a little before she’s actually hungry, and sit in her bouncer and watch the world go by. She continues to be a low-maintenance baby for the most part!

With Huff’s continued happiness to sit in the bouncer, Dad broke out Puff’s old playmat (which, let’s be honest, Puff has no memory of whatsoever) – this made for a cute opportunity for them to play together – when Puff wasn’t getting a little too close to her face, or trying to cover her face with a toy.

Friday night Puff suggested “let’s go out for pizza”, and so we visited friends and ate dinner picnic-style on their loungeroom floor.

Saturday was a trip to a friend’s house for his birthday party. One bonus of the house was this cubby house. With its steep staircase, it was easy for him to get up to the verandah level, but he didn’t have the confidence to walk back down: this meant that he was standing up there a bit longer than he might have liked, until Dad figured out why he was still there!

Another trip out with Dad so that Mum could sleep was on Sunday morning. A quick trip down to Cronulla, then a stroller walk around the suburb: – we were almost out of time (Dad wanted to get back for church) but he really wanted to play at the playground. We compromised, and he had five quick slides.

Monday saw an overtired Puff out at a shopping centre – when he finally had a chance to play on the play equipment he didn’t do any climbing, but just played with the upright toys.

A few other bits and pieces:
– Puff is still not a fan of a large group of people starting to sing “happy birthday”, which we saw happen twice this week
– we had some fairly significant outfit-change-required nappy changes for Huff this week
– a surprise trip to see Aunty C and Uncle J on a school night made for a very late night (and helped Dad get his assignments done)

Let’s hope that next week is a little easier to cope with.