puff and huff

Today is day 50 for not-so-little Huff. And it was a big day – the four of us went to a funeral, a burial, and a wake, complete with bagpipes at each stage. Attending the funeral of someone who was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather gives pause to think about how you’re spending your own life, and what you want to look back on and do differently.

Dad’s challenge at the moment is finding the balance between living a life that he’ll be proud of when looking backwards, and doing a large enough volume of work (full-time plus some extras) to keep all the bills comfortably covered.

This week was the second time had her nails cut. The first one is always a bit too stressful to photograph, but the second one is a little easier.

With Huff’s sleeps being a little further apart, Dad is getting a few moments where he’s in charge of both kids at once! While he still gets used to it, this means Puff gets extra time playing games on Dad’s old phone. Here’s a favourite video.

Huff’s smiles are starting to seem more deliberate – and highly contagious.

With Dad having taken Puff to a morning service at church, and Puff not having napped at all that day, Dad and Puff stayed home for dinner (Puff fell asleep with his hand still on the spoon as it sat in the bowl) while Mum and Huff went to church by themselves for the first time.

Yes, this means that Mum is driving by herself again, and getting back to normal. Huff even had a 7-hour sleep this week!

The culinary adventures continue with Huff. Dad and Huff have tried cooking bacon and eggs together, preparing cereal, making toast. Here he is negotiating his serve of bacon.

On the way back from Kindermusik, Puff and Dad walked past a fire engine. They were parked, waiting to get some food (we think) and when Puff waved at them, we were ushered to sit in the fire engine, and even to take a photo at the front – a great little moment that Dad suspects he liked better than Puff did.

Saturday was a big day. A trip to the markets in the morning (to buy more ingredients), then yum cha with Uncle Jonathan and Cathy.

After Yum Cha, we voted. From there Puff and Dad walked home together, stopping for a coffee and then Puff had a nap. After that, we stayed up late watching some of the election coverage on TV. Puff loved it – all the numbers on the TV screen for once.

Huff had her 6-week checkup today, and passed with flying colours, though we’ve decided to wait until 2 months to give her her 2 month immunisations (a lot of people are having this done at 6 weeks instead of 2 months).

Now that Huff is a little bigger, we’re getting more comfortable having her and Puff pose for photos a little more. Puff really likes his sister and, though he’s been worse behaved than pre-Huff, he’s generally still an incredibly obedient and cheery little boy.

We have the occasional challenges with encouraging Huff to sleep in her hammock – sometimes she just won’t settle there, but has a much better chance of sleeping in the corner pillow.

She’s continuing to love having a bath, and as she builds up her neck control and her tendency to smile at random (we still don’t have many photos of her smiling). It’s tough to find time to fit in both evening routines, and still have time to study, but Dad enjoys having the time with her.

We went back to the hospital today to see the Physio to make sure Huff’s feet are turning correctly. They’re getting better, and Puff had a great time playing with the toys they had there. He likes book and animal noise toys in particular at the moment.

We tried out a cafe today that had a blackboard wall – Puff had a great time drawing with chalk: another first for him.

Going to bed has changed slightly this week, as Puff now insists on having extra toys to sleep with – it’s getting quite crowded!

Mum is getting more creative with how she spends time with Puff. This week she made an alphabet, and the numbers up to 30, and taped them to various surfaces around the garden. Puff had a great time running around the yard with a bucket, taking all the letters and then the numbers in order.

And let’s not forget now that Mum is having an easier time of getting around, Mum, Huff and Puff went out to the local shops together. The ensuing rain meant that what was going to be a trip to the park became a smoothie in a cafe, where Mum ordered a lemon meringue pie. This photo captures just some of his enthusiasm for that particular order.

The rain brings its own challenges: the clam shell toy in the backyard has a lip at the top that collects rainwater and dirt. Puff has worked out how to get into the backyard by himself, if he’s quick, and surprised us by saying “I drank the dirty water”. He didn’t get sick, but gave us a bit of a start as to potential hazards being around every corner.

We also had a catch-up with a number of friends this week, including one of Dad’s old flatmates, and a group of relatively new friends with their kids.

Another week has passed by, and the Grandragon has headed home after a long stay with us. Puff had lots of adventures with the Grandragon, and was a little disappointed when he went looking for her this morning and she wasn’t there.

One of the challenges with integrating Huff into our family is keeping Puff engaged with what we’re doing. Continuing on in having him participate in more cooking activities, Puff and Dad have been making breakfast together.

This has had mixed levels of success. The first thing he did when he saw the eggs on the counter was to grab one and break it, making a bit of a mess. After that, he did much better, and – despite a long cooking time encouraging him to start eating his toast while the eggs were still cooking – it was a good little activity.

For a bit more exercise, Dad took Puff and Bandit for a bit of an adventure – walking along the bush track of a nearby creek. There were a few challenges involved – other people were walking their dogs, which was causing Bandit some stress, and Dad some stress too, as he only had one hand per companion!

He’s really, really enjoyed having Bandit around – even watching videos of himself playing with Bandit is enough to cause rampant giggling.

About once a week we break out the Wii and weigh everyone – Puff loves playing the balance games, and is even starting to get the hang of some of them. He especially likes the penguins.

Saturday we all (Mum, Dad, Puff, Huff) went to Eveleigh market for a family outing, and afterwards we went back to visit Grandma and Doc. On the way, we had to stop to feed Huff, and so we needed to distract Puff. We returned to the old faithful trick of buying a smoothie. This, combined with the well-timed arrival of a pigeon (think Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) distracted him for plenty of time.

On Sunday, Dad took Puff out for some father-son time. We ended up in Cronulla, looking for a place to have – again – a smoothie, and some toast. This breakfast was a bit of a struggle – there’s a narrow window in the mornings to feed him breakfast, and we missed it on this particular day. After struggling through breakfast, we went to the park a bit to play on the equipment. He’s in a phase of not wanting to go on the slides, but his new behaviour was to tell some of the other kids (unfamiliar to him) that they weren’t allowed to climb up. “No. Don’t climb!”. They mostly ignored him, but it’s interesting to see him start talking to others.

Finally coming to terms with his unruly hair, we went to the local barber to have his hair tidied up. As you can see, there was a lot to get rid of!

Here’s the finished product. He looks so grown up!

And now a quick update on Huff. Her face continues to change on an almost daily basis: here’s a recent photo.

She’s finding an increasing interest in her surroundings, but having trouble with going to sleep some of the time, and needs to be held a bit more often to go to sleep. Sometimes it’s 2 hours in between feeds, sometimes it’s 4, but the fours are usually in the middle of the day, which makes it increasingly tough for Mum to get any amount of sleep.

This is the week where we’re starting to get used to Mum being at home with the two kids, and Dad spending more time at work. This is going to be a tough challenge, but hopefully life will continue to settle down into something a little more predictable.

Life is starting to return to a new kind of normal. Two kids instead of one means that the days are even longer, and there’s even less free time on offer, which is making it a bit tricky for Dad to get his college reading done. Still, we’re getting lots of help from family, and Huff is going along well.

Normally she gets around in body-suits, but on occasion we dress her up in something prettier. Mostly for church so far.

She’s getting more interested in what’s going on around her – she can turn her head to look at the TV if it’s on, and when placed on her tummy, she has a bit of a go at doing push-ups. Well, one push-up.

It’s amazing how quickly her face is changing – she’s already starting to develop features that are distinct from her big brother.

This week has seen us make a lot of trips to the park. Several of them have been with Bandit. He really likes Puff – here he is trying to play with him while on the swings. We don’t have footage of the way he throws now, but he’s starting to get the hang of it!

On Thursday, Dad and Puff headed to Kindermusik. It was a beautiful sunny day, but nonetheless, Puff felt like wearing his mittens.

It was worth getting a photo of what it’s like when we give him a phone to play with while we’re still trying to get some extra sleep. It doesn’t usually work, but it’s fun to watch him be swept up in what’s happening there.

On Saturday, Dad and Puff drove in to Redfern to go – again – to Eveleigh markets. We zoomed around there, then headed across town to a cafe, then headed back home for lunch. It was great to spend the time with him. Really. It’s hard to unplug sometimes: to switch off the podcasts and the emails and the tweets and just be present with him, but that’s been my big challenge to attempt this week (and into the future).

One of the things we picked up at the markets was some buttermilk, and so Puff persuaded the Grandragon to make pancakes for breakfast. He did a great job helping her pour and mix everything. Dad’s increasingly trying to get Puff involved in little, safe, kitchen tasks so that he can be better involved in family life, and for the most part it’s working.

One of his favourite diversions, oddly, is a book he calls “Mummy’s book” – a little phonebook we picked up somewhere. He loves it for its letters, numbers, and pictures, and will happily sit “reading” it for much longer than you might expect.

The key theme of this week, though, has been Bandit: his constant companion. Not sure how well he’ll cope when it’s time for Bandit to go home!

As ever, time will tell.

This week we have the Grandragon and her dog Bandit staying with us, which has been a source of much amusement for Puff. Like Homer Simpson, he loves to chase Bandit around and say “fluffy! fluffy!” and pat Bandit’s tail. Here he is playing with Bandit and a ball.

On Saturday, Dad took Puff out for some father-son time. We went to Eveleigh markets, and had blini for breakfast – his was the lemon and sugar, and Dad had the ham, cheese and mushroom. Very tasty.

From there, we drove to Milson’s point, and walked down the 111 steps to water level (he counted every step, and then counted the subsequent steps that we encountered on our way back to the car). We walked around by the side of the water, cut through Luna Park as it was opening for the day, and then went back up the hill to the car.

On Monday night, C&J came over and provided us with dinner – baked potatoes with a choice of toppings. Puff made his own (under Aunty C’s watchful eye), and managed to eat them all!

Puff’s troubles getting to sleep appear to be winding down now – he goes to bed more readily, and even stays in bed until our agreed time to get up!

And while we wait for Huff to settle into a better sleeping pattern and get her own blog, here’s an updated picture. She’s spending more time in each feeding cycle awake, and looking around with big eyes.

Another week where Dad is on parental leave, and so a lot of extra father-son time.

We’ve had a variety of breakfasts together – some mornings we had boiled eggs with Vegemite soldiers, and other mornings, we’ve gone out for breakfast. Here he had raisin toast with a babycino.

Another morning we went a different way to the shops, and stopped at the park. We ended up on the see-saw, where he counted the bounces, from 1 to 100. We did this 4 times, and then finally he was prepared to get off the see-saw.

Thursday was a big day – it was time for Mum to head out of the house for an adventure. We all (with Aunty S) walked up to the shops to have lunch together. Puff was so well-behaved that he was given an extra juice box to go with his lunch, and the waitress didn’t know Huff was there either (although as you can tell by the sling, it’s pretty hard to see her).
 

On Friday night we went out to get some Indian takeaway. They were very busy, but Puff did a great job waiting (45 minutes) in the stroller, putting up very little fuss, and staying cheerful despite the lateness of the hour.

The book from last week – Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats – has now been largely committed to memory, and he’s had a lot of enthusiasm for cats. As a result, we saw him use the stickers in a slightly different way.

 
Walking around another suburb in search of cafes on Saturday, Puff decided to play a game of hide and seek with the stroller. Here too, Dad had the awkward experience of seeing Puff go from calm and happy to throwing a tantrum with no apparent warning. More practice is needed, it seems, to spot the warning signs: surely there are warning signs, right?

 
We haven’t said much about Huff here yet: we’re still looking for patterns in her routine to see if we can predict when she will sleep longer or shorter. The high-point with a newborn is having her sleep.

 
Yesterday we went to IKEA: he was very well behaved, and then ran around in the play area at Rhodes afterward. It was a good day out.

 
He’s still enjoying being a big brother, although he’s not able to have much other interaction with her than rubbing her head.

 
He has a tendency to lose himself in his thoughts sometimes (when he’s not quoting one of his favourite books).

Here’s an update on what Huff looks like.

Oh, one random thing – one morning he was really excitedly running in to check the time on a few different clocks, and then spelling it out with his floor numbers.
 

 
The biggest difference between looking after one child and two is the loss of sleep: with a newborn, you don’t get to sleep in big blocks, but when the newborn sleeps, you can try and sleep. Add a toddler into the mix and you can’t sleep unless both of them are asleep. So far, with the parental leave, Dad has been taking care of Puff, and Mum of Huff, but it’s hard to see what life will be like once Dad goes back to work!

Time will tell.

A little late with the update this week – the house is working on a somewhat different sleep schedule to before, though we’re trying to keep things as normal as possible for Puff. Obviously this is impossible to some extent – family life has changed forever – but we’re trying to keep his usual bedtime and wake-up time.

This last week has been a mix of hospital visits (Tuesday, Wednesday) and home (Puff and Dad went to hospital on Thursday morning to bring Mum back home).

We had the Grandragon stay over on Tuesday night (Puff was asking about her later in the week, and remembered that she’d gone back to the airport), and we saw a lot of different visitors – mostly in the hospital, but a few people have come to visit at home.

It looks like the prep-work we’ve done with Puff to have him ready to be a big brother has paid off – he’s gentle and affectionate towards Huff when they’re in the same space, and he seems happy with the amount of time that Mum has to spend with her.

On the way home from the hospital, just as we did when Puff was born, we stopped in at Grind cafe in Cronulla, though this time we took a family photo instead of one of just the baby capsule.

It certainly hasn’t hurt that Dad has been off work all week, and that he’s had lots of extra time to spend. Dad has been trying to take him out of the house for an extended period of time, so that Mum and Huff can get some extra sleep, and Dad and Huff can get some time together. After being cooped up on Friday, a trip to the ATM and to the park was called for. Dad was expecting that he’d just have some time on the play equipment, but he actually went for an extended run around.

The next day (Sunday) we went for a longer walk around, played in a different park, looked at the farm animals that can be found within walking distance from the house, and then looked at all the different house numbers on the way back home.

Having bought some lunch on the way home, he managed to eat about 1/3rd of a chicken kebab that had all his favourite Lebanese ingredients in it before falling asleep holding the kebab.

And getting sleep right has been the biggest challenge of this week. He’s taken some backward steps in his ability to put himself to sleep, and his naps are a bit all-over-the-place.

When we gave Huff a bath, he was really interested in helping. We gave him the job of helping to empty the bath, which he approached with great enthusiasm (if not great success).

Monday was a trip to the library where we borrowed a few books, including Mrs. McTats and Her Houseful of Cats – this was the perfect storm for him, as it features the alphabet, numbers, and cats. He’s become a little obsessed with it, and has already memorised a lot of it.

Dad took him out today on a bit of an adventure – driving instead of going in the stroller. In a moment of weakness, he bought a babycino for Puff at Roselands and let him drink it in the stroller. It was easily the most messy babycino he’s ever had. The difference, perhaps, between Mum’s expert care and Dad’s more haphazard approach?

Tonight, Dad’s craving for a Slurpee was realised by Uncle J, who came over and stayed for a bit of a chat. Here he is reading the aforementioned book to Puff, who enjoyed the change of faces.

Here’s a short video of Puff helping out with emptying the bath, if you’d like to get a sense of how he’s travelling.

Is there any significance in the appearance of Puff’s little sister as we settle in for week 128 (two to the power of seven) of Puff’s blog? No. But it might make it easier for Dad to remember!

A great many thanks must go to C&J, who have done a fantastic job looking after Puff these past few days. He’s enjoyed spending time with them, and with their alphabet puzzle (which he uses to ‘write’ peoples’ names) and their cats (who often get a big mention in his free-form speech during the day).

He spent a bunch of time today talking about Bentley cat and Slinky.

The lead-up to Huff’s arrival was packed with different activities, last minute purchases and the like. Here we were grabbing a smoothie in between one lot of shopping (nappies) and the next (groceries). Oddly, he started shivering not long after drinking it (it could well have been the long-awaited Sydney cool change, and it stopped soon after leaving the store.

Adjusting to being a big brother is still in progress. Initially, he was happy to meet with Huff, and even to gently stroke her head. The tricky part – surprisingly to us – was that he was a bit standoffish with his Mum. We fixed this on day 2 with the tried-and-tested method of using food. Here he is having a picnic with Mum on her hospital bed. They both had a great time!

With lots of time sitting still and being quiet required, he’s spending a lot of extra time on screens at the moment. His use of the iPhone is interesting: he uses voice recorder to record and listen to the sound of his voice. He uses calculator to write numbers, sometimes watching a clock radio, then typing up the numbers he can see.

One of the options for avoiding the iPhone is to give him a puzzle to do. Here he is playing with his Penguin puzzle.

Lots of visitors today, mostly family members and a few friends to pad out the numbers. Some concentrated solely on the new baby, some on Puff as well. At the moment, he’s tired and out of sorts, but is still generally quite well behaved (thanks again to C&J for bearing the brunt of his bad behaviour). Looking forward to having him back home, and back to a more comforting routine.

What a week! We’re now counting down to Huff’s arrival, and should have photos of the new addition for next week’s blog post.

We’re trying to fit in as much as possible in these last few days. There are people and places to see, and lots of things to do. Of course, this needs to be balanced with trying to catch up on rest as much as possible.

On Australia Day, we caught up with some friends (and their kids, C&J) for breakfast. Having just returned from the states, they brought Puff a gift. Here he is trying it on.

After breakfast (a big fruit platter), he had a lot of energy to burn off, and so he spent some time running back and forth from this statue.

On Friday night we visited some of Kel’s family: the place where he’d tried M&M’s for the first time at Christmas. As soon as he reached the table, he asked about M&Ms, and so when he’d eaten his dinner, he was rewarded with a few, in his own bowl.

Saturday we bought a new stroller: – one that we will be able to adapt into a two-child stroller when the time comes. It was a bit pricey, but it’s really easy to push, and packs up smaller than our old stroller, so hopefully it will be worthwhile.

Saturday night we went out for dinner, to a Japanese restaurant. Dad was being a bit silly and asked if Puff wanted to eat dinner with a fork or with chopsticks, and he chose chopsticks. It was a bit beyond his skill level, but he had a great time trying.

Today we had the last visit with the midwife. Keeping Puff amused was a challenge, but he was pretty enamoured with the digital scales. Here he is climbing on and off them, with a surprise backing track courtesy of Huff.

One last thing: Puff had been getting out of bed by himself and finding us, but that was getting earlier and earlier. On Saturday, we bought him a clock radio that he calls his “seven oh oh clock”. We’ve had some problems with having him wait until 7am to get up and start his day, but we’re trying to stay consistent with him as much as possible.

See you next week!