puff and huff

With not long to go now until the arrival of Huff, we’re trying to fit in as many firsts as we can while we’re still a family of three.

Here’s a picture of Dad and Puff sitting on the front steps of our house.

On Saturday, he tried out painting for the first time. As you can see, he takes it very seriously. He had a lot of fun making a few different paintings before it was time to head out of the house.

In eating news, he has new trick (that he finds hilarious). Instead of taking a reasonable-sized bite of whatever he’s meant to be eating, he’s decided that he can take a really small bite, and say “it’s a nibble”. This is repeated several times.

He goes through a range of moods when it comes to being picked up. Sometimes he’s happy to be cuddled, other times he wants to “get back down and play with Duplo”. Here’s a moment of the former.

The big milestone for this weekend was making changes to the cot. We’ve removed the side rail, and convert the cot to a bed of sorts (technically, it’s in “lounge” configuration, I think.

We were persuaded to make the change as he’s been getting into the habit of taking his nappy off if we leave him in bed too long after he wakes up. Three times in one day, and that was enough. Here he is getting used to climbing out of bed.

He still has’t figured out that he can leave the cot of his own volition, preferring instead to wait until someone comes into his room and says it’s okay, which is great for Mum and Dad. It’s a bit odd that he hasn’t tried to escape yet, but he’ll figure it out in time.

On Sunday we went to a family birthday party for S, who was turning one. He had fun running around in the park, including playing with the bubble machine.

Next week will probably be the last update before we have pictures of Huff to show. Stay tuned!

A few new activities for Puff this week, as we count down to the arrival of Huff.

This one is old news – the activity centre at the ultrasound place was the source of some distraction during the queueing process. The high point was after the ultrasound, when Puff was playing with some other toys. Another family showed up, waiting for their turn to have an ultrasound, and Puff said “Mummy’s getting an ultrasound”, to the amazement of the other parents.

Mum set up some play-doh for him to try out. He had a great time stamping out the different numbers, and made all the numbers from 1 to 10.

On Saturday, having lunch at a friend’s house, he was completely transfixed by this cash register. It had a noise-making calculator, a drawer with some fake money, a set of scales, and a card swiping spot that also made noise. He had a great time playing with this toy for over an hour, on and off.

By initiating a strict policy of not letting him touch the machine, we managed to have fun with a bunch of bubbles, and with no spills!

Friday night Mum and Puff picked Dad up from work, and we went to get some pasta from Leichhardt. For dessert, Dad and Puff shared a banana split. He really liked it, and made a good effort at eating it with a spoon.

Sunday afternoon we visited friends in hospital to meet new baby E. When we started to walk into the hospital Puff said “Mummy can have the baby at the hospital” – it seems he’s starting to understand that Huff’s arrival is just around the corner.

We’re seeing him be more and more enthusiastic about life: he will regularly jump up and down with excitement about what’s going on, and likes to run and chase people on occasion.

Odd to start with a picture like this, but what we have here is the first pair of shoes (size 8) that he can not just take off, but also put on! This has added a new ritual to leaving the house, where Puff puts his shoes on before leaving the house.

This week, after a trip to Bunnings to find a plant to put at the front of the house, Puff helped with a light spot of gardening. Everything was going well until some dirt found its way under his shoe. He complained about it in the cutest way, and was fine again once his feet were cleaned up, and went back to digging in the dirt.

At the Rocks Markets on Friday night we had dinner together, and then Puff tried this little item as a dessert treat. He wasn’t really interested in the chocolate, or the marshmallows, but he was happy to eat the strawberries.

Life is a series of experiences changing gears for Dad. One moment he’s at work, the next he’s in the car, then he’s out at the Rocks market. Puff still seems to prefer Dad’s company when it’s available, though it’s really whichever parent has been away from him the longest.

The big first for this week was a sleep over at Aunty C & Uncle J’s house on Saturday night. Playing with some blocks was enough to distract him as Mum and Dad left him overnight for the first time.

He had a great time at Aunty C & Uncle J’s. A big dinner.

Bedtime story with Uncle J.

Uncle J even made him a babycino!

Slinky, already getting bigger, was keen to help out with the blocks.

With Huff’s arrival due in only a matter of weeks now, we’ve taken the opportunity to introduce him to babies, so he’s not caught by surprise. Here he is with baby O.

And here’s Mum and Aunty C checking on Huff.

See you next week!

Happy New Year! It’s been another week of late nights, but with Dad’s work closed, it’s been a rare treat to have the extra time to spend with family. Today was the first day back at work, and so it’s been an adjustment to change gears from full-time dad over to working dad.

Some of the highlights of the time off. Dad has an enthusiasm for heading up to the Blue Mountains whenever possible, and so – despite a busy week for Dad, preparing a seminar and two sermons – we made some time to trek up there.

We spent some time wandering around Leura, including lunch at the cafe where Mum and Dad went on the day Dad proposed marriage to Mum – Wayzgoose cafe. Puff enjoyed a smoothie.

On Thursday, we headed down to Austinmer, where Puff had the chance to spend time with baby R, and play with his foot keyboard. He slept through dinner, and then was wide awake for the car trip home somewhere around 11pm.

He’s had some problems with blocked ears over the last little while. The doctor said that Cerumol ear drops were the way to go – you put the drops in his ears, and then cover them with cotton wool. The trouble is that he needs to stay still for 10-20 minutes. How do we make that happen? He plays games on Dad’s old iPhone.

Another high point for Puff this week was meeting Aunty C and Uncle J’s new kitten – Slinky. Here’s the first hold.

A few too many eating shots this week perhaps. Mum made an epic breakfast on Saturday (for Puff it was a second breakfast) of eggs and bacon. He made a good effort, but Dad had to finish off a few pieces. And then head to Yum Cha with Uncle J and Cathy.

There have been a lot of babycinos this week. To help make the most of Dad’s last day of holidays, we went to a cafe for breakfast, and was pretty excited when the marshmallows came out.

We’re getting closer and closer to the arrival of Huff, and trying to savour these last few times where it’s just the three of us. Becoming a family of four is going to be really exciting, but it’s a daunting prospect too.

Without photos, we spent New Year’s Eve at S&K’s house where a tired Puff had his first chance to sleep on a bed – he lasted a little while, but then woke up and climbed back down. From there, we went to the airport to pick up one of Mum’s uncles, and then – still before midnight – he went back to sleep.

Thanks also to the Mills family who this week helped us with our horribly overrun backyard (bringing it back to a usable space), and especially to C&J, who had the chance to frolic with Puff’s bubble machine (a gift from Aunty C & Uncle J).

Let’s put the lateness of this entry down to the craziness of the holiday season, and the sudden irrelevance of the day of the week. It was almost 1am before I realised that I still had to put together this week’s entry. With the way Puff has been sleeping in, and not needing to be anywhere in the early morning myself, I’ve been staying up later than usual.

So of course, Puff woke up this morning around 6am, and wanted to “sleep in mum and dad’s bed” instead from there “because I’m a bit upset”. He waited patiently, “watching the numbers” until “700” and thrashing around only in a minor way. He’s now watching videos with me on the screen while I write up this week’s blog.

This week he’s learned how to count to ten in Spanish. We met a Spanish lady at Dad’s Aunt’s house, and she was pretty impressed with his counting in English, French and German. Dad counted to 10 in Spanish with him (looking to the expert for correction), and then, with the help of a video, he seemed to consolidate it pretty well.

This week was also Puff’s third Christmas. He didn’t seem overwhelmed by the prospect of new presents, but he was very happy when he had the chance to open up his presents.

On Christmas Eve, we visited one of Mum’s cousins, and Puff had the chance to see some Christmas lights up close. He really liked them.

Probably his favourite present was this drill set: he opened it, and then played with it pretty consistently for at least half an hour. Impressive for something to hold his attention that long.

Another favourite, but one that has caused its fair share of mess so far, and been dubbed an outside toy, was the bubble machine. It creates an impressive number of bubbles in a short space of time.

One of the joys of having some time off work is being able to do a little more with Puff. Yesterday, Dad and Puff worked together to make a dozen (packet mix) cupcakes. Puff did a great job decorating them, with the promise that he could eat the leftovers.

He was also given some Duplo of his own (after lots of visits playing with his friend E’s Duplo), which has led to some bouts of creativity. Here we see one of his first creations – a “coffee machine”.

One last little anecdote: we had some heavy rain on Boxing Day, and Dad foolishly asked Puff if he wanted to have a warm bath, or to play outside in the rain. He said “play outside in the rain?” and so we let him splash around for a while. He wasn’t completely sure about the rain, but he didn’t want to go in for a little while. We put him straight into a warm bath after he’d been playing outside, and he seemed fine afterwards, and – if anything – a little happier about playing outside in the following days.

A couple of new things to talk about. We’ve had a lot of late nights, and so he hasn’t had as much chance as we’d like to sleep. In a related or unrelated note, we’ve seen him start to have trouble pronouncing some simple words (like that or this).

With a couple of days resting at home (and a bit less time playing Fruit Ninja on Dad’s phone), he seems to be back on top of it, but it gave us some anxiety for a couple of days.

When visit C&J’s house, he loves playing with all the different toys. Despite the lateness of the hour, he had a great time playing in this kitchen. Just like Mum, he was continuing to work away in the kitchen while talking on the toy phone.

This week has seen Dad get back on the horse with making lattes before work – with his new stool, Puff is more easily able to watch the process (without being as stressed by the grinder) and help out – he asks if he can hold one of the coffee beans, which I’m taking as a good sign.

Saturday of this weekend was spent watching video games and playing at a friend’s house, but he did manage to squeeze in some outdoor playing time. He also had a great time playing at the pool with Aunty C and Uncle J.

Bible study dinner saw him wear what I think is his first paper hat. He liked it, but his head was a little too small for a good fit.

He’s also learned to climb up on his stool and say “ta-da”, which has been really cute, but a tough video to upload for some reason.

Our Saturday morning cafe brunch was made much quieter for the five or so minutes that Puff was enjoying this berry smoothie. Here’s a time-lapse of part of it.

We also stopped at a playground to try out the play equipment – he had a lot of fun once he’d worked out that this wooden bridge was something he could handle.

We had another midwife visit to check how Huff is going, and when they used the doppler machine to play the heartbeat, Puff started reciting his Greek Alphabet in time with the heartbeat (140bpm).

Puff made himself an impromptu cape, and Mum taped it on – he had a good time running around with it (lots of mileage from the silver wrapping paper from a bunch of flowers a long while ago).

Friday night we tried for a relaxed family dinner out: after a few rounds of Fruit Ninja on the iPhone, he settled down and ate quite a bit of vaguely healthy pizza from Crust Pizza.

Saturday night we went out for dinner, and there was a Koi pond near where we were eating. It was pretty crowded in the pond, but that just made it more fun to watch the fish swim around.

The tendency that Puff has to share Dad’s breakfast has spread from toast to cereal – you might be able to see the spoon in his hand.

The house is set up with some Christmas lights and a tree. Puff isn’t quite sure what it’s all about yet, but he knows not to open the presents that are underneath the tree, at least until Christmas.

Puff has been helping Mum with the Christmas cards by drawing on each one. There was a bit of a production line happening.

The sacrificial lamb became “the sacrificial cat” in Puff’s relentless singing along with “Everybody get Ready” the Colin Buchanan Christmas CD.

What an odd week. Puff has been a bit unwell for some of it, and sleeping at odd hours. On Friday night his nap was late, and so we went out for dinner to the local Indian restaurant. He managed to try a few different things, especially enjoyed the ice cream at the end of the night, and then went to bed very late (a little after 10pm).

It wasn’t the best of weeks for food: during church, after eating his dinner and dessert, as he eased out of his eating chair, he yawned, and his dinner and dessert “spilled” onto Dad’s jeans, arm, and the general surrounds. This is the first time that Dad has been thrown up on by Puff, so it was a pretty spectacular way to start!

Today for lunch we went to a cafe that had stepping stools as chairs – he liked having a chair he could climb up into!

Heading with Mum to a Christmas party for one of the old mothers’ groups, he had the chance to spend a couple of hours at the play centre – his favourite was the giant slide.

He’s had a great time riding on these in-store toys. This week, while he wasn’t quite watching what was happening, Mum added some money to the ride, and waited for him to his to “start” button. He was very pleasantly surprised by the extra music, but then didn’t realise how it had happened, and so went back to being happy to sit on the ride.

This week has seen him start walking around the house with his little plastic phone held up to his ear. He says things like “that’s fantastic”, and talks to whoever he decides. Here’s an excerpt.

One little memory I wanted to capture before it stops: when he eats, sitting in his eating chair, he’ll stretch out his foot and rest it on my knee.