puff and huff

This week was mum and dad’s 8th wedding anniversary, so we didn’t spend as much time with Puff as usual – we even had a night out together with Puff at home (thanks to C&J for looking after him)!

Not a lot of photos this week: Saturday saw us take a long drive over to Balmain to pick up treats from Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie so that we could have afternoon tea with G and B – sadly, with the cakes looking so amazing, we didn’t grab any photos of Puff!

Monday night saw us take a trip to Pancakes at the Rocks for dinner with some of Dad’s old workmates from a past job: Puff showed off how well behaved he could be, and posed for a photo with Dad, who is well and truly showing the scars of Movember.

The crowded restaurant was a great choice: Puff – when he wasn’t eating – kept himself quietly entertained just by looking around.

Back at home, he is fascinated with taking the floor mats apart: he seems especially interested in the letter “B”: – probably because it has two little pieces that he can take out of the B. Beyond that, he will take one (or both) of the pieces, and hide them in his toybox.

Still no sign of walking, but he says “done” really clearly, and with the right prompting he can say “Dad. Na-na. Please.” He’s learning more and more words, and his skills for mimicry are improving.

A week of lots of outings, some with photos and some without. I’ve been trying to break out my “good” camera: see if you can tell which photos are with which camera.

Here’s a shot of Puff enjoying(?) a trip home in the car. It seems that travelling in the car is one of the major staples of his life, but we do catch him enjoying it quite regularly: he will talk to himself, or answer questions, and he’s even started singing along to certain songs on his Colin CDs, which is very impressive.

Apart from the grimace face that was his favourite expression a few weeks back, he can make a quite impressive “fish face” when he chooses to.

Friday was Macaron day at Adriano Zumbo in Balmain, and so Kel headed over there with Puff to pick up some Macarons. Imagine her surprise to find the man himself there – one of the staff took this shot of Puff: perhaps he should have his own food blog?

After Zumbo’s, Puff headed to the Brasserie Bread tweetup in the park, and met up with a few familiar faces, including K, who was in the throes of her last day at work. Friday was a big day indeed: being Grandma’s birthday, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and saw almost all of Dad’s side of the family at once. After a very late night, it was home again to bed.

By some miracle, we didn’t have any plans on the Saturday, so after Puff had caught up on some sleep, we headed out of the house in search of somewhere to have lunch, ending up at Bondi Junction. Here is Puff, pondering life’s mysteries.

Saturday was the seventh of November, and so was deemed 7-11 day by the franchise of Slurpee stores. While not going to the same extremes as his aunt and uncle, Puff certainly had a fondness for the cups: he was quite upset when the time came to put them down and go back in the car.

We also made a trip to the REMO store in Bondi Junction – it now has a small retail space where you can browse the products. Puff’s favourite (though he was saying “please” for a number of them) was the giant rubber ducks. It was tricky for him to look into the box, as he wasn’t a fan of the fake-grass carpet: I think it was tickling his feet too much.

From there, we drove down to Coogee – Puff had a great time at a playground designed for people his size and a little larger. Many of the parents seemed content to let their kids run around with pretty minor supervision: given that Puff isn’t walking yet, this wasn’t really practical, though he had a pretty good go at crawling towards anything he found interesting!

Tuesday was Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary, and so Puff came along for lunch in the city, and was tremendously well behaved. It’s not quite the same as having lunch by ourselves, but was still a good way to commemorate eight years of marriage.

There’s been a lot of outings this last week, with Puff doing some socialising outside the house. It’s looking like he’s getting to be more comfortable sitting on grass, although he is certainly happier when on a picnic blanket.

This week also marked our annual trip to see sculpture by the sea – you might remember what he looked like last year – it’s the same carrier, but he looks very different:

While last year a sun hat was enough – he had no real interest in looking around at the world – this year he’s onto his second set of sunglasses (he’s outgrown the old pair) and a bigger hat.

Here he is taking a break from sculpture viewing to have a bit of a snack.

The sculpture that he liked the most was a house that had hundreds of toys screwed onto it. It was a favourite for a lot of kids – so much so that it was hard to get close to it. We managed eventually, though – he wasn’t too happy when it was time to move away again!

It’s encouraging to see that we can put him down, and stand far enough back to get a photo of him without him being upset: after an hour in the ergocarrier, I think he was happy to have his own space for a little while! Hard to imagine that next year he’ll likely be walking the track himself!

Sunday was marked by Puff’s second tweet-up, spending a relaxed afternoon at Perama in Petersham. Mum and Dad ate dishes that contained haloumi, and Puff largely abstained, though he did try a little bit of the lamb.

Still no sign of walking, but he’s more and more comfortable standing up on things, and pushing his block-trolley along.

Not much this week in the way of photos, so there’s a video of him answering some questions to make up for it. There was a trip back to the cafe where we had brunch for Mum’s birthday, another journey beside the sea for lunch with J, and a lot of time spent at home over the weekend.

Sleeping continues on in good stead: long naps, and long overnight sleeps. He’s still happy to stay inside the cot for now, having not threatened to climb out yet. This week has seen him take a few hands-free walks along with his trolley of blocks (with Mum or Dad close by in case he doesn’t work out how to stop)!

Food-wise, we tried him with corn on the cob. With a couple of new teeth on the way through, I think his favourite part was having something to press against his gums: he wasn’t happy at all when I took it away from him, even when it was just to spin it around so he could eat some actual corn.

This isn’t an entire catalogue of the words he knows, but it’s not a bad start.

Lastly, there are a few toys that we keep out of reach in his room. When he sees them, he calls out for them: the dragon (“raar”) and the cat (“miii…o”). If there are more toys, he keeps on adding words for the other ones, but we haven’t worked out what those words mean.

As I write this I’ve just gone in (as is my custom) to check on Puff and make sure he’s sleeping. It continues to amaze me how far he’s come from when we first brought him home, his tiny outline taking up so little of the bassinet, and always exactly where we left it. Now, when we go in to check where he is in the bed, he has a toy near him, and he could be anywhere, at any angle in the cot, but always breathing softly (sometimes too softly for my liking).

The big development for this week is that he now has a toy (or a choice of toys) to take to bed. His favourite so far seems to be Monkey, a gift from Uncle M & from H. Here he is with Monkey.

The days of him knowing how to stand up in the cot, but not get back down again are over. The trick to having him sit back down again (so that I can remove his sleeping bag) is to say “can you get Monkey?” After a lot of repetition, he will eventually get down, and find Monkey. Before that happens, though, expect to see a lot of this:

This week was Mum’s birthday, and to celebrate, we went out to a cafe that Dad had chosen, so we could have breakfast together: Mum, Dad, Aunty Chan, Uncle Jordan and Puff. The cafe had gluten-free bread, and so Puff had his first ever cafe breakfast:

There were plenty of distractions at the cafe to keep Puff quiet and on his best behaviour. Notable were the ceiling fans.

We went along to morning church to watch the baptism of baby E. This proved a little too much sitting still in a pew for Puff, and saw Dad make a couple of hasty trips to the back of the building – hopefully not a sign of things to come!

Dad has been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, and so the only other event that we’ll cover here is the trip to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park, again with Aunty Chan and Uncle Jordan. Puff rode in with Mum on the train.

He was very well behaved, though we were grateful to have the extra helpers so that everyone managed to eat (even Puff, though this time he ate the food we’d brought him from home).

Puff’s favourite part of the markets was – as the sun was setting – looking at all the decorations that were lit up. There was a lot of looking up at the sky, and reaching out to touch things that looked interesting, but were a long way out of reach.

A few other firsts for the week:
* first time being happy to get out of the bath without a fuss (even helping by starting to climb out)
* first time locating a banana in a visitor’s bag, and proudly announcing the find
* more animal noises learned, along with some car noises

This has been a week of teaching Puff how to improve his sleeping skills.

Due to illness of other babies, Mums’ group was canceled last Tuesday and so Mum stayed home and tidied the house. With the house so tidy, Mum and Dad went on a date night, watching our first movie at the cinema since Puff was born! We managed to get him off to sleep before heading off to watch the movie – a really pleasant night out. Thanks (again) to our babysitters for making it possible.

Thursday saw a trip into the city where Mum caught up with K over some yum cha.

It was at this point that Puff learned his latest trick (we still have no photos of this) – standing up in the cot. Sadly, he hadn’t worked out how to sit back down again, so we’ve seen a few days of him waking up, standing up in the cot, and then crying because there was nowhere for him to go.

Normally, in these situations, he would just go back to sleep, so we’ve had many times this week of going into his room and re-settling him.

The good news is that he seems to have worked out how to sit back down again (yesterday), so he should have a better chance at re-settling himself.

In playing, he is still enjoying the blocks, and a new toy – an alphabet playmat. Here he is taking it apart.

With his eating, we’ve been a bit dismayed in the way that he would take ever larger pieces of food, and try and fit them into his mouth. The way to fix this has been a bit counter-intuitive: by giving him even bigger pieces of food he has no choice but to take bites. Here he is trying his hand at eating an apple.

On Friday, Puff went to his church mother’s group, and on Saturday we had B over for lunch, and then went to our first book launch for D’s new book.

Sunday was a long-awaited trip to Katoomba with C&J. Here he is being carried around.

As he gets more mobile, we find he is rediscovering old toys, and changing his favourites on a regular basis. Here he is with the current favourites.

He is getting quite crafty at exploring his environment: having seen us open and close the sliding door in the dining room any number of times, he has started to try for himself.

Lastly, today marked his first bath in the real bathtub: we’ve put the baby bath to rest at last. Once we work out how to take a photo of him in the bathtub that would be suitable for the blog, you’ll see one.

This week we’ve made a conscious effort to take photos of Puff when he’s away from his eating chair, although I’ve had to make a couple of exceptions. He’s continuing to try and get beyond his fear of the sound the coffee grinder makes, and help Dad with the coffee making. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s a big fan of trying out the frothed milk afterwards.

We’re starting to see increased signs of how strong-willed Puff will be as he gets older. Having decided that he had eaten enough of his main course, he started in with the now-familiar “na-na… na-na… na-na-na-na-na-na” that indicates he would like to move on to having a banana for dessert. We thought it was still time for him to eat his main course, so we gave him another option. He actually made it through 2 whole adult-sized rice cakes with avocado.

After that, he had some pear (with a bit of practice, he managed to come up with a word that sounded a lot like pear), some blue berries (a lot less success with the “b-” sound for berries, he kept stalling on “p-” instead, which is a consonant already overloaded with potential meaning (it can mean “up” and it can also mean “pants”).

The big news for this week, though, was his belated birthday present from Mum, Dad, Aunty Chan and Uncle Jordan – a trolley that holds blocks, and has a handle for walking around. Assembly was a team effort, and – like most assembly tasks – not without its hassles. Sadly, some of the pieces were too small for Puff to be involved, so some people were keeping him distracted while others were putting the trolley together.

Once built, we let him try walking around with the trolley. It seems to be helping him build up confidence in standing up without having an adult hold one or both of his hands!

Puff has found the blocks moderately interesting, though he hasn’t shown much enthusiasm for stacking them, or having other people stack them. Mercifully, he is certainly a fan of putting them back “in” the trolley.

A sad occasion this week had Puff dressed up in his formal clothes. The funny face he is pulling is part of his new-found ability to make kissing sounds.

Afterwards, he had a chance to try out an heirloom eating chair. This had been in Uncle Jordan’s family for around 60 years!

When playing, Puff will cheerfully look for a specified toy (if the mood takes him) – he continues to be fascinated with ducks, and knows how to make them squeak.

A visit to Aunty Chan’s work this week saw him put some of his newly-acquired “feeding” skills to work. It’s good to see him share.

Lastly, a short video to show his crawling and climbing skills. Magnets continue to be his favourite toys; he’s impressed us with how high on the fridge he can reach, if the right motivation can be found.

This week was one where Dad was pretty busy with meetings. It’s one of the harsh realities of parenthood, trying to find a balance between spending the idyllic, unhurried time with your family, and getting done all the things of life that you have agreed to do, however foolishly.

We’re beginning to realise that our best chance of taking a photo of Puff is when he’s eating. He has a tendency to do incredibly cute things, but generally there’s some level of physical danger involved in running and grabbing the camera at that particular point.

By way of example of missed photo opportunities this week, he realised again that he could play “peekaboo” with the towel after his bath. This time, instead of pulling the hood over his head, he holds up the side of the towel, so that he breaks eye contact with Dad. Dad will then make a fuss, asking “Where’s Puff?” and he will pause, then move the towel out of the way, and Dad will say “There he is!”. This is the way the game has played out for many months, though without Puff’s active participation.

The new twist is, when Puff hides with the towel, Dad will then duck out of sight, so when Puff moves the towel again, he can’t see Dad. Dad will then say “Where’s Dad?”. This is, clearly, the funniest thing in the world. At least this week, anyway.

Though not a photo of Puff, it would be remiss not to mention the red sky that we saw last Wednesday in the big Sydney dust storm. Dad went out into the backyard to capture it: the reflections you see of the flash are simply from the *dust* – this photo was taken outside in the open air!

Puff had a big Friday. First, a trip to Grind, for some reading in the window, and a coffee with C and CJ.

Then, a couple of phonecalls led to another playdate, this time at Coogee with E. It seems like they varied between playing together, and playing near each other.

Once the green container (the one with the sultanas in it) came out, Puff’s interests were moved away from playing with others, and towards his current favourite snack.

Attempts at learning to share somehow ended up with E feeding Puff some sultanas – I know it’s a food photo, but you have to admire the effort of capturing a moment that was this fleeting.

On Saturday we had a church meeting in the morning, and then headed back home for some sermon writing / essay writing time, with a break in the middle for a special guest reader to pay Puff a visit.

The last highlight for this week is a new fruit for Puff to try. His ability to consume what we’re calling “the yellow fruit” (and what he’s calling “Nar-nar” – this takes the form of an increasingly heated mid-lunchtime question: “Nar-nar?” “Nar-nar?” (scoffs entire fistful of food into his mouth) “Nawr-nawr?”.

Here he is trying blueberries. He didn’t eat as many of them, and in fact wasn’t entirely certain about them, but he tried a fair few before giving up.