Happy New Year! It’s been something of an exhausting week, despite being on holidays. Late nights, not much sleep, and not a lot of photos having been taken this week. Let’s have a look back at what we’ve been doing.
Boxing Day was a trip down to Wollongong for brunch with Aunty C and Uncle J. Puff and Huff played with Huff’s Mr Potato Head toys – for the most part, it’s great to see them playing together, and then occasionally it’s a little painful to watch when they fight. Huff has gone from saying her name when she’s trying to assert her ownership over a thing or a task to saying “mine!” which is much less adorable.
The day after boxing day was cubby-house working bee day. S came over to help Dad overcome his lack of DIY skills, and we moved the cubby house from the front yard to the back, rebuilt it and put a new roof on it. Everyone involved was sunburnt by the end of it, but we had a stable play area that is in a much safer spot for the kids to play in.
Both Huff and Puff love the new cubby house: we have a couple of minor additions planned for later in the week, but even now, Huff says “more! more!” when it’s time to go back inside, which is a good sign for the weeks to come.
The next day we trekked across Sydney to spend most of the day with friends and have our kids play with their kids. Lots of fun was had, but the photos tended to be too embarrassing for at least one of the people involved. Huff’s highlight was feeding a rabbit with a carrot, and Puff’s was probably sitting in a large bucket of water (just a little smaller than a paddling pool).
On Saturday, it was time to plant Puff’s Christmas present – some sweet corn seedlings. Dad dug out a new garden bed in the backyard. Puff helped, and also composed a song about digging. Here’s our budding gardener standing in front of the finished patch.
At church, Huff is continuing to exert her independence, insisting on exploring the outdoor environment, and walk by herself on ramps. This has resulted in some minor abrasions this week when she walked too fast down an incline. Mum picked her up to comfort her, but she insisted on being put down and trying again: it looks like her stubbornness about not walking has been replaced with a stubbornness to master it. Dad would like to take a little of the credit, sneaking her out for some walking practice while everyone else was playing video games, but it’s likely that this is – at last – her time to try walking.
New Year’s Eve saw the family head to another friend’s house for a quiet dinner and other pleasant distractions. The kids lasted past the 9pm fireworks, and then Dad took them home for bed – they were asleep by the time we were a few kilometres from home.
Huff’s vocabulary continues to increase. Some of her words aren’t particularly clear yet (at least to Dad) but they’re put forth with a lot of passion.
Mum and Dad have enjoyed a couple of nights out (once to see a movie, and once for a late dinner) with the Grandragon around to watch the kids.
Breakfast out as a family continues to be a challenge – it seems like fun in theory, but is generally a bit of a struggle, laying down consistent discipline to try and keep the kids quiet and well behaved.
Puff is enjoying his new bible (an NIrV translation) – Dad’s been reading sections to him, and he’s asking some interesting questions about what he’s hearing.