And just like that it’s school holidays again. Puff is half-way through his final year of primary school, with high school results coming out only a few hours after the school bell, so we’re not sure how many friends he will have at the new school.
Surely more than anything else, this should be the indicator that it’s time to take down a blog like this, or at least hide it behind a password or similar? Times have changed, but should anyone be able to walk back, week by week, and review their entire childhood? Has it been a good childhood? If Dad had his time over, what would be the same, and what different, from these 500+ weeks of parenting?
Of course, there’s no opportunity to hit rewind, just the hope that you have learned from your mistakes on the way through, built up enough of a connection with the kids to last the distance, and make the best of everything moving forward.
Saturday morning, we went out for brunch for some analog play: Dad and Huff played “Mr Squiggle”, a concept that Huff understands almost exclusively through YouTube videos and second-hand memories. At Mum’s suggestion, and after Mum had played a few rounds, Dad and Puff were playing hangman, where Puff guessed “flying circus” gratifyingly slowly enough to make for a challenge.
Huff had a babycino, which is still where her appetite for beverages remains. This was a potatohead babycino, so it came with teeth and freckle eyes. Huff has another loose tooth which will mean a further summons of the tooth fairy before long.
It’s surprising what she remembers and what she doesn’t – often asking about particular imaginative play, or about making pasta that one time, years ago, when we stayed home and cooked pasta. Turns out it was three years ago.
Hopefully she will remember making cookies with Grandma for many years to come; there was no shortage of cookie consumption on the other side of the helping.
Oh, and while Mum was out, Dad and the kids had dinner together and Dad beat Puff at chess (it was looking pretty doubtful for a while).
The kids are doing a three-day holiday course this week. Puff is learning coding – he was showing off the beginning steps of a text-based adventure game that he’s been writing in Python. Huff is learning about clay: she’s been making a bee, and tomorrow they paint the bee. Each of them have made friends in their respective classes, which is encouraging.