Christening the new chair

Last night we went to the Hawthorn training session, before they play in the NAB cup challenge match tonight against Melbourne.   Our friend works for Hawthorn and took the boys up to the coaches box for a look.  They thought it was pretty cool.  Harri asked a million and one questions...'what does this button do?', 'does the window open?', 'who sits here?'.

Cheeky Kobe kept looking through the window at us.

It was a short training session, and not many people came to watch which was good as it meant we got lots of time with the players, and they were happy to hang around and sign lots of autograph, chat and get photos taken.

 Alistair Clarkson even drew on Kobe and Jalen's nose when he was chatting to them. 

 It was just a couple of hours after Jay got his head shaved, and he kept saying that his head was really cold, even though it was a mild night.

Even Hawka kept rubbing his head, and giving him the thumbs up saying his new hair do was cool.

Harri cracks me up.  He never cares at all what anyone thinks about him, and sat there trying to act all cool, while Alistair Clarkson (the Hawthorn coach) was sitting right across from the stairs from him.

Aaron was lucky enough to be able to take Noah in the player's race, so that they could sign the back of his new wheelchair that had just been covered the day before. 

The old guy that works for the team kept saying to the boys 'come and meet Noah boys, he has grown out of his old wheelchair, so we need to sign it again for him'.  All of them were more than happy to stop and say hi and sign it for him which was lovely.

Of course I was the most excited to see Hodgie and get his autograph on Noah's chair.

He's always so lovely to him. 

Hodgie couldn't find any space to sign his name as he was the last to do it, so Aaron had to move a clip so he could sign his name under it. Hodgie started laughing and said that if Noah doesn't like him, at least he could cover up his name with the clip!

We were able to almost get the whole team - just need Sam Mitchell and Grant Birchall.  Aaron was very excited to have the chair christened so soon after getting it covered.

I think that the $8000 chair is now worth about $20,000! ;)

The Shave!

Jalen woke up this morning very excited to know that it was finally THE day to shave his head. When I picked him up from school he had a big grin, and I asked him if he was nervous and he said he was, but said that he was also excited.  By the time we got home I could tell that he was really nervous, and after Aaron talked to him about it, I saw him get a few tears in his eyes.

I asked him if he was sad and then the tears really started flowing and he said he was feeling a bit sad about doing it and worried.  We sat down with him and asked him why he was sad and he said that he was just worried about what he would look like and we talked about the people who have cancer, and feel the same and they are also very, very sick and how the money he has raised is going to help them.

After a little cry and a deep breath, he was ready.

Aaron decided that he was the chief shaver, and started hacking away at his hair with the scissors first.

By the end of it he was feeling a lot happier and really glad that he did it.

He kept saying that us rubbing his head felt really funny. I think he's going to have to get used to it, as I'm sure a lot of people will be rubbing it over the next couple of weeks. 

No idea what is happening here, but no doubt Aaron said something silly!

I was so proud of him for doing such a good thing to help others.  I actually felt like having a bit of a cry myself - not because I was sad about his hair, but just because I knew how hard it was for him to do it, but he still went ahead and did it and was happy to help others.  I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have such a thoughtful boy.  He has always been really sensitive and aware of others.

He was excited when we told him to celebrate he could choose what we had for tea.  His eyes lit up and he asked 'does that include take away!!?'.  I said yes, so of course he chose Maccas.  When we were there a lot of people were looking at him and I know they were probably wondering whether he actually had cancer himself. We got a lot of sympathetic smiles.

Aaron made this video after the shave tonight. 

He is still fundraising until the end of the month. At the moment he is the 18th highest individual fundraiser in Tasmania.  If you haven't already and are able to, please click on the link at the top right of this blog to sponsor him for a fantastic cause. 

My Actor

Last night Jalen went to his first drama class after school with Second Story Youth Theatre. All last year he kept saying he would love to take drama classes and even his teachers encouraged me to get him into something, as he excelled in it at school.

He was excited and nervous last night.  The classes are held at Launceston College and during first and second term they learn different techniques with the body and voice, and then third term they do a production which is shown to schools around town.

 I hung around for the first little while as he was very shy and the only new person in the group.  He actually says he wants to be an actor when he 'grows up' and keeps asking me how you get to be on TV and in productions at high school.  I guess this year will help him decide if he wants to continue on with it as he gets older.


Hopefully soon he will get to know a few people there and become more confident, as he has a lot of confidence doing drama at school.  The teacher was fantastic and had lots of fun with the kids. She told Jay she loved his hat and that it looked like an actor's hat, and that even his name was an actor's name, so he was pretty happy about that.

It's only two more days until Jay shaves his head for the Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave.  We are blown away by how many generous sponsors he has had.  Every donation, big or small has made a difference and will help those with leukaemia.   He is really excited to shave his head now.  I'm scared about seeing him bald, but am proud of him for wanting to do something for others. If you can please click on the picture below to sponsor him.  Every little bit counts.

Umbrellas, boardwalks and an island

When I told Aaron about my attempt to go to Tamar Island with Kobe and Noah, and he read my blog, he said that the next sunny day off we would all go together as a family. I knew all of us going together would be a lot easier, than the last time we went, as it meant someone could push Kobe in his stroller when he got sick of walking. 

Kobe loved having all of his big brothers with him this time.

When Noah got his new wheelchair, the Seating Clinic weren't keen on putting his old sunshade attachment back on the new chair. When the sunshade is on, you can't see anything ahead of you and it can be quite dangerous, as you can run into anything (and that's definitely not good when you get broken bones very easily).

Instead they suggested that we go to the golf shop and get an attachment that clamps onto the chair, and get a golf umbrella to use as a sunshade and windshade, as well as an umbrella when it's raining.  The golf umbrella is HUGE, but it works a treat as it is UV resistant, is dark underneath so it gives Noah a lot of protection, the silver on top reflects the sun, can be moved to stop the sun at different angles, and Noah was really cool the whole time under the shade, instead of overheating like he usually does. 

I was wondeirng how the boys would like it as it's not exactly the most exciting walk, but they actually really enjoyed themselves.

It was a lovely afternoon and nice to all go there together.


It was also nice to actually make it to the island this time.

"I brushed my teeth"

Jalen just spent three days/two nights away at his first ever school camp.  It was a grade 5/6 camp at Camp Banksia (Port Sorrel).  He was so excited to go as he has been waiting to go to camp for years.  I was excited for him, but I have to admit I was a little sad seeing him go off and knew we were going to miss him.   We waited for the bus to leave and the boys gave him the thumbs up as they drove away.

As soon as Kobe realised he was gone he started bawling. I went to take a photo of him and as soon as he saw the camera, he puts on a big smile for me!

Jay took our little point and shoot camera with him and promised me he would take lots of photos for me to see (what a good boy ;).  He came back with lots of cool pics and was so excited to show them all to me and tell me what they got up to.  These are the boys that he shared a cabin with.  They were assigned to cabins after choosing three friends they wanted to share with. They were promised they would be with at least one friend.  I was so happy to see who he got to share with as they are all lovely boys and get along well.

They did lots of different activities including a sand sculpture competition. 

They were split into groups to do different things such as orienteering, kayaking and photography.  This is his group on their photography activity.

He was very proud to show me the photos that he took during the activity. 

Before they came back to school, they went to the Don River Railway for a train ride and tour which he loved (oh I can't wait to get my hands on that hair and give it a cut!).

It was fun seeing all the excited and happy kids return home yesterday.  The boys are lucky to go to such a great school, with lovely kids. Jay ran straight up to Kobe and gave him the biggest hug.  The funniest thing was that I noticed that his face was a little sunburnt, so I asked him if he put his sunscreen on. He looked guilty and said 'no I forgot sorry, BUT I did brush my teeth!' as he knew I would be happy with that!

We missed Jay a lot while he was away.  The house was strangely quiet at night when the other boys in bed.  Usually we have Jay chatting away all night, telling us random information about anything and everything.  I love the age that he is at right now - old enough to be independent and lots of fun with his crazy personality, but not too old to think that he's too cool for us...just yet.  

It was nice to lay on my bed with him last night watching our favourite TV show (Biggest Loser) together, having a cuddle. He kept saying 'I missed you guys'.   I'm sure it won't be long until he's a little bit too cool to hang and cuddle with his Mum :(

Germs

Since I've been sick for over a week now and Harri is at the age where he questions everything, he keeps asking me 'why are you sick Mum?'.  I told him it's because there are germs everywhere, and sometimes your body catches germs and isn't strong enough to get rid of them, so you get sick.  He was happy with that answer and all week has been saying 'you have germs don't you Mum?!'.

Two nights ago Harri came into our bedroom at 3am saying his room was hot.  His room was actually freezing (thanks to the lovely Tassie weather we are having right now), but HE was super hot.  His temp was right up and he said he was feeling dizzy.  We gave him some panadol and he slept the rest of the night in our bed which wasn't fun as he kept wanting to cuddle up against me, with his hot body and I couldn't stand it.

He definitely wasn't well enough to go to school yesterday, and was miserable all day with his temp going up and down, and him not wanting to eat or drink anything. 

 

 Instead he decided that he could pass the day away by laying on the couch watching the 2008 AFL grandfinal which Hawthorn won.  He is so much like his Dad it's not funny! 

All day he was pretty miserable.  Once the panadol would kick in again, he was okay for an hour or so and then would go downhill pretty fast.  He wasn't his normal self at all and it actually made me really sad to see him like it.  He kept asking me 'why did you give me germs Mum!?'.


We saw our lovely doctor yesterday who confirmed it was just a virus and told Harri the most important thing he could do was to drink lots of water and rest.  The rest of the night he drank away (funny how they listen to a doctor, but not to Mum!) and was feeling a lot better when he woke up this morning.  Hopefully the germs will stay away and no one else will get it now.

The neighbourhood

When we decided to sign the contract for our house and land package, we were a little worried about the 'neighbourhood'.  It isn't the best area of town, but there are also a lot of worse places you could live, but the cost of the house and land was so cheap that we just couldn't pass it up.  We are actually very happy here as it's still close to town and the boys schools, and we have a beautiful new house to live in, but there are often a few interesting characters walking the streets or living close by.

When we came up while the house was being built we noticed that the people next door looked quite 'interesting'.  I didn't want to judge without knowing them at all, but I guess I saw the long hair, beard, old cars and run down house and thought they may be a little on the 'rough' side and really did judge them.

Tonight we got a knock at the door and it was the next door neighbour (long hair and all) with a tray of beautiful fresh salmon for us!  I looked at him and had to admit that I didn't even know who he was at first.  He hands me the tray and says 'for you!' and I was like 'huh!?' and he said 'I work at a fish farm, and get to bring home fresh fish and drop them by to the neighbours now and then, and I just wanted to say hi and thanks for putting up with my dog'.    The penny then dropped who he was and I told him that the dog is no bother (we hear him now and then, but he's not awful at all).

He said he often brings fish home and will drop it by now and then, and it's definitely not something I will be knocking back! I can only imagine how much this would've cost if I bought it fresh today! I will put up with his dog anytime! It's nice to know we really do have lovely neighbours.