Streamlined

Last week was the boy's swimming carnival (for grades 3-6).  Kobe and I went and picked up Noah and Di from school so that Noah could spend the afternoon watching Jalen swim as well.

 It was nice being able to get him out of his chair to enjoy the warm afternoon.

Kobe was excited about the toddler pool, but was actually happier just hanging out with Jay for the afternoon.

The whole afternoon he just kept rubbing Jay's freshly shaved head.

We kept joking with Jalen that his bald head would make him more streamlined and a lot faster in the pool - it wasn't the case though. He actually chose to just do the novelty events so he could just have fun without having to stress about where he placed. 

I often feel guilty that Jay isn't a confident swimmer, and feel like I've let him down, because we were too busy with dealing with Noah when they were both young young to take him to regular swimming lessons or to take him to the pool very often. We are lucky that Jay is so easy going though and doesn't let things worry him.   I've made a deal with him that this year I will take him swimming a lot more and practice doing strokes together, so he can become more confident in the water. Hopefully by next summer he won't need to worry about having a streamlined head to swim faster :)

A glimpse of summer!

Since our hike at Bakers Beach with the girls from church, I've been saying to Aaron that we should go there with the boys, as it's such a pretty and secluded place. Yesterday was a long weekend, so finally we got to go for a drive and spent a couple of hours at the beach.

It was actually a beautiful sunny day.  Not hot, but quite mild and warm enough to have a splash in the water (or at least my feet did - Aaron was brave and went right under). It actually felt a little bit like summer!

We had no idea what the access was going to be like for Noah and after dragging his very heavy chair over a track of sand and then over a pile or rocks, we finally got him onto the beach.

Once we were on the beach, there was a lot of hard wet sand from where the tide had gone out close to the soft sand, so Aaron dragged him onto the hard sand for me and I took him for a lovely walk up the beach. It was so nice to be able to take him for a walk, especially as he was wide awake.

The boys loved having a splash...

and playing a bit of footy...

 

 and a dig...

 

Aaron and I enjoyed laying on the beach in the sun in peace, while the boys went for a walk. 

It was getting on in the afternoon, but it was so hard to drag ourselves away.  We actually had the whole beach to ourselves at one stage, which is why it was so nice. It was definitely worth dragging Noah's wheelchair across the sand for a lovely afternoon on a secluded beach.

As we were driving out we spotted a wombat in the wild and also two kangaroos.

Kobe almost scared them away with him screaming 'hop, hop, hop!' but they were obviously used to people being around and stayed close to us for quite a long time.

I kept thinking how much all our friends in the USA would love to see kangaroos and wombats like this in the wild! 

 

It was nice to have just a little glimpse of summer again, before it disappears completely.

Newspaper

Yesterday The Examiner newspaper printed a story about Jalen doing the World's Greatest Shave. You can click on the photo from the paper, to read the story online.

Jay is feeling a lot happier now about having no hair, especially as everyone keeps telling him that it brings out his eyes and smile more.  It's funny seeing him walk around the house with a beanie on, as he keeps saying that his head is cold.

Thanks to everyone who has already donated.  You can still sponsor him until the end of the month, by clicking on the link at the top of this blog.

The Challenge - Hawks V Melbourne

Last night Di looked after Noah and Kobe for us, so we could go to the NAB Cup Challenge match - Hawks V Demons.  Mum came along as well.  First stop - the merchandise stand to spend Harri's pocket money on yet another badge for his scarf.

Second stop...give Hawka crap because Aaron actually knew the guy in there, and he doesn't actually barrack for Hawthorn, but being in the suit he isn't allowed to let anyone know that!  Aaron loved that he had to agree with everything that Aaron said!  

 

 Third stop...grab our great seats and settle in for a fun night of watching the footy.

The first half was actually really boring and because it was pre-season there was only a small crowd and not much atmosphere, but it's still always good to see your own team play,l and we realise how lucky we are to have them come down here so often. 

Harri was a man after my own heart, snapping photos all night on the little point and shoot.

The second half was a lot more exciting than the first, with some good footy played.  Jay was loving his Hawks hair beanie to keep his bald head warm.

Mum looks super excited about it all hey (or maybe just super excited that my camera was in her face all night! :) 

Aaron loved it as usual and I was happy playing with my camera as I wasn't really into the game, but it was worth going for the dagwood dog (which I forgot to get a photo of!). 

It was a late night for Harri who was cracking us up all night with his funny comments....'this is boring because Hawthorn aren't playing good!', 'is it time to go and get a dagwood dog yet Mum!?' (5 minutes after we got there!).  Whenever he is tired he sucks his thumb (just like I did when I was his age and older!) and by about 9 pm he was really going for it.

Harri tells me that the final score was Hawthorn 102, to Melbourne 'sumping' (something), but Aaron tells me it was 102 to 75.   We are looking forward to the real season now and can't wait to go to Melbourne later in the year to watch them play over there as well.

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! ;)