Halloween and ENT Update

Hi all,


Well yesterday was Halloween, and Jasper has been looking forward to it for about 4 weeks! Every morning he wants to know how long til Trick or Treat..


He even has the song down pat..
Here is the video of it.. (click on the PLAY twice)




He thinks it is so funny, but knows not to say it to people, it is just something funny we do to get ready for knocking on doors!


Nice face paint job, hey?!?! Maybe not but they are only 5 so it was ok!

We went with one of his best mates, Liam.. here are some pics of how they looked.













(Believe it or not, Liam is only one day older than Jasper... It is hard to get close up with both of them on the same photo.

They got a lot of candy.. Trick or Treat is not that big in Australia, and there were heaps of people not answering the door, or just with just no candy, but that is not what we do it for, it is for the fun (and the scaring), and that it was!!

We didn't get home til 8.30pm - Jasper's bed time is 7pm, so you can imagine just how tired he was!!

He was still up at 6.30 am though!

He was allowed 2 bits of candy after the door knock, and suprisingly he was ok with that!


Medically, Jasper has had an ENT appointment this week (ear nose and throat) to retest his hearing. It is slightly improved from 6 months ago, but still borderline "mild" hearing loss. I am not suprised that it was an improvement. Last time he was tested was really close to an ear infection. We will go back for another test in 6 months time. It is just monitoring it to see if it gets worse.. fingers crossed it does not!


The dentist is the next thing we have, so not very exciting. I will post again soon.


Thanks for reading, and we hope everyone had a Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen!!!


Brooke
xxx

Gin Gin Farm Day for Camp Quality

What a big weekend we have had!! We had the Fanconi Anemia Family BBQ on Saturday (see previous post), then today we went to Gin Gin (about 50 minutes north of our house) to a farm day by Camp Quality.

Helen and Ray invited us, and we had a great time.


For those that have not guessed yet, I love to take photos of things Jasper and I do together. I also like to share them so the people we love can see how he is growing and spending his precious life!

I feel all children are special, and the days of them being "kids" is so limited - they grow so quick.


This first photo is the start of our day.. isn't he cute!!












One type of baby animal they had there were some orphaned joeys (baby kangaroos). you could not pick them up, but could touch them.. very sweet. There were 4 or 5 of them.













Jasper and Ray were very happy to see each other! I usually say "look like you love each other!" on photos, but didn't need to for this.. they were already in the moment!












Jasper and Ray sitting on John's lap. John is Helen and Ray's neighbour and a really good friend of theirs too.













There were little carriages linked together getting pulled by a small tractor/ride on mower... here are the boys getting ready for their ride.












There was a little carriage ride pulled by two minature ponies.. the boys are on here too!












Here is my tough boy getting his riding helmet on.. there were 2 full sized horses for the kids and adults to go on. Jasper was "chomping at the bit" so to speak!!












Here is my brave champ on the horse!












Our little group all went on a tractor hay ride together. From the front: Jasper, Ray, Helen, John, Vicki, Matthew and me.















Jasper and Ray were ripping eucalypus leaves off the trees that were really close to the tractor.















Some alpacas.. looking for food. they weren't too happy when we just took some photos and kept on going!!!


















Some tribal drum beating took place. It was right next to where we were sitting and either gets in your blood or gets on your nerves!!! But it was very organic, and the kids had a blast whacking away.























After all the activities, the boys had a cordial skulling competition!!! there was cordial covering them both!














Lunch time!!! For us and the flies! There were literally thousands of flies!!!
















Cuddles with Jasper and Ray!



















This is one of the first times Jasper has held a baby animal. He is normally pretty scared and I am not sure why. Paul and I always hold them and encourage him to do the same.. He was so proud of himself! He even named it Winston.















Second horse ride, and last one for the day. Jasper is on the horse with the blue blanket and Ray is on the one with the pink at the back.















Coming back from the ride! The photos never do it justice. The trees were beautiful and green and the track they went down was very pretty.

After all this activity, you would think that Jasper would be so tired he would be sleeping on the grass, but here he is running back from somewhere.. super speed!!!

We had a great day.

Camp Quality put on the day for everyone, and it was totally awesome.

Having Fanconi Anemia affect our family has been such a life changing thing.

It is not all bad. Far from it.

We have met some wonderful people, and made some fantastic friends that will last a lifetime. We are experiencing things that we would not have the chance to do otherwise, and appreciate more things than most people think about.

Enough reflection, time for bed!!!

thanks for reading!!!

Brooke

xxx

FA Day Perth

We had our Fanconi Day Family BBQ at a beautiful spot in Kings Park, Perth. It was a worry on the lead up as we had weather reports of rain and storms... but it all cleared and the sun shone down on us!

Here are just a few of the almost 200 photos I took..

First there is my mum, Bev with my 8 month old nephew, Campbell. Then there is me with Campbell. He is such a cute baby and so happy!

We had a BBQ - just sausages and onion with rolls (to make hot dogs) and salads. Here are Bek and John cooking the BBQ... Bek is Helen's daughter and John is Helen's neighbour. (Helen - as you may have seen in some of the previous posts, is our new friend and her son is Ray and he has FA like Jasper).

Here is my dad, Alan, with John at the BBQ. You can't reserve the BBQ's at Kings Park, so Jasper and I got there early and put up some signs, you can see one on the BBQ lid that is standing up. It worked! People were coming up to use them, and moving on from this one!!!

Here is Ray eating his hotdog. He had a mohawk done for the day, and was totally rocking!!

Here are Karen and Adam. They are 2/3 of the other FA family that came to the BBQ. There are 4 families in Perth, and 3 of us made it to the BBQ..

There was a lot of relaxing going on.. here are my mum, 2 nieces (Devin and Georgia) and my sister Alana.

My sister, Alana with Karen.

The relaxing did not last too long.. we had GAMES after lunch! There was a 3-legged race, wheel-barrow race, egg and spoon race, and a sack race. The sack race was for the kids only, but the other ones had a combination of kids and "adults".. there were people stopping to watch us, and a lot of cheering happening!

It was a lot of fun for everyone!

This one was a practice run!

Here are Ray and Helen racing against Jasper and Bek!

This one is the wheel barrow race. The kids were meant to be the wheel barrow, and the adults to move them.. as you can see, there is one adult racing about as a barrow.. this is Adam's dad, John. Karen was pushing him around, and it was such a laugh. They were going everywhere!!

Egg and spoon race here.. I don't think we got one dropped! The kids did really well!

Here is the sack race!

Here is Ray after the games. Do you think he looks like he is having fun?!

Hanging out in the tree.. Here is one of Jaspers best friends in the blue, Liam, Jasper's cousin, Devin and Jasper in the red. Carly (Liam's mum) took this shot - not bad!

Here is Carly.. she hates getting her photo taken, so this is a rare shot!

Here is some of the play equiptment the kids had to play on..

Here is Helen with her friend Vicki.. I told them to look like they love each other!!









This is Matthew - Vicki's son. He is 18 and Helen knows them through the hospital. Matthew has leukemia.

Vicki and Matthew looking like they love each other!

We picked the best day to have the BBQ.. there was music, entertainment and a face painter. All of it was free as part of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month which is October every year in Australia.

Here is some of the entertainment that was just on the other side of the park from us.

Here is Jasper after a trip to the face painter!











Ray after the face painter!

Adam also went to the face painter!

Helen and her friend John - the cat and the Lion!!!

Helen with Adam and Ray.

This is Jasper with his Fanconi Camp t-shirt and fundraising hat.. he looked very cute!

Karen and Helen saying goodbye at the end of the day.

There was a magician mesmerising the kids!

All in all it was a wonderful day and a lot of fun was had by all!!

We cant wait til next year!!!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke