Sydney Trip

Do I have some photos for you!! Paul, Jasper and I just arrived home from Sydney, NSW this afternoon.. we went there for Paul's younger brothers wedding.
This first photo was taken in Matt and Christine's house (that is Paul's brother and his wife). Jasper just loved their dog - Coco. She took a while to warm up to us, but it was not long before she was all over Jas and loving the attention (for the most part!)



Here are three of the brothers and their babies - from left to right there is Paul and Jasper, Shaune and Indiana, and Matt and Jai.
It is the first time we have met Jai and Indiana, so there were a few photos taken of them!

This is Jasper, Paul and I just before we left for the wedding. Paul was a groomsman and looked really handsome! The tie and kerchief matched the bridesmaid dresses. It was a gorgeous colour.

This is in the church (it was a Catholic wedding). Left to right - Shaune (best man), Michael (brother), Kerry (Shaune and Matt's mum), Matt, Alan (father to all 4 boys), and Paul. It was really nice that Matt had asked his 3 brothers to be his groomsmen. They don't look alike, but they are brothers!

Here is my handsome man. He took over the camera for most of the rest of the day and night. Who could say no to a photo from this face?



Here is a Jasper shot - Christine's dress was amazingly beautiful. Her grandmother and mother made it for her. Amazing.

Here are the boys and Christine outside the church.

Jasper and his Poppy Miles. Jas does not get to see this Poppy very often as he lives on the other side of Australia, but it does not take him too long to get up for a snuggle, and you can just see how much his poppy loves him!



Here is Jas with one of the pretty ladies he took a shine to! This is Sally and she is Shaune's girlfriend (and Indiana's mum). Jasper took about 47 photos of her, and they even had a dance together.


The beautiful bride with her beautiful baby! (photo by Jasper)


Jas' Uncle Matt - photo by Jasper.


My boy and I on the dance floor - until someone better came along for him to dance with!!


... like his dad!!!

more snuggle time with Poppy.



The day after... it was really hot on the Sunday, so when Matt and Christine got home, the boys went for a swim. It was a nice way to cool off!

Jasper and Paul saying goodbye to Nanna Kerry (Shaune and Matt's mum).


I could not resist taking this shot.. We had gone to Paul and Matt's dad's place and the boys were both leaning against the car with their arms crossed.. it was so funny!


Paul and his dad.

This shot was too cute to not include. This is when we got home from the wedding and I put Jasper to bed. He was asleep in the car and barely moved when I carried him into the house. He was sleeping in Jai's room, and Jai was with his Nonna. Jasper decided that rather than taking the cot mattress out and putting it on the floor to sleep on, he would sleep in Jai's cot!!!
Oh, the benefits of being 14kg at 5 1/2!!! This is one that we will have to put up at his 21st!!

We had a great time and really enjoyed every minute we were there. Another good thing that happened on the way home was getting upgraded to business class!!
We had a few very late nights and early mornings, so are ready for bed NOW, and it is only 7.20pm!!

Thanks for reading, and will post again soon.

Brooke
xxx

First Day of School

Well, the summer school holidays are over, and Jasper is back at school.

He has started at a brand new school this year, and so far so good! He has a lovely teacher and the kids seem pretty nice!

He was so nervous about going to a school where he did not know anyone. Once he got there though, he was happy to be there, and is excited now in the mornings to get dressed and go!

Here he is on Monday morning eating his weetbix for breakfast! He looks pretty confident and happy... but wait!

Once we finally got dressed and out the door, this is the little nervous wreck that I had! he would not put his arms down for anything! he is shoe-less as he did not want to wear his nice new school shoes, he wanted to wear his old ones, and they were in the car!!

Then we have day 3. Jasper was more than happy to pose for a nice photo, not a nervous photo! He loves his school, and thinks his teacher is pretty cool too - and he loves his new school shoes!

We can't just have "nice" photos taken where Jasper is concerned... He wanted some silly ones too! I have just added one.. but there were many!

I don't know who thought that white shirts on primary school kids was a good idea... I am washing the one he wears every evening - orange, paint and dirt so far! Lucky they come out easy!

I am feeling a little lost without my shadow, but he is only in half days for the first 2 weeks, then it is full time. It is exhausting for him, even just with half days, but he loves it!

There is nothing else to report. I will post next week - we are going to Sydney this weekend (about 5 1/2 hours flight away) because Paul's little brother is getting married! I am sure to have some pics from our 4 days there!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke

Blood Test Results

Jasper had his regular 3 monthly blood tests today. It was the first one that I have not been totally scared of the results for.

We are so lucky that Jasper's blood is so healthy, that I don't really have a need to worry.

Jasper was ok going in.. he knew it was just a thumb prick, not a vein drain! It makes him much happier.

He is mesmerised with the blood coming out and going into the vial and onto the slide. I can't watch for fear I will pass out!!!

As predicted, his blood is perfect and there is no dramas!

The best thing is that his weight has hit 14kg even!!! I was so excited, and his height is 105.2cm. I think that is growth of about 3.5cm in 3 months.. pretty cool!!

For anyone interested, his bloods were as follows:

White Cells: 5.40 (norm range 5.00 -17.00)
Haemoglobin: 131 (norm range 110 - 145)
Platelets: 160 (norm range 150 - 400)
Neutrophils: 1.57 (norm range 1.50 - 8.50)
Red Cells: 3.87 (norm range 3.90 - 6.00)

These results are pretty steady, and the doctors are really happy with him.

Next medical news will be in April when he is due for his Bone Marrow Aspiration.. then we should be able to go to 6 monthly blood tests (fingers crossed).

Paul is home from work this week, so we are looking forward to spending some good family time together.

No more news for now.

Thanks for reading!

Brooke

Off to the Zoo we go!

Well, it is the Summer school holidays here at the moment.. we start the week before Christmas and the kids go back to school at the start of February.

Jasper and I have been spending a lot of time at the beach and at my mum and dad's pool! It has been pretty warm here since Christmas, lately it has been 37C (98 - 99F). We get the sea breeze early though, and that means I don't need to kick on the airconditioner most days.

Well, the other day we went to the Perth zoo with our good mates Helen and Ray. In case you have not read any earlier posts, Ray has Fanconi Anaemia like Jasper. We met them when we all went to Adelaide in September 08 for the first FA Australia Camp.

We have not seen Helen and Ray in ages, so it was nice to have a catch up!

Here are some shots of our adventure.

Right inside the gate there is this momma gorilla with her baby (just a statue!). It is a given that everyone sits there and had a cuddle at some point in their visit.

Next we saw these big tortises. This one was eating his breakfast! It is ages away from the fence, and totally HUGE!

The boys liked the rhino butt pointing at them.. made me think of that song... "I like big butts..." you know the one!!

The most amazing thing happened when we stopped for a drink.. (we were waiting for the nocturnal house to open) Tricia the elephant walked right by us on her morning walk.. I have never seen an elephant so close before, and she was beautiful!

The boys thought it was icypole time.. it was warm, and only 10am!

Then on for a ride of the carousel!

Here are those tortises again.. all be it statues of them! Another "must have" photo at the zoo.

Here are Jasper and Ray at the orangutang enclosure.. There is a cheeky little monkey hanging in the background. They were all just chilling out because of the heat.

We stopped at the park area for a sit, and to let the kids play. Here they are at the water area... jasper was trying to drink the water, and Ray was posing!!
Here are Ray, Helen and Jasper at the end of the zoo trip.

We had a great time, and Jasper was totally exhausted after this..

Jasper has his next blood test due on the 19th January, so I will post again then!!

Thanks for checking in on us, remember to leave a message, Jasper loves reading them!

Brooke

Xmas Update

Ok, so I can see it has been a while since I have posted... I have been offline and have much to update, but will contain myself to the important bits!!!



At the start of December, Jasper got his yellow belt in tae-kwon-do. There was a grading and everything, and it was so cute! I teared up and everything... he was so proud of himself! here he is with his belt..



My mum and dad came to watch the ceremony, and had a pic too. they are very proud grandparents!

Ok, onto Christmas! Paul works away, so was not going to be here for Christmas Day. Jasper and I were heading to Busselton (about 3 - 3.5 hours south of us) with my mum and dad. My uncle, aunty and 2 cousins live there.

Paul flew out to work on the Monday before Xmas, so we let him open one present that night before bed.. He got an Ultimate Omnitrix from Ben 10.. he was very excited!!!

Here is Jasper with his dad.

On the Tuesday before Xmas, my sister and her 3 kids came over for a play as we were not going to be seeing them on Xmas day either. Here is a photo of Jasper with his boy cousin, Campbell. He is the happiest little boy you have ever seen!! This is the first photo I have of just the boys!!

Here are all the kids together.. L-R - Campbell, Jasper, Georgia and Devin.Here is where we spent Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and Boxing morning.. Jasper and his cousin Tashi on the trampoline.. Jasper spent a lot of time on here - in between all the eating he did!!!

Here are our cousins, Sarah and Tashi. They are such sweet girls, and the love between them and Jasper is wonderful!!!

My little Santa Claus on Xmas Eve.

My boy and I.. We had such a great time and a lot of fun!

Christmas morning I get woken up by Jasper.. Where we were staying was a unit in a caravan park. It was really nice. Jasper had bunk beds (so slept on the top of course!!), and I had a separate room. I told him to stay in bed in the morning and call for me incase he slipped getting out of bed... but no, he climbed down and came to wake me up with a "merry Christmas, mummy" and a kiss. We snuggled in bed for a minute talking about if we heard Santa... neither of us did.. Jasper said he saw his stocking filled at the end of his bed. I asked him if he opened it, and he said no, he wanted to wait for me!

First things first, we needed to check what the reindeer did to the carrot we left outside. What a MESS!! It was spread everywhere!!! Santa had nibbled the cookies we left out, and drank some of the water too...

This is part of the stocking emptying!
There were 3 presents in Busselton, and the rest we had already asked Santa to leave at our home for when we got back. After opening the presents and getting dressed, we headed over to the McCamish's house for MORE presents and lunch.

After lunch, the kids were so tired.. late night and an early morning... so Jasper and Tashi went for a sleep in Tashi's room. It was too cute to not take a photo!

I took this just before I woke them up - because it was time for..........


BEACH CRICKET!!!!!

Ok, so I know we Aussies are used to hot weather for Xmas - no snow and plenty of sunshine... I could not imagine being inside and cold for Xmas.. we spent a few hours at the beach playing cricket and soaking up the sun. It was beautiful!! What a way to be spending the day. Anyone jealous yet?

Then back to the McCamish's for more food and drinks!!!

It was nice to get home, and Jasper was excited about the rest of his presents, but we had a great time this Xmas.

Boxing Day lead to a big drive home (lucky my mum and dad did the driving, because Jasper and I slept!). Then home for more presents, early dinner and early to bed!!

I can't believe it is all over for another year. It came so quickly and is over so quickly.. now we have to wait another year for it all again!!!

Medically speaking, we have no updates.. Jasper is healthy and has his next blood test due in January.

I have much more to post on, but this is enough for now, and the rest of the stuff is not as exciting as the Yellow Belt and Xmas!!!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke

The Wombat Wobble

Hi all,

Just a short update this time.

We have had a pretty uneventful week or so, really busy, but not too exciting!

Jasper has been practicing for his school assembly - the pre-primary classes did a "dance" for the whole school.

It is something that happens at assembly every fortnite - a class does an item, and this was the Pre-Primary kids turn!

They are aged 5 to 6, and it was very cute.

No school uniforms today, they had to dress in browns and earthy colours - to look like wombats!

I have a video of the song (it is very long and repeats itself a lot - but again, they are 5 and 6 years old!).

Here is a photo of my little wombat..



























It was very cute! They made the ears at school as part of the preparations and got their noses painted in the morning before the assembly started.

Ok, so the video.. it is a bit grainy, but it was just on my little camera... Jasper is up the back (smart move, smallest kid gets put up the back..). he was messing around a bit (so being up the back was not so odd..), being silly trying to hide from me. He is back row, second in from the edge.. just look for the little guy!!

I got distracted part way through and the camera kind of just goes off the performance..

The song was so funny. They did a really good job - there are hundreds of faces staring at them from the front, and there were no tears from anyone!

No medical updates today...

Ok, I give up on the video.. it took 45 minutes and still was not uploaded. My computer is so SLLLOOOOWWW. Sorry people, I will try again another time. I have things to do now!!

Thanks for reading.

Brooke

Media Star in the Making

Hi all,

Well, Jasper and I have had a big week!! Believe it or not, this post wont have any photos! It is the first one like it!

Well, the week started with Jasper and I being on the front page of the North Coast Times, (a local paper here in Perth). It was really funny as some of the kids at school were telling Jasper he was famous. he loved it!

THEN I got a phone call from one of the producers at 6PR (a radio station) and they wanted us to come in and do an interview on Sunday morning. Of course, I was all for that. (They had read the local paper and started ringing B Miles in the phone book!)

Meanwhile, we got the FARF (Fanconi Anemia Research Fund) quarterly newsletter that had our story in it as well. I had actually forgotten about this one as we were asked to write the article when we were in America (August).

I also had a fundraising note on the back of the school newsletter about Fanconi Anemia Fundraising.

All in all, we have gone media-crazy!

Jasper was so good at the radio station. I had bribed him before hand, but don't think I needed to. He was telling jokes and everything. After, he wanted to go back in and say hello to all his friends, but we were done.

I am really happy that there are some places that are taking an interest and I can help raise awareness. it is really hard to get momentum with something so rare, but if I am not an advocate for my child, who will be?

If I am not talking about FA and helping to educate people, who will?

There are not a lot of us out there affected, and I know everyone is doing their best to raise awareness, I just hope I can make a difference too.

Thanks for reading.. Maybe the next post will have some photos!!

Brooke