June 14/11

..... how she loves to be girly but also isn't afraid to do 'non-girly' things

At a recent trip to the park, Jaymi found a ton of tent caterpillars and collected them to take home with her.  She took care of them for a while - made sure they had leaves to eat and sun, etc. and loved watching them crawl around.

June 15/11

..... her team spirit

This year the Vancouver Canucks not only got into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they got right up to the Finals ... up to Game #7!  Unfortunately they lost that last game but Jaymi got right into cheering for them and watching some of the games with us.  She loved learning about how a hockey game works and  observing all of the Canuck fans in Victoria, everywhere we went.

June 16/11

..... her athleticism

I've never thought of Jaymi as an athlete.  She has never been interested in team sports.  She has always liked dancing and when she was little, gymnastics, but she is more of an academic - loves puzzles, reading, learning, etc., more than sports or hiking or things like that.

But when I think about it, she is a fantastic swimmer (always has been), and right now, her two extra-curricular activities are ballet (2 years now) and taekwondo (which she adores).  And when she was in the hospital we found out that her average heart rate runs lower than most kids, which the nurses said could very possibly be because she is athletic - her heart is in great shape.

Her school attended their annual track & field meet and Jaymi had so much fun.  She competed, this year, in four events:  long jump, 100 metre dash, 400 metre run, and ball throw.  She got 1 "participation" ribbon, 2 'third' ribbons, and 1 'second place' ribbon.

June 17/11

..... her ability to try something again, even after she was hurt

We have always tried to make sure that Jaymi tries something right away, if possible, after getting hurt.  Like, after falling off of a bike, getting her right back on it.  So that she doesn't get too scared to try it again.

We bought her this pogo stick 2 years ago and the first day she tried it, she whacked her chin on it and made her tooth bleed....she hasn't tried it since.

Last week, she tried it out again, and she has been loving it.  Now Mark and I are scared watching her try it, but she has no fear at all that she'll get hurt.

June 7/11

..... her love of nature

She calls out "poppies!!" whenever we pass some.  We used to have a big poppy field right near our house, until they cleared it and built houses there instead.  We miss our poppy field.

June 9/11

..... her desire to help sick kids

She was so happy to help raise so much money for the Children's Hospital.  And this year, it is going specifically towards the Pediatric Brain Tumour Research Fund!

June 10/11

..... her sense of humour in her imagination

She has been taking care of this little tent caterpillar for a few days.

She calls it "Catty" and it has been crawling around on our jigsaw puzzle, she has taken it for rides in a Zhu Zhu stroller, and it has a whole personality too.  It is a rapping caterpillar, believe it or not!

June 11/11

..... her love of bouncing and jumping

Jaymi has always loved to bounce, spin and jump.  Any time there is a trampoline or a bouncy castle, she will be on/in it!

June 12/11

..... her season love

In the spring, Jaymi loves to ride in the convertible with the top down, start to visit garage sales & go on downtown trips, and go to the park.

In the summer, she loves to eat freezies & ice cream, swim, go to markets & fairs, and watch the float planes come in downtown.

In the fall, she loves to jump in piles of fallen leaves, go to fall festivals, and take the trolley.

In the winter, she loves to play in the snow, do jigsaw puzzles, and snuggle on the couch with hot chocolate or ovaltine and watch a movie.

May 31/11

..... I love her school

I love that her class is small (not this small, however - almost half of the class was away for the picture that day).

I love her amazing teacher!

I love that her school encourages the grades to look out for each other and care about each other.

June 1/11

..... her love for dance

Jaymi's end-of-the-year ballet recital was last week.

At the dress rehearsal she begged to stay and watch the whole thing, and like last year, loved every minute of it.  She was so disappointed, in fact, that she couldn't watch the first half from the audience seating (she had to be back stage until her own performance in the first half).  But she did watch the second half with me, and loved every single dance.

June 2/11

..... her age

I love that we can go biking together and she can keep up now.

June 3/11

..... her self-control

This was Jaymi's first time ever, having cotton candy.  Yes, there are certain things we don't let her have, like pop, most hard candy, sugary cereals, and pure candy things like cotton candy.  So we had agreed, for her school fun fair last week, that she could have cotton candy.  We let her have the whole bag to munch on and she loved it.  What I liked the most however, is that about 3/4 of the way through the bag, she got full, handed it to me and said she was done.  I love that she regulates herself and listens to what her body tells her.

June 4/11

..... her sense of humour with fashion

Jaymi loves shirts that pretend inanimate objects have a personality, or feelings.  This one in particular is a piece of paper and a pencil who love each other.

:)

June 5/11

..... her love for books

When Jaymi found this Special Edition of Warriors (her favourite series right now) at the library, she was so excited.  It's over 500 pages long and she started reading it immediately - as soon as we walked out of the library.

June 6/11

..... her natural beauty

Yes, I know, I'm biased.  Of course I am!  But I do think that my daughter is beautiful and this is my new favourite picture of her.  It has become hot enough recently to put a fan in her room for nighttime, and I had forgotten to take a 365 picture yesterday.  She was in bed reading, so I snapped this photo of her with the fan blowing in her face.  I love the result!