Sep. 9/11

..... her physical strength

This girl is strong!

All this taekwondo training has made her so strong, physically, and very fit too, I think.

Anyway, she was awarded her blue belt last week, and is already thinking about the next belt (High Blue - blue with a black stripe)

Sep. 10/11

..... how she's not growing up too quickly

She still loves bouncy castles and face painting, and fairs and pretend play.

I love that she isn't trying to be older than she is, and that she is staying innocent.

There will be many, many years for her to be more grown up.

Sep. 11/11

..... her memories

Every year since Jaymi was very young, we have gone to a fair called Metchosin Day.

It has always had this thing where you line up FOREVER to take a 5-minute turn on a mini-excavator and you get to work the controls, dumping and scooping and turning.

She has always wanted to do it and remembers it as a tradition now.  I wasn't sure, now that she is almost 9 years old AND not into construction at all (like she was when she was little) whether or not she would want to do it this year.

She did!

Sep. 12/11

..... her academic ability

She is so smart and such an academic little girl.

She is in Gr.4 this year, and her first spelling test went well - 18 out of 18!

Sep. 13/11

..... her whimsy

New t-shirt she picked out from Zellers :)

Sep. 14/11

..... her endurance

Sep. 15/11

..... the way she wakes up in the morning

If I have to wake her up for school, it's actually quite nice.  She's so cuddly and warm and cute.

And now she wakes up with Socks purring in her ear as well...she opens one eye and pulls him close to her to give him a big hug.

:)

Sep. 16/11

..... her excitement about moving up in levels.

She was excited about getting her new ballet clothes to begin grade 1 ballet.

In another 2 months as well, she'll begin rehearsals for the Nutcracker Ballet!

Sep. 17/11

..... her responsibility.

She is excellent at taking care of Socks (and Cookie too).

It's routine for her now.

In the morning, she cuddles him, checks his dry food, changes the litter, puts his collar on, and feeds him his wet food.

After school, she greets him as soon as she gets home, plays with him, feeds him his dinner later, and sometimes even trains him.

At bedtime, she takes his collar off, puts him into her bedroom, checks his water and dry food, changes his litter, and settles him down for the night.

Once or twice a week, she gives him a sponge bath.

The final days of summer and back to school

So, the last few weeks have come and gone, and were mostly full of fun.

We went to Vancouver for Jaymi's MRI, and got good news - her tumour is stable.

What that means, is that the MRI looked exactly like the last one, 3 months ago, and we don't have to back for another one until January.

So, we decided to have some fun and enjoy Vancouver.  It was kind of a celebration of the good news and I think, we deserved the fun.

And after the last couple of weeks of August were over, of course, it was time to get ready to go back to school - Grade 4 this year!

So...on with my 365 project.

--------------------------

Aug. 16/11

..... I love that she likes to go to plays.

We don't go to nearly enough of that kind of thing, and I have always had a love for theatre, so it's so much fun to take her to see a play.

Aug. 17/11

..... I love that she doesn't mind getting wet.

Aug. 18/11

..... her collection of reading medals.

She has quite a few of these, from the library summer reading club.

She does it every year, and always gets the medal at the end.

She also has tons of reading medals from taekwondo - they award them for filling out reading charts every day.

Aug. 19/11

..... her ideas

This waterpark has a big puddle in the middle, at certain times.  And Jaymi just loved jumping from the play structure right into the puddle.  It was pretty deep, too!

Aug. 21/11

..... her opportunities

While we were at Ronald McDonald House, Jaymi got to meet an author named Candace Weimer.

Candace was diagnosed with leukemia 4 years ago and was given 2 years to live.  She made the decision to fight it and get better and beat the cancer, and she did!

She wrote a book that is basically her journalling, and tells about her feelings from diagnoses through treatment to recovery.

Jaymi got a free book which Candace autographed, and they talked a lot.

It was a fantastic opportunity for Jaymi.

Aug. 22/11

..... how she helps me remember how to be a kid!

In the Ronald McDonald House, she just loved her bed!  It was a tiny room, but her bed was like a little fort, and she invited me up there one day.  Fun!

Aug. 23/11

..... her choice of toys

We got passes for Science World, from the Ronald McDonald House, and after having a lot of fun there, Jaymi got a stuffie platelet and a mango popsicle.

She reeeeallly wanted the stuffie platelet, after seeing how cute they were and learning what they do (clot blood).  Even now, when she gets a cut, she yells, "Platelets!  Do your job!"

:)

Aug. 24/11

..... her lack of fear

She has no fear of heights, which is awesome, because she thoroughly enjoys things like this Vancouver Lookout, where the glass elevator rides along the outside of the building.

Aug. 25/11

..... her connection with animals

Jaymi is in love with cheetahs right now, and when we went to the zoo, she was ecstatic that they had a cheetah!

He came right over to us, laid down and purred as loud as he could.

She just purred right back at him, inspected him, adored him, talked to him, and sat there for over 1/2 hour, until I dragged her away.  (We visited again later, and he was still there!)

Aug. 26/11

..... her fishiness ;)

She is such a fish.  Always has been.  She loves water, loves swimming, and will stay in there all day if she could.

She swam every single day, and sometimes twice a day.

Aug. 27/11

..... her childhood wonder

This was taken as she ran back to me after going on her first ride at the PNE in Vancouver.

She loves fairs so much!

She especially loved going on the roller coaster and all of the spinniest, scariest rides.

Aug. 28/11

..... her love for hotels

I love that there is so much about staying at a hotel that she loves.  It makes the vacation so much fun, before we've even done anything!

There's the ice machine,

building forts in the room,

watching a movie in the evening,

room service,

riding the elevator to the top of the building,

the front doors (if they're rotating or automatic)

the pool,

the hot tub,

exploring around the hotel,

practicing using the room key card in the door

and of course, bed jumping!

Aug. 29/11

..... her daring

We found this great free suspension bridge just near Abbotsford.

We even happened to be there while a large group of firefighters were doing some practice rescues down below.  So much fun to watch!

Aug. 30/11

..... her ability to make me experience things out of my comfort zone

Jaymi so badly wanted to ride the chairlift when we went up to Grouse Mountain.

So, we did it.

We had done a chairlift before, but it was way smaller.

I didn't realize this.

This one was long (about 15-20 minutes) and HIGH!

I actually got pretty nervous on it, and I don't usually get like that.

It was freaking me out a bit, and at the same time, I was thinking how awesome it is that I stepped out of my comfort zone to do this so that she could experience it.

Aug. 31/11

..... her willingness to pose for pictures ;)

Sep. 1/11

..... her new obsession - cheetahs

Sep. 2/11

..... her love for home

Home, sweet home!

Sep.3/11

..... her love for twirling

This is her new 'character skirt' for ballet.  She needs a character skirt for Gr.1 ballet this year, as well as ballet shoes, character shoes and her leotard.

She thinks this skirt is amazing, and loves to have twirling contests with me.

Sep. 4/11

..... her new food obsession - mangos.

Yuck.

I do not like the taste of mangos.

But Jaymi does.  Mango anything.

Mango smoothies, mango ice cream, mango juice, mango yogurt, fresh mangos, dried mangos, mango popsicles......

Sep. 5/11

..... how cute she is! 

;)

Isn't she cute?

I just love this picture.  It was her last swim of the summer, before school started up.

I just thought she looked cute, with her goggles, swimsuit, towel and flip-flops.

Sep. 6/11

..... that she likes school.

She started Gr. 4 this year - wow!

We always celebrate the first day of school by going to Dairy Queen afterwards.  This year we deviated from our regular tradition of ordering dipped cones, and she wanted to try a milkshake.

Sep. 7/11

..... how she makes me laugh.

Sep. 8/11

..... her empathy for Cookie

Cookie got into some kind of fight outside recently, and came home with some injuries.  They seemed to be fine after a few days, but about 2 days ago she was limping.  It seemed to be getting worse today so we took her to the vet.

Jaymi was very concerned about Cookie.  She kept reporting new symptoms to me, like her breathing rate, etc.

So the vet gave us some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medecine because she has an abscess.

Hopefully she feels better soon.

More things I love about Jaymi:

Aug.12/11

..... her gentleness

She is amazing with Socks (our new kitten) and with Cookie as well.  She is just so gentle and good with animals, naturally.

She wants to work with animals when she gets older, and she also is convinced that she is half cat!

:)

Aug.13/11

..... how she is so carefree.

Aug.14/11

..... her love for little things,

like bubble tea and mini-donuts!

Aug.15/11

..... the thoughts she comes up with.

She has said recently that she wants to be buried next to Grandpa (my late-father-in-law).  She has never met him, but we do talk about him with fond memories, and she knows how important he is to us.

When I asked her why, she said, "because I never had the chance to meet him."