Nov. 12/11

I love ..... how she just feels like going to the piano and practicing, just because she loves it (for now, anyway).

Nov. 13/11

..... her desire that both cats get along with each other.

And they finally are.  Most of the time.

They were sleeping together when I woke up one morning - Socks lays flat on his back with his legs apart, while Cookie prefers to lay curled up.

It's cute.

Nov. 17/11

..... that she is trying different hair styles (well, for a bit of time, anyway)

She went for about a week or so, wanting this little braid in her hair.  It was a nice break from what she usually wants, which is either a ponytail or her hair straight down.

Nov. 21/11

..... her quirkiness

She decided, this day, to read upside-down.

That's not unusual for her...what's unusual is that she is not only upside-down, herself, but so is the book!

Nov. 26/11

..... how she looks beautiful in a white angel ballet costume. :)

Nov. 27/11

..... her stubbornness.

Even though she wouldn't let me teach her how to throw the ball properly, I know that this stubbornness will come in handy for her one day. ;)

Nov. 28/11

..... her playfulness

Nov. 29/11

..... her intelligence

Here, Jaymi was working on a school project.

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.

The end of Gr.3 and the beginning of our summer

June 19/11

..... her similarity to her dad!

Jaymi is so much like Mark.  And although it drives me crazy sometimes, I love that she is like him.

They are both perfectionists.

They are both extremely stubborn.

They both have the same sarcastic streak and sense of humour.

They are both so smart!

They are both disorganized and scattered sometimes.

They are both so distractable.

They are both the loves of my life.

:)

June 21/11

..... her love for school.

She especially loves being with her friends, now that she is older.  This picture was taken on a field trip to a garden, during the last week of school.

June 22/11

..... her love for pretty things.

These are new shoes Jaymi just got.  She is wearing out shoes more than anything lately!

June 23/11

..... her courage to try new things.

Jaymi auditioned for a ballet this year, and she got a role!

She will be in a real ballet with a real ballet company in December.

She will be a snow flurry in The Nutcracker.  She went through an hour-long audition process and was so happy when she got in!

June 24/11

..... her recovery this year.

Her teacher awarded her a certificate of courage at the awards ceremony.  It is still unbelievable to us that she had her second brain surgery, still lives with a brain tumour, and has now graduated from Gr.3.

She has accomplished so much this year, besides recovering from surgery.

She has run a 1.5K, earned a role in a ballet (and finished her Primary year in ballet - ready to move on to Gr.1 ballet in September), made up for 3 months of lost time in taekwondo and has now earned her purple belt, and has also done a lot of growing socially & emotionally this year.

June 25/11

..... her enthusiasm

Ever since we discovered McHugh Rd we just HAVE to visit it when we are nearby!

June 26/11

..... that she likes to get wet.

It's so much fun to have a water balloon fight with a kid who WANTS to get wet.

June 27/11

..... her fun ideas

We declared this week "Fort Week" after Jaymi built this fantastic fort.

She has hung out in it, read in it, played in it, and eaten meals in it.

We ate dinner in it on this day.

June 28/11

..... her adaptiveness (recently)

Jaymi has never been great at accepting other people's ideas, but this year she has improved so much with it.  She let me change up her fort and tweak her ideas, and she liked the changes too.

June 29/11

.... her perseverance

I have been wanting to do a study of Virtues for a while now, and decided to do it this summer.

We began with Perseverance for two reasons.  One - because she used a lot of perseverance building her fort (it took hours and kept falling apart).  Two - in taekwondo right now they are discussing perseverance as well, so it fits right in.

One of the activities Jaymi is doing is lifting these cans (as weights) a certain number of times every day, and increasing that number.

June 30/11

..... her sense of responsibility.

Okay, here is the newest member of our family.

We adopted the cutest, tiniest kitten two days ago.

Jaymi named him Socks.

He is nine weeks old, he is very playful and very cuddly.

He is a rescue kitten (he was fostered after he was born from his mother - a cat found in the wild).

He is Jaymi's kitten and right now (until he is big enough to meet the other cats) he lives in her room.

She feeds him his wet food twice a day, she makes sure his dry food is filled up and his water is fresh, and she empties his litter every day.

She loves him so much, and is so amazing with him!

July 1/11

..... her sense of tradition.

She insisted on going to Fort Rodd Hill as we do every year, and we always take this family picture as well, on Canada Day.

She feels that tradition is very important.

July 2/11

..... her artistic ability

Jaymi has been wanting to be an artist for years now.  (She also wants to be a black belt in taekwondo and to work at an animal shelter.)

She loves to paint, draw, and colour.

She is turning her room into a cat-themed room right now, so she painted two canvasses for her room.