Oct. 24/11

I love her ..... increasing compassion for others

Jaymi is finally reaching an age where she is beginning to think a lot more about other people's feelings.

She has been dealing with an issue with a friend, and has been trying hard to deal with this issue in a way that doesn't hurt the friend's feelings.  It's so nice to see her putting herself in someone else's shoes.

Oct. 25/11

..... her love of simple things

We studied eyeballs (eyesight, eyes, etc.) and had a lot of fun attaching eyes to everything, including food.

Jaymi had a kiwi snack with eyes,

a pumpkin milkshake with eyes,

a stuffie eyeball,

a piece of pumpkin pie with eyes as well as a vitamin with one eye (that's when she learned a new vocabulary word - cyclops)

Oct. 27/11

..... her dedication

Oct. 28/11

..... her generosity

At a friend's baking birthday party, Jaymi made tons of cookies and set aside quite a few, including the biggest heart cookie, for me! :)

Oct. 29/11

..... her role models

The people she looks up to right now, are awesome role models.  They are mostly taekwondo black belts, who are good students, hard workers, and people with great values and determination.

Isn't that awesome?

Oct. 30/11

..... her ability to get right into a holiday

We always go to a pumpkin patch and choose pumpkins, before Halloween.

We always carve or decorate our pumpkins to have them ready on the doorstep on Halloween night.

This year, Jaymi decorated Mark's pumpkin for him, and it included 'blood-dripping fangs' and a screwdriver right in the eye!  Ack!

Oct. 31/11

..... her ability to look pretty in a hamburger costume ;)

LOL

Nov. 1/11

..... her understanding of money and how to save it

She had $20 of birthday money and decided to spend it on some new stuffies.  At Carlton Cards, she knew (from buying a friend's birthday present recently) that these big-eyed stuffies were on sale for Buy One Get One Half-Off.  So, she calculated it all out and figured out that she could buy 3 of them (and we bought one more for a future birthday present for a friend).  Of course, she decided on 3 of the same husky stuffies.

Because, of course, 3 is even better than 1, you know!

Oh, and thanks Gramma & Papa John, by the way - that was the $20 that she received from you!

Nov. 2/11

..... her love of cats

Since Jaymi was little, she has loved cats.

She has almost always had a hoodie with cat ears.

:)

Nov. 3/11

..... how I can re-show her something that we used to do, after she has forgotten it, and she loves it all over again.

We used to play this game while we were inside Tim Horton's, at the window near the drive-through.

We watch the cars driving through, and interpret the logos, trying to see if we can figure out the make and model of each vehicle.

Nov. 4/11

..... her intensity

Last weekend was Training with Black Belts weekend.

It happens twice per year at Jaymi's taekwondo school, and she loves it.

This time, she had the opportunity to train for an hour on Friday night with the black belts, then for another two hours (one of taekwondo and one of grappling) on Saturday morning, then back in the early afternoon for another hour (weapons training) with the black belts, and finally she watched for two hours while they tested for their next belts/stripes.  Arriving on Saturday at 10am and being there until 4pm, she was all upset that it was over.  She wanted to stay longer!

Nov. 5/11

..... her love of literature

For her birthday, Jaymi received play tickets to "Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the The Wardrobe" from Granna & Grandad (thanks!), which was perfect, because Jaymi has read the book.

Seeing the play was great - she loved it!

Nov. 6/11

..... her 'good feeling' when she donated to the SPCA.

For her birthday this year, Jaymi insisted on her friends NOT giving her any gifts, but instead, bringing money and an item for the SPCA.  So we finally got around to bringing everything to the SPCA.

We brought tons of old towels, leashes, collars, cat & dog toys, and $33.

Jaymi said that she wished more kids would do this, and that her present was the good feeling she would get inside, from doing this.

She also loves visiting the cats when we go to the SPCA.  If she could take them all home with her, I think she would.

:)

Nov. 7/11

..... her spontaneous nature

After school one day recently, it was finally not wet outside, finally sunny, and we finally had no plans for the latter half of the day, so I decided to take Jaymi for our annual autumn photo shoot.  She was happy to do this and had lots of fun playing in the leaves.

Nov. 8/11

..... her continuing responsibility with Socks (her kitten)

Socks was neutered this week.

We allowed Jaymi to help bring Socks to the vet, and help pick him up as well.  She was fantastic with him.

Nov. 10/11

..... her new interest in piano

Jaymi has recently asked me to teach her piano.

Every time I have tried to teach her in the past, she hasn't been interested at all.

Now that she is older though, I am finding that she is picking up the basics sooo easily!

In two days, she has already learned the first three songs in the book, the C scale with both hands separately, and done a bunch of ear training perfectly and theory as well.

Hopefully, she stays interested!

Nov. 11/11

..... her age

Jaymi is 9 years old now.

Every year, I love her age and the things she can do.

I am loving 9 so far.

I wanted to start a "Pay It Forward" club with Jaymi, eventually maybe extending it to her school and making it a bigger club.

Having an only child especially, it's important to teach her to think of others, serve others, and do things for others, to make them feel good - not just ourselves.

So we had the first meeting of our very own club, at home.

We brainstormed ideas, made categories, found a bible quote to go with our club, and made a list of members.  And, of course, we made a dismissal routine too.

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 14th/11

..... her endurance

She participated in a kickathon at taekwondo. It was awesome! Everyone did as many kicks as they could do in one hour, to raise money for BC Children's Hospital. Jaymi & Gina together, did over 2,000 kicks.  She was so exhausted afterwards.

The kickathon raised over $900!

May 16th/11

..... her dedication to her interests

Jaymi has been learning about cats (her favourite thing right now) by reading lots of cat fact books. She has read about how to train your cat to be walked with a harness and leash, and is determined to teach Cookie (our Savannah cat).

May 17th/11

..... her friends

It was Bring a Buddy Day at taekwondo class, so Jaymi brought Connor :)

May 18th/11

..... her ability to have fun in the midst of not-so-happy times

We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver, for our one-night stay in Vancouver this week (Jaymi's first post-op MRI this year). She LOVED the house!

May 19th/11

..... her enthusiasm

Jaymi is such a great traveller. She loved walking around on the ferry deck (coming home from Victoria) and looking at the anchor, the ocean foam, the waves, and the dock. She was fascinated by everything.

May 20th/11

..... her carefree-ness

We had a fun downtown day (after a week of stress!) - Booster Juice & a Cobs treat, Value Village, and some playing outside in the sprinkler for the first time this season!

May 21st/11

..... her ideas

She has been doing a lot of reading up on how to train a cat to be walked on a leash, and we agreed that she could try to train Cookie. This picture is Cookie's first walk - she didn't do too badly!

May 22nd/11

..... her influence on me

Going for a walk with friends, from church to a restaurant for lunch. Jaymi suggested that we walk instead of drive.

I love it when she pushes me to do something that is good for me.

May 24th/11

..... her fitness

Practicing a form at taekwondo.

She is so strong and fit right now - I love seeing it.

May 25th/11

..... her unique tastes

Making a snack of graham crackers and almond butter.

May 26th/11

..... her generosity (sometimes)

We gave away some Canucks Jeans Day posters that were leftover from our fundraiser. The kids were thrilled to win these, especially with the Canucks doing so well in the Playoffs!

She is still learning to be generous, but sometimes it just pops out of her.  She was glad to make some kids at the school happy, by giving these away.

May 28th/11

..... how she's not afraid of healthy things in treats.

Jaymi loved these zucchini cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting and sprinkles :)

May 29th/11

..... her love for animals

We went to the Pet Expo on the weekend. It was so fun! Tons of cute pets to see (we SOOOO wanted to adopt a cute little Abysinnian kitten or a teeny Sphinx kitten), free stuff to get, draws to enter, and fun!

Jaymi's big love right now is animals...cats especially.  She just loves everything about them, and plans to work at an animal shelter when she grows up.

 

May 30th/11

..... her resilience

I have no idea (and neither does Jaymi) where she got this black eye. It's obviously half-healed by now, and it's funny - it looks like she has makeup on when I look at her.

Back to Taekwondo - and a Green Belt now!!

May 16th/11

..... I love her unwavering support and passion.

Jaymi had to take three months off of taekwondo classes, and it was the hardest thing for her.

She insisted on attending every class she could, even though she could only watch.  She kept learning the moves, practicing at home, and loved to be there, although it pained her sometimes, to not be active with the group.

For the last month, she was allowed to do private lessons.

She is finally back in the class, and is loving it.

She got her green belt on Friday, and attended a BC Children's Hospital fundraiser that we organized at her taekwondo school - a Kickathon.

Her and her partner did over 2,000 kicks, and the school raised $900 that day!

She was a great help with all of our fundraising.