Merry Christmas!

Dec. 1/11

..... her cuddliness

Yes, Socks is cuddly, but Jaymi is so cuddly as well.  She is always willing to give a good hug & kiss.

Dec. 3/11

..... how she never tires of interacting with Socks.

He has a reindeer hat and collar.

In fact, he has a few little cat outfits now.  Jaymi loves to have him choose something to wear.

He's not too bad with it either, compared to most cats.  He puts up with it...walks around and doesn't freeze and fall over like Cookie does if we put something on her.

Except hoods.  Socks does not like hoods.  If he has a hood on, he'll walk backwards to try to get out of it.

;)

Dec. 4/11

..... her interest in charities, especially for animals.

For a long time, Jaymi has wanted to be involved with the SPCA, especially as a job when she grows up.

Whenever the SPCA has a workshop, a camp, or an event, she wants to go.

So of course, we HAD to go to the SPCA Pet Photos with Santa!

Dec. 6/11

..... her interest in taking photos, like me. :)

She has decided to do a 365 Project of Socks.

She will take a photo every day for 1 year, of Socks, and we even have a website that she wanted to start.  I'll post when it's ready to go online.

Please be sure to give her photos comments, if you like them!

Dec. 8/11

..... her constantly changing style.

She generally wears pants right now.  She doesn't like skirts anymore.

But when we were trying to choose a Christmas outfit, she insisted that even though she doesn't like skirts anymore, she needed to get a skirt for Christmas events, because she always HAS worn a skirt for Christmas every year, she needed to keep the tradition.

Dec. 11/11

..... her patience

Usually I wouldn't say that Jaymi has patience, but at The Bethlehem Walk (an event where a church makes the whole interior to seem just like Bethlehem would have been in Jesus' time) and the wait to get in was about an hour long - maybe more!  She did wonderfully!

Dec. 14/11

..... her love for (most of) my baking.

She had fun helping me make fudge for the first time, and of course, tasting the ingredients and the finished product too.

:)

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.