Birthday weekend!

Jaymi's birthday was this weekend - I can't believe she's 9 years old!

Oct. 22/11

I love ..... her generosity

Jaymi had her birthday party this weekend, and maintained her idea that she DID NOT want presents from her friends.  She only wanted them to bring a small monetary donation as well as an item, both for the SPCA.  She loved her party, loved that they brought lots of stuff for the SPCA, and didn't regret it at all! In fact, she can't wait until we get a chance to visit the SPCA and give the donated items and money to them.

Oct. 23/11

..... that she has friends she has known since she was very little.

Jaymi has three friends that she still considers very good friends, whom she has known for many years.

1 - when we first moved here, and started to get to the know our neighbours, she met Connor.  Although he is two years older than she is, they get along so well, and love to play the same activities.  She was about 2 when she first met him.  They are both quite busy with school and activities now, but they still love to get together when they have a chance.

2 - Before preschool began (when Jaymi was about 3 years old) we met a few people through a local internet site and Gareth was one of them.  They ended up being in the same preschool class together and he was the only one she would talk to.  They eventually both left the school and attended different schools for kindergarten and up, but we maintained a weekly playdate for them since.  She considers him her best friend (outside of school).

3 - Jennica also attended the same preschool as Jaymi, but they didn't talk or play together back then.  When Jaymi showed up at the same school and kindergarten class as Jennica, they remembered each other and began to play together.  They were inseparable for years, and although they go back and forth with new friends, they are still very good friends.

Below is a picture of them in kindergarten (top left), Grade 2 (right), and this year - Grade 4 (bottom left).

Three of Jaymi's favourite things - school (& friends), cats, and taekwondo!

Oct. 12/11

..... her flexibility

She is so physically flexible and energetice, and fit.  It's awesome!

Although I really hate watching all of the new things she discovers she can do on the monkey bars with her friends.  It makes me nervous!

Oct. 13/11

..... her seriousness about schoolwork (while in school, anyway)

Jaymi takes her work seriously while she is in school.  When it's time to do schoolwork, she can always be seen with her head down, pencil working away.

Oct. 14/11

..... her braveness

She is putting her hand up in taekwondo to answer questions now.

She is speaking up when she wants to ask the teacher in school a question.

That's awesome - she is getting much braver now.

Oct. 15/11

..... the effort she puts into taekwondo

They are taught at taekwondo that you should always do your best.

They are taught that you should be "happy but not satisfied" with each accomplishment.

And Jaymi gives her all in the class, for sure.

She does what she is supposed to do, quickly and with as much strength and speed as she can.

She recently entered her first taekwondo tournament.

She entered in the sparring category, the forms, and the weapons category.

She had a fantastic time, and won three medals!

Oct. 16/11

..... her decision to grow her hair this year.

Mark and I have always liked her hair longer.

But in January she wanted it short and we finally said yes.

Now she is trying her hardest to grow it...very impatiently....and it is.... slowly.

Oct. 18/11

..... her nuturing nature.

She came out of her room one night and was worried that Socks had possibly swallowed something he shouldn't have, and was in pain.  She heard him crunching something, then she said his eyes were very wide.  She worried that he was hurting.

I checked him and he was totally fine.

I love that she worries about him like that.

Oct. 19/11

..... her imagination

Jaymi has begun writing a book of her own.  She is fascinated by the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, and has read almost all of the books, and recently she decided to write her own story, using the Warriors characters and history.  I just love the vocabulary she is using and the way her imagination comes out in the story.

Oct.20/11

..... her excitement about her birthday.

Jaymi is planning her birthday.  She isn't letting me do much on my own - it's all her!

It's a Warrior Cats birthday party.

And she DOES NOT want presents (from her friends).  She wants her friends to bring a $3 donation and an item for the SPCA.  None of the money will go to her - it's all for the SPCA.

I love her idea!

So we are making sure that she has a fantastic birthday party and gets presents, of course, from family members.

And we will go to the SPCA and give in the donation, visit the animals and 'tell' them about it, and Jaymi says that will be her present - the warm fuzzy feeling she'll get from making the animals happy.

Oct. 5/11

..... her unconditional love for Socks (her kitten)

We got Socks back in June, and Jaymi is still so in love him.

Every day when she gets home from school, she immediately looks for him in the house, cuddles him and says hello.

Oct. 6/11

..... her love for board games

It was hilarious watching Jaymi and her friend Zoe play Bedbugs together recently!

Oct. 7/11

..... that she's my kid!

Oct. 8/11

..... her changing style

I love watching her figure out her style, and what she likes to wear.

It frustrates me that she doesn't like dresses or skirts anymore (again!).

But oh well.  I do want her to be her own person, right?

She likes pants and shirts.

She loves shoes, especially flats.

She doesn't really like to wear pink that much.

She likes comfortable clothes..pants that stretch - no cords or jeans.

She likes her hair straight and smooth - no poofiness or waves or curls.

She still likes to mismatch her socks, most of the time.

Oct. 9/11

..... her curiosity

Jaymi helped me with the Thanksgiving turkey this year, and also made her own pumpkin pie.

I am always quick to help her learn new things, so when she asked me if she could see the giblets, and inspect them, I jumped at the chance to teach her something new.

We marvelled at how the heart looks just like ours would.

We cut open the heart and noticed the blood vessels and arteries.

We noticed how the liver looks the same on the inside and outside.

We cut apart the neck and saw that there were vertebrae just like ours.

Oct. 10/11

..... her long-standing friendship with Gareth

Jaymi has known Gareth since somewhere around age 3...before preschool!

They went to preschool together, and then when it was time to go to kindergarten, they went to separate schools.

Since that time, they have had a weekly playdate.

They have always been at each other's birthday parties as well.

Gareth turned 9 the other day, and Jaymi was happy to choose two Warriors books for him - she knew which ones he would enjoy.

They both have a love for "Warriors" by Erin Hunter.

They discuss the series endlessly, in detail.

They love to pretend they are warrior cats in a certain clan, and they act out whole scenarios.

Oct. 11/11

..... her interest in planning her own birthday party

Since about 2 years ago, Jaymi has wanted to be in on the plans for her birthday parties.

Here she is, planning her upcoming party (a cat party) while eating leftover pumpkin pie.

:)

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.

A Week of Stress and Celebration!

May 16/11

..... I love Jaymi's interest in cats.

Her favourite interest lately is definitely cats.

At a garage sale recently, Jaymi picked up a fact book about cats and has been studying it closely.

She is learning all about their body language, what's good and bad for cats, and she has also been studying about how to train a cat to use a harness and leash (so she can walk the cat).

She wants so badly to walk Cookie.  So we said, if she wants to train her the way the book says, she can try.

Today was the first day - Cookie is wearing a new harness and just getting used to it.

Jaymi is awesome.  She pets her, reassures her, and she is just so good with Cookie!

May 17/11

..... her giggles

She took her friend Connor to taekwondo for Bring a Buddy Day, and they giggled the whole car ride there, playing a car game that Jaymi made up.

May 18/11

..... her ability to live in the moment

Even though I know she has had a bit of stress this week, leading up to her first post-operative MRI to see if the tumour is regrowing again, she is usually able to live in a moment, like when we arrived at the Ronald McDonald House.

We stayed there for one night, and she was able to enjoy the playroom, as well as meeting another little girl.

She had so much fun there, that she actually didn't want to go home the next day!

May 19/11

..... how fantastic of a traveler she is!

Jaymi loves to travel and is so good at it (most of the time).

She has her moments, but she loves flying the best, loves the train, and although she wasn't thrilled about taking the ferry (the playroom is too young for her now and she says the ferry is boring), we were lucky enough to have a warm, sunny day to travel.  This meant that we could walk around the deck outside, enjoy the weather, and most of all, learn all about the ferry.

She looked at the waves below, learned about the suction and the propellors, loved the foam, learned about the buoys, counted the life boats, learned that it gets windy the higher you go, watched the boat leave the dock, learned her way around the ferry, met a HUGE dog, had fun balancing when the boat rocked, and had a lot of fun.

May 20/11

..... how she still likes to have fun with me.

After a week of stress, and some good news (MRI is clear for now), it was nice to have a day off (it was a no-school day) and have fun together.

We went to Booster Juice first and got a yummy smoothie.

Then we went next door to Cobs Bakery and got an apple scone. The lady also gave us a coupon for some free scones!

Then we sat on a curb to enjoy our smoothies and scones, and were given another coupon ($1 off of Cobs bread) and a free sample of a raspberry scone!

We bought a harness and leash for Cookie, then headed downtown.

Our destination was Value Village, and we found lots of treasures!

Jaymi chose 3 t-shirts, I chose 2 shirts and a dress, we found a cute stuffie that the kindergarten class at Jaymi's school would like, and I got a bathroom scale that we have been wanting.

Then we went to the book section, where we were thrilled to find something that is NEVER found second-hand - Warriors books!!!!!  Jaymi was so happy.  She actually got 6 Warriors books that she didn't have yet, and they were 99 cents each.  Actually, one was free, because when you buy 4 kids books you get the next one free.

Then we headed home and Jaymi had fun outside playing in the sprinkler and getting soaked, before going to a Dodgeball Tournament at her taekwondo school.

Random Stuff

May 10/11

..... her likeability :)

May 11/11

..... her love for life

I love how Jaymi lives and loves life to the fullest, even while not believing that there may ever be a cure for her brain tumour. 

May 12/11

..... her emotional growth

There are activities (like flying a kite and doing Spirograph patterns) that were too frustrating for my little perfectionist to do a while ago.  I love that now she is older and can handle those activities enough not to break down when they don't go perfectly. 

May 13/11

..... her eyes

I have always loved the fact that Jaymi has these big, beautiful eyes, and they have stayed like that. 

More Spring Break Fun!

Mar. 25/11

..... I love her way with words :)

Mar. 26/11

..... I love her giggles

I took this while she was putting on a performance with a friend, for us.

Mar. 27/11

..... I love her fascination with books

She is speeding through this wonderful series of books, and loving it!

Mar. 28/11

..... I love her passion for causes

(this was taken on a visit to the SPCA)

Mar. 29/11

..... I love her craziness ;)

Her newest stuffie 'germ' (they're actually called giant microbes) - this is a giant brain cell (next to her regular-sized one)

Mar. 30/11

..... I love her joy for the little things in life, like free fudge samples

Mar. 31/11

..... I love her dancing

Apr. 1/11

..... I love her friendships

Connecting with an old friend, after not seeing them for over 2 years!  It was like no time had passed at all.

I missed two days - Apr. 2nd and Apr. 3rd.

Apr. 4/11

..... I love her dedication

This was her first private lesson at taekwondo since surgery - 1 more month and she'll be allowed to be back in the full taekwondo class!