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.

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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.

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.

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.