June 14/11

..... how she loves to be girly but also isn't afraid to do 'non-girly' things

At a recent trip to the park, Jaymi found a ton of tent caterpillars and collected them to take home with her.  She took care of them for a while - made sure they had leaves to eat and sun, etc. and loved watching them crawl around.

June 15/11

..... her team spirit

This year the Vancouver Canucks not only got into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they got right up to the Finals ... up to Game #7!  Unfortunately they lost that last game but Jaymi got right into cheering for them and watching some of the games with us.  She loved learning about how a hockey game works and  observing all of the Canuck fans in Victoria, everywhere we went.

June 16/11

..... her athleticism

I've never thought of Jaymi as an athlete.  She has never been interested in team sports.  She has always liked dancing and when she was little, gymnastics, but she is more of an academic - loves puzzles, reading, learning, etc., more than sports or hiking or things like that.

But when I think about it, she is a fantastic swimmer (always has been), and right now, her two extra-curricular activities are ballet (2 years now) and taekwondo (which she adores).  And when she was in the hospital we found out that her average heart rate runs lower than most kids, which the nurses said could very possibly be because she is athletic - her heart is in great shape.

Her school attended their annual track & field meet and Jaymi had so much fun.  She competed, this year, in four events:  long jump, 100 metre dash, 400 metre run, and ball throw.  She got 1 "participation" ribbon, 2 'third' ribbons, and 1 'second place' ribbon.

June 17/11

..... her ability to try something again, even after she was hurt

We have always tried to make sure that Jaymi tries something right away, if possible, after getting hurt.  Like, after falling off of a bike, getting her right back on it.  So that she doesn't get too scared to try it again.

We bought her this pogo stick 2 years ago and the first day she tried it, she whacked her chin on it and made her tooth bleed....she hasn't tried it since.

Last week, she tried it out again, and she has been loving it.  Now Mark and I are scared watching her try it, but she has no fear at all that she'll get hurt.

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 31/11

..... I love her school

I love that her class is small (not this small, however - almost half of the class was away for the picture that day).

I love her amazing teacher!

I love that her school encourages the grades to look out for each other and care about each other.

June 1/11

..... her love for dance

Jaymi's end-of-the-year ballet recital was last week.

At the dress rehearsal she begged to stay and watch the whole thing, and like last year, loved every minute of it.  She was so disappointed, in fact, that she couldn't watch the first half from the audience seating (she had to be back stage until her own performance in the first half).  But she did watch the second half with me, and loved every single dance.

June 2/11

..... her age

I love that we can go biking together and she can keep up now.

June 3/11

..... her self-control

This was Jaymi's first time ever, having cotton candy.  Yes, there are certain things we don't let her have, like pop, most hard candy, sugary cereals, and pure candy things like cotton candy.  So we had agreed, for her school fun fair last week, that she could have cotton candy.  We let her have the whole bag to munch on and she loved it.  What I liked the most however, is that about 3/4 of the way through the bag, she got full, handed it to me and said she was done.  I love that she regulates herself and listens to what her body tells her.

June 4/11

..... her sense of humour with fashion

Jaymi loves shirts that pretend inanimate objects have a personality, or feelings.  This one in particular is a piece of paper and a pencil who love each other.

:)

June 5/11

..... her love for books

When Jaymi found this Special Edition of Warriors (her favourite series right now) at the library, she was so excited.  It's over 500 pages long and she started reading it immediately - as soon as we walked out of the library.

June 6/11

..... her natural beauty

Yes, I know, I'm biased.  Of course I am!  But I do think that my daughter is beautiful and this is my new favourite picture of her.  It has become hot enough recently to put a fan in her room for nighttime, and I had forgotten to take a 365 picture yesterday.  She was in bed reading, so I snapped this photo of her with the fan blowing in her face.  I love the result!

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.

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.

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.