Knitting Around

Jemma is a great inspiration to us both, and has ignited me into knitting cute little hats and scarfs for her. Now she wants me to knit her a lady bug tent - see, she's been watching the show, "Ni Hao, Kai Lan" a new cartoon that teaches Chinese and Jemma is addicted to it and in one episode, The Campout, Kai Lan has a lady bug tent. Inspiring. Carpel tunnel syndrome, here I come!

Say, Cheese!

We've always called her The Bug, but these days we're calling Jemma The Shudderbug. She's becoming obsessed with gadgetry - and insists on taking pictures by herself. She's getting better at framing and composition and she has a natural eye - she even caught Ollie peeing on the outdoor furniture - we call that Peeparazzi!

Chocoholic!

In a matter of seconds, Jemma became a chocolate freak. From that first milky, melting in her mouth to the dark, crunching with almonds - this kid likes all chocolates, all the time. She often requests it for breakfast, sometimes jokingly and sometimes desperately through teary eyes. We have stayed strong thus far and but it's always a struggle resisting the chocolate beast within.

Blowing in the Wind

Jemma insists on trying everything herself - "I can do it, I can do it!" she always says. Even though she doesn't blow dry her hair, she insisted on trying when she saw mom doing it. Whether it's blow drying hair, cutting with scissors or even knives, putting in her dance recital DVD, fast forwarding on the remote and pausing for costume changes, she can do it all - by herself.

Year of the Rat!

We're a little late posting the photos of Chinese New Year - mainly because we don't have any! We forgot to bring our camera to the big celebration at the Empress Pavillion, but hopefully we'll snag some from our friends. Meantime, here is Jemma modeling her Lion Hat, which she wore to her school on the first day of Chinese New Year. At school, the children celebrated Jemma's holiday by making lanterns, eating oranges for good luck and hearing a story about it.

Our Little Dancer

Jemma has become quite the little dancer. She studies ballet and tap once a week, but almost every day she puts in the DVD of her dance recital and practices her steps along with the TV. She has learned all the dances of the "big girls" and is very proud of herself for accomplishing this. The amazing thing about this is that she will spend two hours at a time rehearsing and she does costume changes in between. Even though she's quite good at ballet, she has proclaimed that she really only wants to tap! Needless to say, she was quite thrilled when we put on the movie, Singing in the Rain.