Sharing CHRISTmas

VeggieTales merged with real life this morning.

Jairus practically has the newest VeggieTale movie, Saint Nicholas – a Story of Joyful Giving, memorized since he has watched it every day since his birthday. I don’t want to give away the story, but part of it applies to today.

As a young man, Nicholas sails the world trying to find something that will make him happy. Eventually he ends up at the Nativity Chapel in Bethlehem. There he meets a nun who is giving food to the poor. Nicholas asks if feeding the poor makes her happy. She replies that she does it because she is happy. She goes on to explain that she can love because God loves her and she can give because God gave. Well, Nicolas gets it! He then goes on to give because God gave (part of the legend of Santa Clause). Of course, you should watch the whole movie. The VeggieTales add song, dance, and humor to make the story enjoyable and catchy.

So, back to my point. Today VeggieTales merged with real life. This morning, our family took part in delivering gifts and food boxes with the Sharing CHRISTmas ministry of our church. For the last several years we have purchased gifts as part of the ministry. The last couple of years, Joe helped deliver gifts – he is especially needed because of his Spanish skills. But this year we felt like Jairus was old enough that we could also be part of the delivery teams. We explained to Jairus that we were being like Saint Nicholas – we were giving because God loves us and gave to us. Jairus helped at each house carrying in the red gift bag filled with a Bible, devotional book, and information about the church. He also helped us put gifts under the trees. Our family delivered gifts and food boxes to 3 of the 52 families “adopted” by our church.

At our church, CHRISTmas actually starts several months before now. In the late summer/early fall the church starts to collect peanut butter and jelly, cake mixes, and other items to put into food boxes. Then after Thanksgiving the church members have the opportunity to “adopt” kids by buying a couple of Christmas gifts for them. The Sharing CHIRSTmas committee gets names and information of kids in need from the local elementary schools. It is a huge undertaking to have everything organized and done in such a way to protect the families involved. This year it meant providing for 170 children in our area!

I don’t blog about this to brag on us or even really our church. It was just a neat few hours we spent this morning as a family. It was honestly refreshing. I wouldn’t be disappointed at all if this became a Christmas tradition for us. It is pretty cool when the 3 of us can all serve together. It is a great way to remember and put into the practice the truth Jairus sings about with VeggieTales…. “I can love because God loves me. I can give because God gave.”

Funny kid

According to Jairus’ teacher, the principal always tells a joke with the daily announcements. Well, the kids in Jairus’ class don’t understand the jokes, but they know that a joke is supposed to be funny. So as soon as the principal says “joke” they all start to laugh. In light of that, recently Joe has introduced Jairus to knock knock jokes. Jairus quickly caught on to the pattern, but like all kids, just makes up his own jokes that make NO sense. But, he has memorized 2 jokes.

Knock, Knock
Who’s there?
Annie
Annie who?
Annie body home. :)

And Eric introduced him to the classic, which he has memorized as well.

Knock, Knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Banana who?
Knock, Knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Banana who?
Knock, Knock
Who’s there?
Orange
Orange Who?
Aren’t you glad I didn’t say Banana :)

Jairus tells these and laughs and laughs and laughs,which of course causes us to laugh and laugh and laugh! :)

Church CDs

These last 6 weeks Jairus has been obsessed with one of the “church CDs” (Kids Hymns) in the car. We listen to it every time we go somewhere. Anytime I have tried to move on to one of the other “church CDs” Jairus adamantly resists. The good thing about this obsession is that he is at least learning some classic hymns.

One night this last month Jairus was tired, but of course, he didn’t want to go to sleep. He had been banished to his room regardless. To keep from going to sleep he sang “Shall we gather at the river…the beautiful, the beautiful river” at the TOP of his lungs. Since he couldn’t remember any more of the song, he just sang that same part over and over for about 5 minutes. Eventually he gave up and, you guessed it, fell asleep! It was very funny. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to silent a kid singing a hymn! And just this last Tuesday night he was singing “Who built the ark? Noah, Noah” as his sleep avoidance song.

His teacher recently shared with me that one day at lunch some of girls were singing a normal kids song – something like old MacDonald. After watching them awhile Jairus said “no, no, no. Sing church songs.” He then proceeded to sing part of Onward Christian Solider. That was the song he also busted out for Ms Luanne right in the middle of watching Little Einstein’s. I am always impressed when he can sing one song while listening to another.

Hopefully this music interest will continue. It looks like he has his daddy’s musical gift.

Jairus Lee turns 3

Is it time to do another birthday post already? Yep! Today, Jairus is 3 years old. What a fun adventure this last year has been. Here is just a quick review -- one picture per month, starting last October.

Jairus, you have made it 3 years! Way to go kid! :) We pray that this next year will be special. Continue to overflow with joy -- your smile is contagious. May the Lord bless you. Keep jumping for Jesus!

LCCS = Awesome

I think we have had a break through. Jairus had a great week at Pre-K. Now, that is not meant to imply that he has had bad weeks before. It is just that this week he was excited to go to his classroom. Both mornings at drop off, I got him settled and then said, "I'll come get you after rest time. See you later," to which he replied, "Bye, bye mom!" No tears, no clinging, no fussing, nothing. What a joy is it to walk back to my classroom and know that he is content.

On Thursday his teacher said that they are finally starting to see his fun personality because he is becoming comfortable with them. She also complemented his knowledge of the alphabet. :) Kudos to leapfrog letter factory!

At home he shares little nuggets of what he is learning at school. He was proud of the apple tree picture he brought home yesterday. Today he and Joe were talking about zero. And my favorite is when he sings the "Jump for Jesus" song!

LCCS is just a great place for Jairus. Actually, it is a great place for our family. We are so blessed. God was so good to us when he led me to LCCS via an Internet search 8 years ago. I had no idea that this little school would truly become family. I was reminded of that today when I attended a memorial service for an LCCS family member. I sat in tears as I watched my students, co-workers, and families demonstrate being the Body of Christ. What a privilege to be part of something so big, so eternal, and so special. I am glad I work in such a place and I am even more thankful that Jairus will receive part of his life education in such a place.

Special thanks to the LCCS yearbook class for the pictures. Yep, it is nice to have connections! :)

Eagle Friends

Jairus has now officially entered the new world of school. (Yes, that means he will have 16 years plus college ahead of him. But let’s not dwell on the overwhelming.) On Tuesdays and Thursdays he enjoys Pre-K 3 at Lake Country Christian School. When we went to visit his classroom for open house we met some of his classmates. From then on, he has referred to them as his eagle friends. Anything dealing with Lake Country is "eagles". That is all he has known as he has cheered for football and basketball teams. So, now he has eagle friends.

I know he is learning a lot and having fun while doing it! On the way home from the very first day of school he started singing a new song about monkeys and alligators. After his first full day, he started numbering our kitchen tiles and wanted me to stand on #2. I am sure he was emulating the circle rug in their classroom that has numbers each student is assigned to sit on.

When the Tates visited us, we had a full car coming home from the Rangers game. There were at least 2 conversations going on when Jairus said “Guys, we need to take turns talking.” Sounds like a school phrase huh.

We are figuring out this whole school thing from a parent’s perspective. We have folders to check, uniforms to have clean, lots of emails/paperwork to read, and mascots to care for. Yep, we have already had Duck the horse (the class mascot, named by 3 year olds) as a guest at our home. We took him with us to a Rangers game and dutifully wrote about it in the class journal. :)

And of course, Jairus still loves cheering for the Eagles!

Take me out to the ballgame

This could have been a blog topic for LOTS of blogs these last several months, had I been an active blogger. So instead I will just do several mini-blogs in this one longer blog. I want to go ahead and write things that I remember. There are so many fun memories to treasure.

I should have blogged about opening day (April 6). Jairus hasn’t missed an opening day game yet – 3 for 3 – thanks to the class of 2011 at LCCS. It was cold that day, but we all sure had a good time. And the Rangers won! What a great start to the season.

There should have been a blog about meeting Captain, the mascot. That was a pretty big deal.

We went to a couple of games each month (it helps that we live less than 15 minutes from Ranger’s Stadium), plus we listened to or watched almost every game this season. That provided Jairus with plenty of opportunities to learn about the Rangers. He can tell you the numbers for Ian Kinslar (#5), Michael Young (#10), Hank Blalock (#9), David Murphy (who was #7, but now Pudge is #7 and David is #14 – yes he can tell you that) and Elvis Andrus (#1).

He knows that when Marlon Byrd is up to bat you flap your arms like you are flying and simultaneously say “marlon byrd, marlon byrd, marlon byrd.”

He loves that fireworks go off when the Rangers hit a homerun. He actually wants fireworks for every homerun, opponents as well. And he thinks that even on the road the Rangers get fireworks for homeruns. In his mind homerun=fireworks, I guess.

Can you pronounce Saltalamacchia? Jairus can. Salty is a catcher for the Rangers. If you say “Jarrod” Jairus will finish with Saltalamacchia. Same with “Taylor”…Teagarden and “Nelson”... Cruz. At one of the LCCS high school football games a fan yelled for “Salty” – the nickname of one of the seniors. Jairus quickly came to tell me that Salty wasn’t here. He was playing baseball.

This summer Jairus went through a phase where he wanted us to spell things for him. He would always ask us to spell his name, mommy, and daddy. But it also wasn’t uncommon for him to ask us to spell Andrew or Jessie (church friends) and Hank Blalock or Michael Young. And when he went through his “what does (fill in the blank) start with” he also included Ranger players in his question arsenal.

Once early this summer, Joe asked Jairus if he wanted to go outside to play some baseball. Jairus responded with “Yeah, let’s play Rangers.”

Last weekend we cheered at the last home game this season. And this weekend we see the regular season come to an end. Although the Rangers had potential to actually play in the post season, they fell short. It is somewhat disappointing. But we just have to keep it in perspective -- they actually finished over .500 with the best season in several years. And it is only 6 months or about 184 days until April 5, 2010 – opening day!

Let’s Go RANGERS!

Just for a smile

Jairus always finds the moon when we drive at night. One night last week I started singing “I see the moon and the moon sees me, the moon sees somebody I want to see. “ Joe added “God bless the moon and God bless me, God bless the somebody I want to see.” Jairus, impressed with our little ditty, asks us to sing it again. We oblige. He then asks us to sing it faster. Again, we oblige. Then he made us laugh out loud when he asked us to sing it crescendo! Ahh, the influence of the Little Einsteins. Needless to say, we obliged…twice!

Jairus had a great, accident free day at school on Tuesday, so we went to chick-fil-a to celebrate. Driving to dinner Jairus informed us, very matter of fact, that daddy’s name is Joe. Impressive. He then sharesd that mommy’s name is Lynelle. Yes, he said it pretty clear. He is figuring life out!

One more quick backtrack story, just so I don’t forget. Back in August Jairus and I started doing “Eskimo Kisses” again. It was a fun flash back to when he was a baby. Of course when we shared our game with Joe he called them nose kisses in Spanish. That prompted Jairus to begin doing hair kisses and chin kisses too. It was pretty cute. But the story gets better. I had shared this story with Luanne. When Jairus saw her at school he wasn’t hip on the idea of a high five. Instead, he gave her finger kisses. :)

Just a memory

Who: Jairus and Mommy
What: a walk
When: Friday, Sept 25, 2009
Where: Around the "lake" in our neighborhood
Why: It was a perfect 75 degree night, plus Jairus wanted to go explore

Going down the big slide again -- all by himself!

Hello Mr. Duck

Checking out all the geese

oh happy day!

Picture by Jairus

Mommy is tired...Jairus, not so much!

Hiking up the big hill with the help of a walking "stick"

Through the jungle tree

Wee little yam

Recently, we started playing a matching game with Jairus. The game consists of Bible characters identical to the cartoonish ones found in his Bible for toddlers. It is interesting how he has learned to identify some of them from our readings, or perhaps from a Sunday School lesson, or a VeggieTale show. He readily recognizes: Pharaoh, David, Goliath, the Good Shepherd, Eve, Daniel, Jonah, Jacob, Mary, and Martha. Our favorite, however, is when he sees Zacchaeus.

EVERY time he turns over the Zacchaeus card, he says, “Remember?” and then proceeds to sing the song, “Zacchaeus was a wee little yam…” He kind of stumbles over a Sycamore tree... but he does a good job of actually looking up into the tree (with his hand above his eyes and head up). He probably learned that song mostly from a kids CD we have and maybe even from Sunday School.

It is amazing how well little children associate these types of things. For instance, when he turns over the Jonah card, he remembers his recent Sunday School story and acts out for us the part of Jonah running away! He also does a pretty good imitation of the fish barfing up Jonah after Jonah told God he was sorry.

When Jairus turns over Daniel, he sings us the VeggieTales song, “Oh no! What we gonna do? The king likes Daniel more than me and you. Oh no! What we gonna do? We gotta get him out of here.”

While our pastor’s recent sermon series was on Joshua, some Sunday School lessons were also focused on his character, so Jairus wanted to watch the VeggieTales episode “Josh and the Big Wall” every day for 2 weeks. He quickly associated Joshua with a wall falling down.

Needless to say, playing this matching game with Jairus takes awhile! But it is fun to witness God's outstanding design of the human intellect!

From the Mouth of Jairus

I have 8 sticky notes filled with ideas for the blog. For at least the last 6 months I have been adding to these notes. Maybe it is time to put these ideas into words and pictures; maybe I should actually blog. Not because people still read a blog that has been inactive for months, but because I want to remember these years from now. Maybe it is time.

Language. That has been the biggest change in Jairus these last several months. His language development is so fascinating. It is also so multifaceted --not only the vocabulary and usage, but his keen observation skills which he can then articulate and his memory and his ability for application.

Some of my notes/memories:

One of my favorites from months ago… One morning Joe and I were having a conversation in the computer room about Jairus’ recent problem of waking up during the night. We really had no understanding of what caused this problem or any good solution of how to solve it. I said to Joe, “He is just a mystery!” Right after that Jairus walked into the room, tugged on Joe’s hand, and said, “I mystery.”

Many times this spring and summer when Jairus would get very excited he would call either of us “momdy.”

Jairus is so much like his daddy -- social. When we leave restaurants or stores he will wave and say “bye everyone!”

This past winter we attended several middle and high school basketball games. Almost nightly Jairus would get his basketball, run up and down the hallway between the computer room and master bedroom, and yell, “Getting rebounds, Mommy!” Granted, he wasn’t dribbling or shooting…details!

When Jairus obviously had a stinky diaper, we would ask him if he was done and ready for a clean diaper. He would tell us, “I’m stilling right now.” We translated that into I am still pooping right now. :)

Every so often he will use a big word but not in the right context. I didn’t even know that Jairus knew the word “dictionary.” But one early morning Jairus was trying to tell me that daddy was in the shower. Instead, he said that Daddy was in the dictionary. I just had to laugh.

If Jairus is at home whenever one of us returns home, he likes to open the door leading out to the garage and at least wave hello. Several times this spring he would tell me “Mommy, you’re here!” Or one time he yelled when Joe got out of his truck, “Hi Daddy – it’s me Jairus!”

Enough for now. I don’t want to overwhelm my 2 blog readers with too much at once. After all 2 blogs in a weekend is a lot!

Potty Training

Earlier this week, we decided that it was finally time to try potty training again. The attempts this summer ended up fruitless and just left all 3 of us frustrated. On Wednesday, with about 18 cool Thomas and Disney big-boy underwear options in the drawer, we eliminated the daytime diapers. Having conducted some internet research and interviews of friends and family who have recently mastered the art of potty training a child, we also implemented a Thomas the Train sticker chart to keep track of the successes and award a prize at completion of a track (6 station stops).

Well, Jairus had no interest in the potty (still!). Wisely, Joe set up a chart for himself and tried to encourage Jairus by showing him how to get stickers on the chart. No buy in. At the end of the day, Joe had 5 stickers and Jairus had wet a dozen cool big-boy pairs of underwear.

On Thursday he wound up wetting himself only 6 or 7 times, but he still had NO interest in the potty. Joe even showed him the big prize - some Little Einstein figurines - which he liked, but it did not succeed in convincing him to pee-pee in the potty. It was a hopeless cause. Then came Friday.

Friday started off like the other days. Actually it might have been worse. Lynelle suggested trying the alarm because this summer Jairus responded well to alarm alerts to tell him when it was time to come inside or when nap time started and ended. But, when the alarms would sound, Jairus had NO interest in the potty. Actually, he grudgingly refused. Finally, Joe used the bathroom and received his 6th sticker, which finished the track. He could now play with the Little Einstein’s. Jairus wasn’t all the interested, until Joe opened the box. Jairus went ballistic; “I want to play with the Little Einstein’s,” to which Joe replied, “Only daddy can play with them b/c he went 6 times in the potty.” Immediately Jairus pulled down his pants and ran to the potty and standing on his stool peed mostly in the potty. It was like he was peeing on demand. Joe was amazed.

Of course he got a sticker, and he thought he immediately should be able to play with the Little Einstein’s, but Joe worked on explaining that after 3 times they would go to the park, but after 6 times he could have the Little Einstein’s. He tried to go again immediately with no success. So on the 2nd successful potty trip, they played a Curious George game on the computer for 20 minutes. On the 3rd time, they went to the park. On the fourth time, they played Curious George again, and the 6th time, he won the ever-coveted Little Einstein’s figurines!!!!

Here we are on day 2 of successful potty time, and we are still giving him a penny and a sticker for every successful trip to the potty, and so far he hasn’t had any accidents. He has even gone a couple of times unprompted and then told us about it. How long will our bribing last? Who knows? We have had one successful trip to Wal-mart in underwear and tomorrow we will see what happens at church. It is just exciting to be finding success. And we are praying that it continues!