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!