Bye Bye

Crib: Dec 31, 2006 - Dec 16, 2008

The big crib seemed to swallow our sweet, innocent, baby boy. But the decision was made. He was to sleep in the crib. We believed it would be best for everyone -- for him and us.

A cruel, heartless cage? We think not! Just look at the smile!






But the day came...we knew it would. We actually had been more fortunate than most. We had made it over 2 years with crib life. But, on that fateful Monday afternoon, as Joe was working away while Jairus napped (or so he thought), our boy displayed the monkey skills we didn't even know he had. Unexpectedly, Joe heard Jairus' bedroom door open. Out walked Jairus like this was normal -- nothing unusual about his crib breakout. Joe also played it cool, like there was nothing out of the ordinary, but inside he was deeply saddened. Maybe, just maybe this was a one time lucky break - at least we tried to convince ourselves. But the next morning at 5:45 am, we heard his bedroom door rattle open and next ours slowly crept open followed by a cute little boy half asleep. That was it -- the crib's usefulness had come to an end.



That morning, Joe switched the crib down to the toddler bed. And now our lives are forever changed -- again.

The first toddler bed night only included one tumble out of bed waking in tears and 2 other times to wander the house just because he could. The next night included only 2 middle of the night wanderings. Since then we have some perfect sleep nights and some have-to-wake-up-and-go-find-parents nights. Nap times are also a bit of an adjustment. Why sleep in the bed when you can play, play, play until you just collapse on the floor?




Ah yes, the process of growing up continues. Jairus sure loves his new found freedom. We appreciate that it is a natural process to independence. But we already miss hearing him awake, playing in his crib until he called for us. And we miss the bit of control that gave us. Now, no more writing -- we need to do the next stage of baby proofing -- more locks!

Special Christmas friends

December 2006 the tradition begins! Which of these things is not like the others?

Dec 2007

Dec 2008 -- 1st attempt.

"I don't want to sit here mommy!!"

A few days later, we try the tradition again. First, lets warm up to the special friends a bit more...

"I will sit here...but this is a as close as it gets"

Examining the special friends as he throws them off to the side!

Well, maybe as a 3 year old he will be more agreeable to being manipulated again for cute pictures. :)

Wolfe Christmas letter

With traveling and life in general, I didn't send out as many Christmas cards this year. So, I figured I would post our family letter, complete with the pictures, on our blog. Sorry if you have read this already... (and sorry if the formatting is funny. It never looks the same in preview as it does on the actual blog.)

Please be gracious as you read our Wolfe family year in review in Suess-ish style.

Little boy, Jairus boy, ABC
White truck, Quiero peces, one, two, three
2 years old, now, he has become,
riding his bike while playing the drum.
Playing all day and sleeping all night
growing and learning, wow, what a sight!
As curious as George, and as happy for sure
any boredom we have, he soon will cure.
Trains and bless you, la luna, and moto,
Toasti-O’s, agua, snacks, raisins, ‘n jugo,
So many words he is learning to say
Amazing us, delighting us as we show him the Way.

Friends at church and friends from school
Big friends, little friends, all are cool.
Thorntons came to see us in the spring
1-2-3 cousins, play and sing
Some Wolfes came for Thanksgiving day
Trains, trucks, and troodlefents, play, play, play.
Kissing cousins, playing cousins, other friends too
We’re blessed to have friends and family like you.

Work and school are the same old here
Lynelle’s history repeats itself one more year
Also teaching English, now, can’t you seed?
Crown her grammar queen. Grammar queen, indeed!
New job, new job, Joe has found
working from home, but no fooling around.
Busy, busy, busy bees don’t we be?
Can’t we do anything more, hmm, let’s see.
Joe’s school, Bible studies, prayer groups, too
choir practice, discipleship classes, and planning for Peru.

One foot, two foots, three foots, four
five foots, six foots, no – no more
3 little Wolfes with 3 baseball hats
Watch the Rangers with balls and bats
40,000 fans sitting in stands
3 little Wolfes clapping their hands.

Lynelle did go to New York & DC.
She did go, did go with her school LCC.
100 others went with her too,
7th and 8th graders comprised her crew.

In February, they came and went
by plane, by bus, and Troodlefent.
With all of these and lots of noise
she traveled away without her boys.

Then came March, Joe went to Peru
With our church to see what God can do.
The church friends and he stayed for a week
planning and praying God’s purpose to seek.

We went to Ohio to see Paul wed
We didn’t take Jairus but left him instead.
With the Lewis duo, we drove all the way
Waffle House, caffeine, and Chick-fil-A.

Hey, hold on, there’s a little bit more.
Lynelle and Jairus took off this summer to explore.
They went with the Bane folks to Kalamazoo
No! PA - Philadelphia and Gettysburg, too.

Quick trip, sad trip to LA
All went, all went, Mamaw McGee passed away.
Now a fast trip to New York for Joe
Then to WY for Christmas in hopes to see snow.
Okay, okay, let’s end this refrain
All this silliness is getting lame.

There’s not much more to tell you right now
Come see us next year, we don’t care how.
Maybe by boat, Troodlefent, or train,
Come in the snow, the sun, or the rain.
Would you, could you in the spring?
Would you, could you bring that Thing?
Would you, could you in the fall?
Would you, could you come at all?
We really like you, no liar we am,
We’ll even fix you bleu cheese and spam.

Look us up on the web to see how we fare
Our Blog, our email or Facebook if you dare.
Remember the reason we celebrate this time
“God bless us all, everyone” in ’09.

The 3 words that best describe this family are as follows, and I quote: “Joe, Lynelle, Jairus.”

Wolfe Publishing House in Hurst, Texas Copyright © 2008

Merry Christmas!

We are in Wyoming for a COLD Christmas with my parents. But I wanted to log on to just wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Jairus was a great little traveler and he is LOVING his time with Grandpa and Grandma.

When we get back I will be blogging more. I actually have 4 blogs written in my head, but with finals and getting ready to travel, I haven't written them yet. But check back next week for a whirlwind of blogs! (or don't if you don't want to suffer -- I won't know!:) )

May you remember why we really celebrate this season. We are thankful for Jesus! We pray God's blessings over you!

Unique counting

Even though this happened a couple of months ago, I have to blog about it because it is one of my favorite Jairus' stories!

One night in September when Jairus and I were driving home from a friend's house, Jairus correctly identified the moon. I thought this was pretty cool because we had identified the moon in passing in some books, but I don't remember purposely pointing out the real moon. I thought it was neat that Jairus made this connection on his own. The next night, Joe was with us and Jairus again identified the moon. So, Joe, who primarily speaks to Jairus in Spanish, identified the moon in Spanish, luna. At this, Jairus responded... dos, tres, cuarto, etc.

I guess to his little ears, luna and uno sounded the same! :)

Off with the Boot!

Jairus went back to the doctor this week to see about his foot. The x-ray part of the visit wasn't very fun, but still the doctor granted him release from the boot. 3 cheers! As Joe and Jairus were leaving the office, Jairus wanted to put back on his "special boot." (We called it special to make him want to wear it in the first place.) It seems that he had forgotten how undesirable and limiting it was at first. He must have gotten accustomed to not being able to jump as high or run as fast. It had become comfortable, so much so that when he was freed from it, he wanted to put it right back on.

Joe was quick to note that what Jairus exhibited was a good analogy to us as Christians. We’ve been freed from the crutch of sin. We don’t have to live with the debilitating consequences of acting in opposition to God’s desire for us, but we’ve become so accustomed and comfortable in those habits that we prefer the ways of sin to the freedom found in Christ. Maybe we even have little cute names for our sin. So we limp along with our sin crutches. But let me assure you, that just as little boys are made to run, we are made to run in Christ (1 Cor 9:24 & 2 Tim 4:7).

Which that truth prompted me to start to sing the the Newsboys song, "I am Free."

I am free to run (I am free to run)

and I am free to dance (I am free to dance)

I am free to live for You (I am free to live for You)

I am free (I am free)

yes, I am free (I am free)

I am free!

Jairus is free to run and jump on his healed foot.

And we are free to run the race set out before us. Ready, set, GO!

Great Wall of Gerber

Last year when Jairus was eating baby food, we started saving the nifty plastic containers. Ways to reuse the containers could be almost limitless from craft projects for VBS to condiment holders for lunch boxes. But in the Wolfe household, they became useful as building blocks. Joe created Gerber towers and the Great Wall of Gerber. What fun they were for little crawling Jairus to destroy!

Pretty early on, we decided to keep each and every plastic baby food container. Granted, we threw away a few when we traveled, ate at a restaurant, or melted them reheating some other food, but I would say we held on to 90%. Now at the time Jairus was eating these Gerber foods, it seemed like we had thousands of containers, and it also felt like an eternity of buying these special baby foods. Looking back, it only lasted a few months and we only had several hundred.

For months we had planned on making a big final Gerber creation. Finally in October the time had come! (plus we had to clear off the stacks and stacks of containers that filled our kitchen counter!). So, one Friday night after Jairus had gone to bed, our friend, Russ, helped Joe create the great Gerber Colosseum! Saturday morning Jairus awoke to find an usual toy in the living room. At first he was uncertain of what to do, but after we placed him in the middle, he discovered the joy of destruction!! Within minutes the great Colosseum was gone. Every last container was knocked off another. He even kicked them around for good measure.












Don't buy into the lie that you have seen the last of the great Gerber creations. Our hundreds of containers are all boxed up and will be added with Baby Holt's collection. It may take a year or so...but the containers will rise again! :)