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!

Alive and Well

I know that from the lack of activity on this blog, some of you may have been wondering if the Wolfe family was indeed alive and well. In the last couple months I have been making notes for several cute Jairus blogs…but have only now felt like my head was above water. School this semester was extra challenging for both Joe and me.

But here is picture proof that we are still kicking. This past weekend we met some friends in downtown Fort Worth for dinner. While we were waiting we played in the mirror windows on some building. Good times. One quick Jairus story... A couple weeks ago I was holding Jairus as he woke up somewhat unhappy from an afternoon nap. Since he was in my lap like a baby, I started pointing to his eyes, nose, mouth, etc while asking him to identify them. We did that a lot when he was little, so it was a flash to the past. Jairus then identified my chin and cheeks. So I then pointed to his forehead and my forehead and identified it. Jairus quickly told me “no. It’s five-head.” I corrected him, but again he identified my forehead as a five-head. Even when Joe asked later that night Jairus said five-head. And anytime friends have asked, Jairus continues to say five-head. I guess that works. :)

Tough Choices

So this weekend, Jairus stayed with Mamaw and Papaw Wolfe. This made it possible for Joe and me to attend the Sent conference in Houston with a group from our church.

When we dropped Jairus off at Mamaw's house on Friday, he was uber excited! (Do you like my new word? I have been hanging out with college kids!) After quickly knocking, he opened her front door, and ran down the hall into her arms with pure joy.

After giving her a quick hug, the very first thing he said was "M&M's?"

To which Mamaw replied "Do you want M&M's or gummy bears?"

Now that is a tough choice! "M&M's" Jairus decided.

I love it! I love that grandparents can spoil kids! I have great memories of eating ice cream for breakfast or having fun shaped pancakes at my grandma's house. To her credit, Mamaw did say that Jairus would have to finish his chicken nuggets (that I was carrying in behind him) before he could have more candy. :)

I love that Jairus loves going to Mamaw and Papaw's house, even if it is just for candy. (But I don't believe that to be the case). And today I told him that Grandpa was coming to visit tomorrow. His response: "Yeah Grandpa!"

Grandparents are the coolest!

The right answer -- really?

For some reason Jairus thinks he is 3. I don’t know why. But whenever he is asked “how old are you?” he always says 3. It doesn’t matter how many times we correct him or how adamant we are that he is only 2. Even when Joe asks him in Spanish “¿Cuántos años tienes?” Jairus answers “tres años.”

At some point this afternoon, Joe was working with Jairus to answer this simple question -- correctly. So, tonight after dinner I asked him how old he is. This time the answer was “2..3.” And this time when I corrected him he told me “This is the right answer!”

We repeated this sequence several times…and each time I was told that “2…3. This is the right answer.”

Maybe it is the right answer. This time in 2006 we announced our pregnancy...so that would be 3 years ago! :)

Here are a few recent pictures just for fun. I have a long list of blogging topics...I will write again!

This is NOT a posed picture. For some strange reason, Jairus has decided that he wants to sleep in his toy box. Joe took this picture this afternoon and yes, Jairus really is asleep.

To say that Jairus LOVES this train set would be the understatement of the century! This hand-me-down toy is his favorite. (Thanks Andrew for sharing!)

"I'm working too" says Jairus from his computer. Whatever mommy and daddy are doing, Jairus is "doing too."

He ate half of his first ham and cheese sandwich before he decided that it was "nasty."

Jairus' Journey to Peru

Back in the day, Joe and I decided that we wanted Jairus to grow up with missions being part of what we do as a family. We want to him to be exposed to what God is doing in and through our home church plus other places. We desire that he experience much of life with us. So, when the opportunity to lead this trip came before us, we knew we wanted to take Jairus. Still having mission family in Peru made it easier for this to become a reality. Not every trip would have afforded such a bonus for our family. And let me tell you, we have no regrets. It was such a next experience to serve together as a family and to take Jairus back to a place that holds such a special place in our hearts. We would do it all again in a heart beat!

(at the DFW airport -- Peru here we come!)

Since several people have asked how Jairus did on our big trip to Peru, I thought I should post an answer. I can easily answer that with one word: GREAT! He did fine with differently daily schedules, the food, hanging with high school kids, meeting lots of new people, and traveling. In many ways, he acted like being in a foreign country is what he does every day! :)

Here are some Jairus pictures from our trip. Enjoy! :)

Getting ready to take his very first airplane ride!

Lovin' the friendly skies! He did great on all 4 flights.

Truly the center of attention! Jairus loved the high school kids and they loved him. He learned most of their names and enjoyed playing with them. Here he is probably doing his fake laugh, which made all of us laugh, and prompted his fake laugh again and the cycle repeated. We also have fun memories of him playing drums on the stairs, spitting at the moon, and calling them all his "friends." When we got home he asked me several times were all his friends were. :)

Jairus spent a day with Grandma Kathy Weaver

And a couple days with Grandma June and Papaw Burney.

Being Super Cool!

And Super Cute!

Monkeying around with the boys

Catching a nap when he can -- playing hard makes a boy tired!

Wolfe Family March 2009-- Lima, Peru

Racing the big boys on the moving sidewalks in the Miami airport -- fun time had by ALL!

Worn out from his BIG trip!

Peru Crew Finale

Even though we have been home a couple days, I want to blog about our last days in Peru if for no other reason than to bring closure for me! :)

Wednesday morning the 3 seniors, with Miss Ross's help, treated us to a real breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. All week we had been munching on various breakfast breads and cereal so a hot breakfast was a treat. After breakfast we walked a few blocks to Union Church of Lima to be the chapel guests at the International Christian School. We lead in worship, performed our couple of skits and then Sydney and Nicole D both shared their testimonies. The cool thing is that when I lived in Lima, I taught at this school. At that time it was called Emmanuel Christian School and we only took up 3 classrooms on the 2nd floor. Now the school has a couple hundred kids and fills the 2nd floor and the basement. I enjoyed my tour of the school -- wow, things have changed!!! It was a fun walk down memory lane for me.

From there we took our handy dandy bus to the Peruvian Japanese Cultural center. After enjoying Italian Chicken for lunch in a Japanese restaurant in Peru (catch the irony there!) we toured the museum. It gave a great history of the Japanese in Peru. The kids had an opportunity to pray for the gospel to reach this unique people group!

Our next stop was a tour of the Huaca (archaeological dig) that was at the end of our street. We not only got to learn about the pre-Incan Lima people, but also saw llamas and the famous Peruvian hairless dogs. We then walked to the Indian Market for phase one of shopping. We ended the day enjoying a yummy Peruvian dinner at a cute restaurant at Kennedy Park.

Thursday was a true day to be tourists. We were downtown early to tour the Inquisition Museum, the San Franciscan church complete with catacombs and waited forever to see the changing of the guard at the governor palace. The riot police were out in full force, which is actually pretty normal protocol there. But, we did get to see the President of Peru and listen to his short speech! I guess that is why they were running late on the ceremony. After our time downtown we headed to the coast to tour the Royal Felipe Fort. It was enjoyable, but we were all getting hot and tired. We ended this day with another made dash to shop at the Indian market and then thew everything in our suitcases. Since we brought in so much stuff, we had lots of room for souvenirs. :)

Friday morning started early -- after a very short night. We didn't have any problems processing through all the hoops to leave the country. Although Jairus was pretty upset to leave Joe behind. Poor kid! The flight to Miami was uneventful. Thankfully we had lots of time there because it sure took time to get 18 people through immigration and customs and back to our gate. Everything seemed fine until at the last minute right before our flight left for DFW. There was a mix up on one ticket and Katie couldn't fly with us. In a few stressful moments, it was decided that Miss Ross would stay behind. (I say it was decided b/c the airlines made that decision for us -- in a not so nice or helpful way.) That wasn't the way any of us wanted the trip to end. But even in this huge hassle we can see God's provision. Both made it back to DFW Saturday morning.

Whew! There is my final summary! :)

This team has the testimony of God's faithfulness and His goodness. We experienced God! Today my pastor preached about being hungry for God’s presence. He used Acts 4 as his focus passage, but pulled many examples from the book of Acts. His main point was that God moves in a big way and we strongly sense His presence when His people pray! I sat in my pew and wept because we have that testimony – we were living proof of that truth! Praise God!

THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for us. Your prayer covering was the key to God doing mighty works in and through these kids! They will never be the same. Amen!

Leaving Lima :(

Well, we are loading the bus now -- 3 am! We have had a full couple days -- wonderful, but FULL!!! :) I will update again when we get back.

Please pray for smooth connections. And for health -- we are getting tired!

THANKS