Problem Solving

This story starts last night when Jairus and Joe returned home from Dallas. As I was helping Jairus out of the truck, I asked him where he had been all day. His response: “Playing with Mamaw.” I proceeded to ask him what they played. “I helped Mamaw play Bubbles on the computer,” he answered. Interesting. I have no idea what he is talking about, but sounds nice. Then our conversation moved on to dinner and other mundane items.

As I was checking facebook and playing Sudoku this morning (I could do that since we were home for an “ice” day), Jairus asked to play Bubbles on the computer. Since I had no idea what he was talking about, I told him “not right now.” A bit later, he asks me again. I told him that I don’t know what that was and explained that next time we see Mamaw we’ll have to ask. “Well” he says (which BTW, that is his recent favorite word and he says it like a true southerner…Weeelllllllllllll) as he trots out of the computer room. He quickly returns with his own camera and then SHOWS ME PICTURES that he took yesterday at Mamaw’s of the Bubbles game!


Now is that good problem solving or what? Unfortunately I still didn’t know what it was. Looked kinda like a tetras game. By asking Mamaw we learned that it is called Aqua Bubbles. Good news – I have now googled it! :) But now he wants to play green ovals. Looks like I have a problem to solve! :)

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!