Dear Matthew

Dear Matthew,

I am thrilled that we were blessed with many, many fun Christmas toys for you to play with. I will always remember the joy in your face when you were opening and playing with all your new toys.

However I would like for you to realize the sacrifice I am making with all these toys. I have been losing sleep and chewing my nails more than ever in the last few days as I think about and stare at the toys taking over my house. I am running out of room and my clean, orderly house has turned in to a disorderly Toys R Us.

You will understand as you grow up that mommy enjoys order and cleanliness. And since having you, mommy has had to bite her lip, take a deep breath, and "just let it be" on numerous occasions because of you and your toys. So...with that said, You are welcome, Matthew.

Oh... and I should also mention; thank you, Matthew, for teaching me patience I never knew I had and for showing me that spending time playing with you, laughing with you, and cuddling with you is more important than my house being clean.

Love,

Mommy

Merry Christmas!!!

What makes a Christmas morning perfect?





Husband and son in their jammies, sitting around the Christmas tree eating breakfast,

Opening a present and finding a toy train,

Having a fire going in your fireplace,

Opening presents sent from your great grandma,

Opening books and immediately reading them,

Opening a present and finding Hulk Hands,

Snow on the mountains,

Being so exhausted from Christmas morning that you fall asleep on your way to Grandma and Grandpa's, with your new toy train in your hand, of course.

Merry Christmas!! I hope your Christmas was all you ever dreamed of.

Santa

It has been a long time since I blogged. I took a little break. Nothing exciting going on or any real reason for the break, I just didn't really feel like blogging :)

I wanted to share my thoughts on Santa Claus. I never thought about Santa Claus so much in my life as I have in the past month or 2. Because I have a child, I began thinking about what my exact position on Santa Claus was, I wanted to find out the exact origin of Santa Claus and as it turned out, there are MANY, MANY stories about the origin. Each website claiming the origin of this jolly, round man was different, some drastically different.

Most all agreed that he was a patron saint who was a very good saint and did good things for children. This was the only common thread. Many different parts of the world claim him and all claim he did different good things. All in all, he wasn't a bad man and his origins are not evil or bad in any way.

The problem that I have with Santa Claus is that he has been so commercialized and so saturated in to the American culture that Christmas has become all about Santa Claus. In reality the origin of Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with Santa Claus. This is what bothers me. Christmas is Jesus' birthday- end of story. Bringing Santa in to the picture clouds the TRUE meaning of Christmas and makes Christmas all about presents even further, which should not happen.

Also, has anyone truly thought about the fact that parents are flat out lying to their kids? Why is this huge lie, a lie that forces parents to make up fantastic stories about a fake man, so ingrained in to our culture?

I am not putting parents who do the whole "Santa Claus thing" down. Please don't think that, I definitely think the "Santa Claus thing" is kind of fun and exciting and does bring a certain amount of magic to the season. I just think it is a very interesting tradition that Americans have come up with, so interesting that it has caused me to think about it in depth for the last month.

Also, I wanted to apologize in advance to any parents whose kids may be around my son. I am so sorry if he tells them that Santa doesn't exist. I truly don't want to shatter your kids innocence or destroy their Christmas magic. But I am going to do my best to instill that innocence and that magic in to my son using another person named Jesus.

I will get off my soapbox now.

Thank you for listening.

Dear Matthew

Dear Matthew,

I was completely surprised last night by your politeness.

I sneezed and you immediately looked at me, smiled, and said, "Bwess you."

It made me smile.



Thank you for always being there to make me smile and thank you for being so polite.



Love,

Mommy

1, 2, 3....

Does my child know how to count? I always thought he didn't, although I do work on it with him. Counting things when I give them to him and counting to 3 before I let him jump on the couch. I guess I never really thought any of it would stick for a long time. Then something happened yesterday night.

I was cutting Matty's nails, counting each finger as I did it. The first hand, "One finger, (then I would clip the nail) two fingers, (clip the nail) three finger, (clip the nail)...." Then I was about to move on to the fourth finger when he said, "four" clear as can be, no mistaking it....he said the word "four" after I said the word "three"!!

I was shocked and instantly looked over at Steve, to which he said "What?" Obviously he wasn't paying any attention.

Now, I know it could just be a fluke or a coincidence. But it could also mean that he listens to me when I try to teach him something and sometimes what I am teaching him actually seeps in to his brain!!!!

It is so unbelievably fun to watch a little human grow, change, and learn right before your very eyes. What a blessing this little guy is.



I will say, he isn't a complete genius. Last night at 8:00 he whined and cried for 30 minutes because he wanted to go play outside. It was 5 degrees outside, snow was on the ground, and it was dark. Hmmmm.....

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This year Christmas seems to have more magic than any other year. For the first time I can see excitement and joy for Christmas in my son's eyes.

When we put up our Christmas tree he was genuinely excited and jumps up and down and claps whenever I turn on the Christmas tree lights.

His favorite part of Christmas so far has been the train around the tree. Steve and I got this train many years ago, before we had Matty. Steve always loved trains, for his family always put one around their tree. Now that Steve has a son to share in the train tradition and to delight in the train as much as he does; Christmas has a whole new meaning to Steve also.
They lay under that Christmas tree every night playing with that train. It is almost too much for my heart to take :)

Matthew says, "Dadda Twain!!" And they both go to the tree, lay on their stomachs, and watch the train.

Enjoy all the magic leading up to the Christmas season. There is so much of it, all you have to do is look for it.

Colorado Fried Turkey

Have you ever had a fried turkey???

Until Thursday I never had.

Now that I have tried a fried turkey I would like to apologize to all the turkeys I have ate through the years that were not fried.
"I am sorry baked turkeys. I am sorry I did not cook you to your fullest potential. That I did not let you fry in a big pot of oil. "

This was our beautiful Thanksgiving turkey. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we fried our turkey this year and it was delicious!!!!

Steve and Landon watched over the pot of oil. And a wonderfully cooked turkey emerged.

This is the contraption. It really is simple. Just some propane and a large pot of oil. Nothing fancy.

This on the other hand is fancy. Have you ever bought 3 gallons of oil? I haven't. I didn't even know you could buy that much at a time.

I am so thankful that we can buy oil in 3 gallon jugs.

I am also thankful for this little guy. I like him more than fried turkey.

Too early?

What did we do on Sunday? I will give you some hints. Steve was mad because "it is way too early" and it "is not even Thanksgiving yet!" Although it looked like he had a little fun with his son.


Sean and Steve both thought it was quite lame, so we took them out for Margaritas after wards.

Matt and Alaina loved it!!

I loved it also, because.....well because we went for margaritas afterwards. (shh, don't tell)

There were huge horses that Matt thought were pretty amazing.

Did you guess yet???

We saw Santa!!!

Santa took us all for a ride in a carriage that was pulled by horse instead of his reindeer. His reindeer need to rest for Christmas, so horses fill in for them.

Matt did not like Santa very much. He was freaked out by his beard and was leaning away from him when we sat next to him and did not want to touch him. We did buy some pictures of him with Santa, but I didn't take any. Here is Alaina with Santa, she did not think much of him either. She didn't even want to look at him.

At what age will these kids beg to go see Santa and then sit on his lap for an hour telling him about all the toys they want for Christmas? I am thinking that will probably happen in a couple years. So, for now I will just enjoy this fear of Santa, then he won't care too much if Santa just gets him a pair of socks for Christmas.

Real Thanksgiving

I will share a post about our weekend soon with pictures and all the usual stuff, but I felt led to share this instead. I love to write and have not written much in the last several years. Recently I have been writing short little essays (I am not sure I would call them essays, but I am not sure what else to call them) and I wanted to share one I wrote about being thankful. It was inspired by another writer I follow that wrote a similar post about being thankful. If you are not in the mood for some talk about God and thankfulness, than go ahead and skip it. I will have another less serious post soon :)

"Put him in time out. He needs to learn not to do that." My husband says immediately after our son throws a truck across the room. I quickly tell my son, "No!" and put him in his time out chair. Amidst crying and screaming I watch the clock until his 2 minutes of time out are up.

As a mother, hearing and seeing your child cry is not easy, no matter the circumstances. But I know discipline is necessary. I discipline him because I love him and it is needed to make him in to the person I want him to be. Does my son ever say, "Thank you Mommy for teaching me a lesson. That certainly will help sculpt me in to a well behaved boy."?

Ummmm.....No- definitely not. But he does say thank you when I give him a cup of juice.

It is so easy to be thankful for good things. I often close my eyes and thank God for the sunny weather, the wonderful dinner I had with my family, the perfect afternoon at the playground with my son, the delicious dinner we had with our friends, the shiny new car in our driveway. Those things are easy to be grateful for, they are comfortable, beautiful, and fun.

What has truly shaped me into the woman, wife, and mother that I am? Not those comfortable things. The days that have shaped me and taught me the most are the days when my foundation has been rocked. The days when I close my eyes at night and pray to God for help, strength, and faith. I don't usually thank God on those days.

Thank you God for the argument I had with my husband.

Thank you for the horrible review my manager gave me.

Thank you that we don't have enough money to pay the mortgage.

Thank you for my child's temper tantrum in the middle of Target.

Thank you for the death of my dog.

Thank you God for the fact that I don't fit in to my favorite jeans anymore.

Thank you God for the conflict I am having with my friend.

These are not prayers that God has ever heard from me. Yet as I reflect on my life, times like these were when God put his hands on me and sculpted me. My prayer should be:

Thank you God for continually molding me and for loving me enough to want to make me that woman you always intended me to be.

His priority is your peace, your wholeness, and your character. His purposes are good. His plan is perfect.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7

The Curse

My poor, poor child.

He has inherited a lot from me. One of them being my curly hair. Since he is a boy and can always have his hair cut very short, the curly hair really doesn't matter too much. In fact I think many women think men with curly hair are adorable, so I may have to beat some of those women off with a stick when Matty gets older. The curly hair may end up being a good thing, rather than a curse.

The other thing he inherited from me is a sweet tooth. When I say sweet tooth, I don't mean I like a piece of chocolate every now and then and enjoy an occasional scoop of ice cream. No, that is normal. My sweet tooth is very abnormal and should probably be studied by some sweet tooth scientist, not that there is such a thing, but if there was, let me tell you....they would definetly want to talk to me.

I have a problem. I love sweets. I love them so much I often ask Steve to hide them from me. Yes, that is right, Steve hides food from me for 2 reasons:

1. If he doesn't, he will not get any for himself.

2. I am trying to keep my butt to a size that is smaller than a school bus, and if sweets are just laying around I will literally eat them all.

Matthew has inherited this unhealthy obsession with sweets. The other night we were out to dinner with some friends and we all ordered a dessert to share. When Matthew saw the plate of cake and ice cream he literally squealed with delight, grabbed a spoon, and started digging in before the waiter had even put the plate on the table. 5 minutes later I took the picture above. My poor little boy, hopefully he will find a woman who will be nice enough to hide sweets from him.

I'm exhausted

It has been a while since I last wrote. I have been very busy and then was exhausted from being busy. Well, I have recovered and can now collect my thoughts. Really, the weekend wasn't too crazy, I have had crazier, it was just really full and also really great.

On Friday was our friends wedding. I was the Maid of Honor and Steve was the Best Man. It was a fantastic, beautiful wedding.

Steve's sister, Cyndi came in to town from Texas to photograph the wedding, so we got to spend the whole weekend with her. She got this picture of Steve and I at the wedding. Steve was wanting to throw me in the snow.

On Saturday we got a pretty good amount of snow, so we locked Matty and Cyndi outside. Not really, but they probably would have liked it if we did. Matty had a great time with his Auntie.




And Steve used the snow blower while wearing shorts and sandals, of course.

Sunday was my birthday. Which was horrible because the Broncos decided to lose to a really bad team, the Washington Redskins, which ruined my entire birthday. No, not really, but almost.

I did realize that being 28 sounds a lot older than being 27, because I am really, really close to being 30, and I have always thought that once you reach 30 you are not cool anymore. So, I might have a "more than a quarter way through life crisis" soon....just thought I should warn you.

At least I have done a couple good things in my 28 years of life, the best one by far has to be this handsome little creature.

Mommy...Tiga!!!

When Matthew was born some good friends of ours brought this gigantic tiger to the hospital as a gift for Matty. This life size tiger was about 88 times larger than my newborn baby and I thought to myself, "Cool, but what am I supposed to do with that?"
Well, fast forward 2 years later and Matty has discovered this larger than life tiger and has decided it is better than a bowl of ice cream. I guess these friends of ours knew exactly what they were doing when they decided to purchase an enormous tiger for a baby that could not even hold his head up, they were thinking, "He is going to love this when he is 2 years old."




Matthew incessantly tells me about his tiger, or as he calls it "Tiga". He is constantly pointing out his tiger to me, "Mommy....tiga!!"


The other night I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of his tiger and he very enthusiastically tried holding the tiger up for the camera.

For a 2 year old this tiger is quite heavy, he has a heck of a time moving it around, but he loves his tiger so much he grunts and groans until he moves it to where he wants it.

Usually though he just throws it on the ground and pounces.

This kid is so tough he can wrestle a tiger to the floor!!

A little boy and his tiger....it is a beautiful thing.

Never Forget

Today is Veteran's Day.

All the veterans alive and gone are the reason I can write whatever I want on this blog.
Veterans are the reason I can go to work, sit at my desk and earn a living.
Veterans are the reason I can go to sleep at night and sleep soundly.
Veterans are the reason I can put my son to sleep and close his door.
Veterans are the reason I can go to the grocery store, spend my money and talk with the cashier about the beautiful weather.
Veterans are the reason I was able to marry the man I wanted to marry.
Veterans are the reason I was happy to bring my son in to the world.
Veterans are the reason I can sit on my couch and watch the Denver Broncos play football.
Veterans are the reason I can get on a plane and fly to go see my family or friends.
Veterans are the reason I can plan a Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
Veterans are the reason I can make a meal every night for my family.
Veterans are the reason I can sit on my back porch with my girlfriends, sip red wine and giggle about whatever we want to giggle about.
Veterans are the reason I have a house over my head and car to drive.
Veterans are the reason I can live comfortably without worrying for my safety.

American Veterans past, present, and future are the reason we all can live the way we do.
Please thank a veteran today, pray for our veterans today, and remember the selfless sacrifices they have made and continue to make for our freedoms and safety.



Thank you Grandpa Dinkel for your life and your sacrfices. I wish my son could have met his Great Grandpa Dinkel and could have thanked him for his service.

Thank you to all the veterans that have touched my life.

I am in awe of your service.

Tough Guy

On Sunday Matty got in a fight with another baby, the baby punched him in the mouth and he now has a fat lip....

If you think that looks bad you should see the other baby....









Just kidding! Did you really think he got in a fist fight with another baby? Seriously? It is kind of funny when you picture 2 babies in a fist fight, isn't it?

Actually Matty hit his chin on a table and his bottom teeth went in to his top lip and gave him a nice fat lip. It is his first fat lip, but I am sure it won't be his last. He is an adventurous boy after all.

Poor little guy, it really makes it hard to drink out of a sippy cup. He tries to drink out of the cup and then looks at me with a whiny face and says, "Mommy ouchy" Very cute, but very sad too. It is giving us a good opportunity to teach him to drink out of a regular cup, which he is getting extremely good at.

When I brought him to day care this morning his babysitter said, "The fat lip really suits him. It doesn't look too unusual on him." I thought this was pretty funny, Matty really is a tough guy.

So easy a 2 year old can do it...

Steve has an I Phone and it is impossibly cool. I usually make fun of the latest and greatest technology that is available because it only magnifies the laziness of people. The I Phone is probably loved by lazy people, but it also makes Steve's life easier and helps his business run smoothly....also it is so darn fun to play with!
Several months ago Matthew started being extremely curious about the I Phone. He has always liked playing with phones, but he became smart enough to realize that the I Phone is way better than any other phones. After playing off and on with Steve's I Phone and other people's I Phones he became very good with the phone.

Now all Matthew has to do is go up to his dad and say "Phone Dadda?" and if Steve is willing he gives him the phone and Matthew is then entertained for a good 30 minutes.
Our 2 year old child knows how to turn it on, turn it off, unlock it, select an App, get out of an App he doesn't like and knows exactly how to play the children friendly Apps that Steve downloaded for him. Matthew also knows when the phone rings, Steve gets an email or a text that he needs to not touch anything and bring the phone to Dadda.
It is actually really amazing to watch how well he knows how to use this phone, either he is a genius or the I Phone is the easiest phone to use on the planet.

If anyone knows someone who works at Apple and can get Matthew on a commercial I am totally willing to exploit my child. Just let me know :)

NO!!!

Seriously, how often can one 2 year old say the word "no"?

On Sunday I tried to count and forgot what number I was on very quickly. Seriously, this boy is having a love affair with the word "no". It is unhealthy and very frustrating. Many other mothers have looked at me with compassion when they see me roll my eyes with frustration after the 56th time Matty has said "no" and they always say, "That is normal. That is exactly what all 2 year olds do" But it still doesn't help, every mother always thinks their child will be different. Their child will not say the word "no" like all other toddlers do, right? Well, unfortunanely my child is no exception.

On our way to day care I always talk to him and say things like, "I am going to miss you today, buddy" and "Are you going to have fun today at Tina's?" and "I will see you shortly after your nap today and we will go home and have fun tonight!"

Anyways, you get the idea. This morning I was trying to talk to him and after everything I said he would yell, "No!" or "No, no, no!" Even if I wasn't even asking him a question he would respond with, "No!"

I guess he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but geez, it was brutal.

Then there are times with he doesn't respond with the word "no".

On Monday he was awake particularly early, I guess he didn't get the memo about the time change, and he was yelling for me in his room.

"Mommy! Mommy!" I didn't open his door. I was awake and had gotten out of the shower, but I needed some intimate time with a cup of coffee. So I just yelled back at him, "Not yet, buddy, I will come in there soon. Just wait."

Instead of being an awful little toddler like he could have been, he simply yelled, "Okay!" and quietly played in his crib for 20 minutes.

Just when I think I am going to tape his mouth shut if he says the word "no" one more time he goes and acts like the sweet boy I know he really is. What a guy he is!!!

Shaken not stirred

What did the Combs' household do on Halloween?
We had some friends over, we all dressed in a James Bond theme, drank martinis and watched James Bond, of course!!




Superman was there, we were thinking a James Bond movie with James Bond and Superman fighting the bad guys would be totally cool. (And no, that is a play gun Steve is holding...calm down!)

Superman had a lot of candy, was very hyper and then crashed in his bed and slept all night so he could get more energy to fight more bad guys.

Fear

Last night Matty was sitting on the arm rest of one of our couches thinking about jumping over to the arm rest of the other couch. I noticed this active thought process and let him sit and negotiate whether he should jump or not, as I watched. He began reaching out for the other couch with his hand and started leaning with his body over to the other couch, then he would get scared and lean back on to the couch he was sitting on. He continued to lean back and forth, reaching his hand out and then changing his mind over and over again. Finally he looked at me and said, "Mommy, hand" so I reached out my hand, he grabbed it and jumped over to the couch using the assistance of my hand.
I let him do this many times. Each time he would get back on the couch and think about jumping without my assistance, but then he would get scared and ask for my help.


I had the opportunity to go to a seminar my work sent me to a couple weeks ago. There were many speakers and they were all there to motivate us to work hard and be successful. One of the speakers was Rudy Giuliani. He talked a lot about courage, the point that stuck out to me the most was this; "Courage isn't the absence of fear. It is the management of fear."

Matthew was scared to cross that chasm between the 2 couches, he was afraid he might hurt himself. After thinking about the potential of falling and the potential of making it to the other couch with a sense of accomplishment, Matthew decided he was indeed scared, but that he would still cross that chasm. He decided to cross it with the help of someone else.

Matthew wasn't being a wimp. He was being courageous; he managed his fear, negotiated his fear and decided the best way to manipulate that fear would be to ask for help. This little 2 year old is a pretty good teacher, who would have thought?

P.S. Thanks Cyndi for the beautiful picture of Matthew, as always you are so talented!!