Christmas Summary

Well now that the dust has settled I thought it would be good to take some time and gather my thoughts and stories from our Christmas. This year was my year to have Maddox on Christmas Eve and morning. Hayley decided to have Maddie's Christmas with her on the 23rd so that I could enjoy not only Christmas Eve, but also ALL of Christmas day with him. Big time sacrifice for her to not have him on Christmas, but as we try to do as often as possible, she looked out for his best interest and stability and decided that the going back and forth on such an overwhelming day was probably not in his best interest. So ya, rambling to start this post but had to give some props to his mom for looking out for him.

Our Christmas Eve tradition always takes place at my grandpa's house. It involves quite a bit of food, family, and now it involves Maddox trying to steal the show and get all of the attention he can get. He's the only child there, so everyone loves seeing him. Sadly for him it's probably pretty boring. This year he set up shop in the dining area and split his time between singing "Hey Jude" to whomever wanted to listen, reciting the pledge of allegiance, and most importantly throwing touchdowns to people as they walked by. These were mostly unsuccesful touchdowns because if you're not looking and someone drills you in the crotch with a football or their blanket or whatever they may be throwing, where I come from that's considered an incomplete pass. I'm trying to teach him that before you throw something to someone you should make sure they are paying attention and wanting you to throw something to them. And that they aren't carrying anything in their hands. It's a work in progress, but he's getting better with it. Like most 2 year olds the he thinks the funniest thing in the world is catching someone off guard and hearing something to the effect of, "ouch," "ooomph," or "aaaah," or anything like that, he always finishes it up with his catch phrase, "BONK!" Pure comedic gold in his mind. Afterwards my immediate family, brothers, sister, and parents met up at my house to get Maddox ready for bed and hang out. I'm terrible at the Christmas waiting thing so I let Maddox open a couple of presents, which turned out backfiring on me because who wants to go to bed when they just opened some cool presents?

Christmas morning was pretty calm. Maddox made his typical 4-5 am wakeup call in dad's room. It's like clockwork lately, he comes walking in, throws his blanket up on my bed, and climbs up pulling on the sheets for leverage. As he's climbing he lets me know that he is there. "Dad, dad, um hi dad. I'm gonna lay with you for a minute." Of course my best parenting skills aren't at work at that hour, I don't even know my own name about that time, so I just nod and let him lay completely sideways taking over the entire bed, and he rests his bed head right in my rib region. Just another way for him to remind me that it's his world and I just live in it. About 8:30 am Maddox let me know that it was time to get up and eat, oatmeal time as we typically call it. Once in the living room he lost track of his hunger after seeing his gifts he'd opened the night before. After he played with them for about 10 minutes I was able to convince him he had other gifts and he needed to open them. Every gift brought the same result, "oooh, what is it? Oooooh, A BOX!!!!" And then of course he would find out what was in the box, and say, "open it!!!" Then he would play with each toy for a few minutes until I could convince him that the next one would be sooooo cool and he needed to open it. After he was completely overwhelmed with the new toys he'd received and he ran around not knowing what to play with, we decided it would be a good idea to head to grandma's so that he could get even more spoiled and open even more gifts that would likely end up in the closet after the next two weeks. Now grandma decided that it would be a good idea to get Maddox a car. This is the equivalent of giving Cookie Monster a years supply of Chips Ahoy. Unfortutely it was also a gift to me, the gift of scratched up kitchen drawers and walls. He LOVES the car. It was the hit of the holiday season. He drives it into the kitchen and repeatedly slams into the stove just so that he can see his reflection and yell "crash!!" I'm already stressing about where my car insurance premiums are headed here in 14 years. Watching him with this car is so fun though. He talks about it like it's a real car. He takes trips around the house like he's heading to the store, to mom's house, or my personal favorite "to the emergency." Since he's a fireman of course. I finally gave up protecting the walls after about an hour. I decided that I could probably fix up my house when he turns 18 and goes to college.

We had a great holiday weekend though. After Christmas we spent the next few days just lounging around the house and playing with Maddox's new toys. One of the new gifts I got for Christmas was a new video camera and camera so that I can post new pics and video of Mad Dog since this is his blog. SO that's one of the new years resolutions for me, more pics and video of him. I got some good stuff Monday night of him reading me books for story time. It's impossible to keep track of all that he's doing, about 50 times each day I think, "I wish I could record this." But I will do better this next year.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and we hope to keep in touch with you all in the new year.

I Pledge Allegiance....

There are moments in my life that bring out my inner patriot. Certain occurences, songs, movies, or symbols make me want to break out in a "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!" chant. Like the first time I watched Rocky IV and saw Rocky take down the invincible Ivan Drago. Even though I was like 5 years old I seriously considerred getting an American Flag tattoo. Or the time I watched the 1992 "Dream Team" annihilate every other country in the Barcelona Olympics, watching Charles Barkley throw elbows with a 60 point lead helped me realize everything that our great country stands for. Or the time that I got stomach parasites while serving my mission and lost like 25 lbs. Nothing will give you more USA pride than the consequences of eating food in another country. Many other things have made me proud to be an American, but none quite as much as what I experienced with Maddox this morning. Maddox is learning 'The Pledge of Allegiance.' Although he doesn't have all the words down, he's loving to practice, and is actually pretty close on most of it. The thing that kills me about it is his enthusiasm. Even though he's only 2 he gets it, he realizes that we live in the United Freaking States of America. What's not to be proud of? Our country gave birth to Elvis, Chuck Norris, all you can eat buffets. I could go on all day about what an amazing country we live in, but I won't, because I'd like to talk about my amazing 2 year old American son. As we drove in the car this morning Maddox started yelling, "Dad! Look at the flag!!!" We must have been passing an American Flag off to the side of the freeway. I couldn't see one, but he kept yelling for me to look at the flag. Then he started into the most prideful and patriotic version of 'The Pledge of Allegiance' that I have ever heard. It started out slow and with conviction, "I pledge allegiance, to the flag OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!..... he screamed that part. Then it died back down as he was surely struggling to remember the words..."And to the republic, for witches and stands, One nation, UNDER GOD, indivisable, with liberty and just us for all." Although he missed a couple of words I sat there in a patriotic stupor. I couldn't believe how good he did. I couldn't believe how well he nailed the most important parts. I couldn't help but ask him to do it again, and again, and again. We probably went over it 50 times before we got to his daycare. And each time my heart was filled with more patriotism and love of country. This moment ranked way ahead of Rocky beating the Russian on the scale of patriotic moments, it even topped the time I heard that most foreign women don't shave their arm pits. Even more than my heart being filled with patriotism, it was filled with immense pride and love for this little boy. He's the most amazing thing that I've ever seen. He blows my mind every single day we spend together. I'm proud to be an American, but much more than than I'm proud to be his dad.

"Smartest Kid I Know"

Maddox and I spent the majority of the Thanksgiving weekend together. Whenever I get 4-5 day chunks of father/son time there's always sure to be more than a few funny moments. This weekend was no different. The funniest moment to me came Sunday afternoon as Maddox, my brother Trevin, and I drove over to visit my grandpa. In the car I got a call from my dad who wanted to say 'hello' to Maddox before he sailed off on his cruise to Mexico. As he talked with Maddox he told him that "grandpa is getting on a big boat, going out into the ocean..." Maddox responded with, "Grandpa, are you going on the Mayflower?" Maddox had been learning about Thanksgiving at school, and had some pretty funny commentary about the "childrens and the indians," as he calls them. Trevin and I were still amazed at the fact that a 2 year old went plymouth rock on us. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he tosses out "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria," on me soon. As my sister and I talked about this the next day she said, "he's so smart." Maddox stopped playing with his cars and responded, "Yes, I am smart." I know I'm totally building my kid up to be the smartest kid ever, and I'm sure other parents that read this can think of reasons that their child is the smartest kid ever, or the best kid ever at (fill in the blank.) I guess that's the beauty of being the parent of a little child. Everyday they show glimpses of how remarkable they really are, and how much promise there really is in their future. I know that I often take these glimpses and run with them. I'll tell people all the time, "seriously, you should see how he throws a football, and he can catch, he's got big hands he'll be an excellent receiver." Or, "he totally is trying to read already, he can memorize every book that I read to him, he's going to go to Harvard and become the CEO of a major corporation." I literally believe that my child is going to graduate high school at 13, start at quarterback for USC at 14, stick around there for 2 years before going to the NFL, win a couple Superbowls, and then retire and go to Harvard Law School to work towards becoming a Supreme Court justice by the time he's 40. Alright, I only believe about half of that stuff. And he would have to actually potty train before he can accomplish any of it. I guess where my rambling in this post is leading you is the fact that each child has infinite potential. My theory with Maddox is that if I tell him that he's the greatest thing ever he'll start to believe it and will act/achieve accordingly. That's the plan anyways. And if he doesn't I'll still think he's the greatest thing in the world, and he'll hopefully feel that.