Happy "Kriffitz" from the Smiths

I know that it's the day after Christmas, but I want to extend warm holiday greetings to all of our wonderful friends and family. We had such a busy day but we made it through and Ben only had one tantrum all day. It was of course when we made him get off of his new trike from Uncle Ryan and Auntie Elisabet and go to bed. I sympathized greatly.

Ben was super excited for a few weeks for Christmas. He calls it "Kriffitz." We tried to teach him to say "Merry Christmas" but alas, he has not mastered the r's and l's yet so we opted for "Happy Christmas" instead. Ben also learned some fun words like present, rip and crap. I know that crap isn't the most festive word, but despite all of my sheltering, he has learned a bad word. I first heard it when he asked his favorite question "what's that?"for the 500th time a few days ago. He pointed at the beautiful bounty of presents at my parents house and said "wazzat?." I answered "Ben you know what that is. Why don't you tell me what that is." He looked at me proudly and said "cwap." Amidst the one bad word, Ben did learn about Jesus and has had a great time singing songs about Christmas and our savior. It hasn't all been a bust right?

Gemma obviously didn't appreciate Christmas like Ben did, but we were surprised with how much she loves the lights. She actually calms down when she sees them and they put her into a trance which then puts her to sleep. Very nice! We have a feeling that next year the lights won't put her to sleep. Especially with big brother explaining the magic and wonder of ripping paper to shreds and playing with boxes. I enjoyed the fact that all of "Gemma's" presents ended up being cute clothes that I will enjoy more than anyone else. Thanks Gemma maybe next year you can have presents that are actually for you!

We hope that you all had a beautiful and blessed season celebrating the light of our world, Jesus. Happy 2008! Let normal, everyday life begin, I'm done with holidays for a year!

Get your 1000 words ready. Gemma pictures are here!

Baby Gemma

Some people have asked why we chose the name Gemma and there has been some confusion as well involving the pronunciation. here's the scoop!

We chose the name Gemma because it means "a precious gem" and we want our daughter to know how special she is to our family. It is very popular in many other countries, it just hasn't caught on here yet! If you are confused as to how to pronounce her name, her is the correct pronunciation as well as some info and a graph showing how popular it is in every country but the US.

The girl's name Gemma \ge(m)-ma\ is pronounced JEM-ah. It is of Latin origin, and its meaning is "precious gem, jewel". Saint Gemma was an Italian saint canonized in 1940. She was an ordinary young woman whose religious life included manifestations of the stigmata, or the marks of Christ's wounds.

Parental Pride

Isn't it funny how since the dawn of time, parents have thought that their children are the smartest or funniest or best looking kids that have ever been? I'll tell you, I'm no different.

First there is Ben. He is amazing and every day he comes up with new sentences and learns at least three new words. He makes connections that I never see coming. Like yesterday, when he got his immunization he got a piece of chocolate from my mom as a treat afterward. When we got in the car that evening I told him that we were going to see my parents because it was Granboppa's birthday. He shook his head back and forth saying "nooo".... "doctor, owie, hurt....Chocolate!" My jaw dropped. My son is so smart!

Next there is Gemma. She is so darn cute. I am just in love with her face and people who aren't related to me tell me that she is just the cutest so I know that I'm not completely crazy. Also, she is so good. She sleeps in two big chunks of time each night and only wakes us up once. She is also a master nurser at only two weeks.

Okay, I think that's enough bragging. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who reads my blog, so I don't feel too bad about this shameless promotion of my babies.

~Erin

Back in Business

Hello again. Life has certainly changed since the last blog. I took an extended vacation from blogging because it was getting hard for me to write a blog that wasn't masterfully written and it was taking too long, so I stopped altogether. I wish that I hadn't. I missed out on recording so many special moments because I didn't want to write a blip, I wanted an article. I have changed.

I might occasionally write a blog that has the feel of a Dave Barry article, but from now on it will just be special things that are said or maybe even just a picture. Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to update you all on our lives over the past year.

First off, I got pregnant again and gave birth by repeat c-section to a beautiful baby girl. Gemma Noelle Smith was born at 11:23am on December 5th of 2007. She weighed 7lbs 3oz. She has my cheeks and nose and she has Colin's eyes. We love her so much. I went a week overdue this time and was quite uncomfortable those last weeks. Benjamin is a great big brother. Aside from the occasional ball that has been thrown at Gemma's face, Ben has really taken to his "sissou." He actually says Gemma perfectly.

So that's all I'm going to do for now. I'll try to write memories from the past year and update as often as possible.

~Erin

When Ben "Lost His Starch"

My dad had spring break off from his schooling and Colin had to go to California for a business trip. My parents invited Benjamin and myself to go to our old hometown, Bend, Oregon to show of our not so new "new baby." I was really excited to go on this trip. I hadn't taken time off for awhile and even though Colin wouldn't be around, I couldn't wait to see relatives and old friends.

We packed up the car with everything including Ben's acidophilus powder that I gave him every morning in his applesauce. It was supposed to be refrigerated, but my mom packed it in ice in a tupperware and we went on our way.

Cut to six hours later. Ben was a perfect child and he didn't cry at all in the car. He just ate and babbled away. While Ben was making us proud and filling our hearts with love, the acidophilus was growing into a mutated bacteria monster. Ready to attack at any time...

The next morning we all awoke refreshed and our sinuses bleeding from the high desert air. I began my normal routine with the applesauce and acidophilus. Not knowing that I was actively giving my child food poisoning. Had someone known this, they would have ran into the room screaming "nooooooo" in slow motion and knocked the tiny spoon out of my hand. This is actually what I wished had happened, because a spoonful of applesauce would have been easier to clean up than multiple pools of vomit.

I fed Ben all day long like nothing was wrong. He finally objected to some peas and then threw up all over the Klein's dining room floor. It was the motherlode. It was the Cascade waterfalls of Bend, Oregon. Ben just opened his mouth and he gave us a vivid show and tell of his diet that day. It was impressive but disturbing. As you can imagine, I freaked out.

Ben threw up, and threw up, and threw up. I was a mess physically and mentally. Jodi Klein our dear friend and hostess took everything in stride and was truly full of grace. Thank you Jodi. At the end of the night, I finally packed Ben up in the car to take him to our friends house that we were staying with. Jodi let us borrow towels to wrap Ben up in because he had soaked his other outfits and one of her daughter's shirts. With my mom in the back holding a cool whip tub under Ben's mouth, we drove off.

I finally called Colin. The "conversation" went like this:

Erin: "Ben is throwing up" (sobbing begins)
Colin:"Is he okay?"
Erin: (still sobbing)"He's so sad"
Colin:"Erin, is he throwing up right now?"
Erin: (sobbing hysterically) "I just don't know what to do"
Colin: "Erin, calm down. Are you going to be okay?"
Erin: (shorting the phone out with tears) "He's just so little. I love you I'll call you when I can talk...(sob)...Tell you more...I love you..."

Needless to say, neither of us slept well. I stayed up with Ben until 5:30am and finally turned over baby duty to my dad. Thank you Daddy.

The next day Ben was a dishrag. He stayed in our arms all day and ran a fever and pooped his pants off. At one point in the day I overheard my dad on the phone with my grandma. He was appraising her of Ben's situation. I heard him saying "Ben got sick. He has really lost his starch." I had a vision of a sad little sailboat that's sail lost it's starch and drooped. Then he couldn't sail. My mom and I looked at each other knowing that we had had the same vision. We looked at "Starchless Ben." Weeping ensued. We left the next day and welcomed Colin home with an almost re-starched Ben.

The trip was my own personal hell. I was more worried than I had ever been in my life. I absolutely never realized how much of my heart that little boy owned until that fateful day. While remembering how I felt that day, I was reminded of a very famous quote from Elizabeth Stone. it says:

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."

I never understood fully what that quote meant, until I held a very sick and helpless baby, knowing that I could do nothing for him but love him and hurt for him.

I really did learn a few things about myself those few days in Bend. I learned that I am finally a real mom. I have arrived. I can tell you now with tears rolling down my face, that I would have done anything in the world to take my baby boy's pain away. I would have taken his sickness in a heartbeat. If it were possible, I would have absorbed his fever and shaken with chills for days. I would have done anything to erase the past 24 hours of hell that he had gone through. I realized, the one thing that I could do, and that I did do, was love him.

It didn't feel like it was enough at the time, but it was. Because all we can do folks, is love our babies. No matter what. Because they need us all of the time. Especially when they are sick and sad, but all other times too. So my advice to you is, unless you are ready to "forever have your heart go walking around outside your body," don't bother. If you think that you are ready, brace yourselves, you are in for a ride.

Our Pet Baby

Question: Who did it? The baby or a small dog?




Answer: We don't have a dog.

El Nino

I now understand why the weather powers that be named a winter weather pattern "El Ñino." They had young children at home. Shocking, yes, but so true. I personally have experienced my own tiny El Ñino right here in my living room. His name is Ben.

Benjamin just turned ten months old. He has four teeth and he started to crawl about two weeks ago. I was very excited to tell people that my little guy was becoming such a big boy. It seemed, however, that when I announced to friends and family that Ben has passed a major milestone and was now crawling, they were immediately on the other side of the room putting antique vases and delicate knick knacks on the highest shelf possible.

At first, I laughed at these people for being so paranoid. He hadn't made any messes yet, he was just learning how to move on his own. What I didn't realize is that my sunny weather was about to turn into the storm of the century.

As Ben's slow scoot turned into VERY fast crawl our little home turned into a battle ground. Side-tables have been overturned. Books have been pulled off of the shelf and DVDs that used to be in alphabetical order are now lost forever because Ben has managed to push them behind the TV stand. I can't be more thankful for online bills either, because all of our hard copies have been chewed or shredded by our very sweet boy. Thanks Ben! Now we can donate our paper shredder to someone who really needs it.

With all of the new mayhem that Ben has caused, there is also a lot of joy. I am amazed at how smart he is and every day when I wake up to sound of the monitor amplifying Ben's loud talking in his crib, I can't keep the smile from spreading across my face. What a delight to have this child in my home.

Ben may be full of mischief and messes but I know that he isn't trying to be bad, he's just learning. It is my responsibility to tell him no when he is causing trouble, but even more important, it is my responsibility to comfort him when he has bumped his head. It is my responsibility to love him even when he has thrown up on my last clean shirt. Most important, it is my responsibility to share with him the incredible love and forgiveness of our Savior. I won't say that being a parent is easy, but I will say that it is the most wonderful and scary thing that I have ever done or ever will do. To sum up the forecast for the rest of Ben's baby-hood, it is going to be partly cloudy with radiant sun breaks.

Nicknames and Such

"Chim Chim"

Nicknames are a curious thing. Anyone who currently has or has ever raised a baby, would tell you that they have a long mutating string of nicknames for their child. Being a former Richardson, I had a feeling that I would have a bit of a problem with this. My family, as many of you know, is very weird. My brother and I can talk to each other in a made up language and, although we can hold back in public, when we are all toghether we make a strange bunch.

My brother Ryan (or "Unca Rat") gave Ben his first nickname before he was even born. He was "The Cub." Now, Ben has many nicknames. The most popular are as follows : Chim, Chim Chim, Peet, Peety, Poot, Poot Patterson, Bug, Boy, Babykins, Budge, Budgee ... and the list goes on.

I suppose that I should back-track a bit and explain. My parents had a list of nicknames for me and Ryan that could be recited for hours. I grew up being called Rin, Rinny, and Doot. There was even a year when Ryan refused to call my dad anything but Snavely. I'm pretty sure that Ben didn't have a chance.


Although our nicknames are silly, I know that they are universal. In my eyes, I see nicknames as an honor. Other than stupid kids at school, the people that give us our nicknames are the ones that mean the most to us. A nickname is a way of saying , "We love you, we know you better than anyone else, and to show you that, we will call you a name that nobody else knows or understands." Our nicknames are like passports to the inside circle of a family.

Ben will probably decide that he doesn't like to be called Chim someday, most likely when he becomes a teenager. But once he realizes that his nickname is so much more than a silly made up word, I'll bet he'll want it back. Or he will at least ask to be called Chim at home ... just not in front of his buddies. He may even read this someday when he has a baby of his own and get a good laugh, because he will use nicknames too.

Memories, Misty Crayon Colored Memories...

I recently wrote about my mission to organize old pictures and memories. In my quest to find scrapbooking Zen, I stumbled upon the most delightful collection of my second and third grade writing projects and old letters. I was supposed to be cleaning up and I spent the afternoon in stitches and tears over hillarious book reports and touching letters from my late Grandpa Flory.

I ended up wasting even more time by calling my mom and reading her some of my pieces. She loved my book report about Christopher Columbus where I spent three of my four pages talking about how I had to write abook report and that "I was bigger than one first grader." (Classic little Erin) The all around favorite is a book about a bear who wants to make balloons, so he pays a lamb one penny to get the "secret poshen" which I will tell you all now for free. "You take some ruber and take some tape and then put some air and put a string and you have a ballon!" The best part of the book however, is when the lamb exclaims "GOOD GOB." I'm pretty sure that I was trying to say "Good Job!" but "Good Gob" has officially become the Smith Family excliamation of 2007.

In all of my wasted hours I Kept thinking to myself, "I love this stuff, I love kids." I even thought about what fun my teachers had reading the crazy things that us kids imagined up and then it hit me. Ben will make silly books. Ben will make me laugh so hard that I will tear up. I haven't thought about him as a grade-schooler. The idea of my little boy going off to school and coming back with a silly book report makes my heart warm. I can't even imagine the joys that Benjamin will bring me and Colin, but I'm pretty sure that he can come up with something even better than Good Gob.

New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year everyone! I am so glad to welcome the year 2007 and all that it has in store for my little family. I am a believer in New Year Resolutions, not because I can't work on myself during the year, but because I like the feeling of a fresh start. I have a few very poignant resolutions but they aren't fun to write about, so I'm going to tell you about my radical and awesome one.

Organizing memorobilia and pictures. Oh it's a big one. I have boxes and boxes of crap. Well not crap, but it looks like it right now and I am just itching to get it taken care of. So far I have made a dent in only one box and it is currently sprawled on the floor beside me. So I haven't actually made any progress.

I guess the biggest roadblock for me has been Mr. Benjamin. Since that little boy showed up, we have fifteen times our original amount of cards, pictures, mementos, and other clutter, yet with him around I have no time to scrabook, or for that matter, shower. So, I'm just not sure what to do at this point. maybe I'll just pay my mom to do it for me. Ha! Right! I'll come up with something and I'll keep you posted. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

~Erin