Spokane Smiths

Ninja Daddy

2011-02-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

Gemma has a terrible cough. This morning, while Colin and I were doing our bible reading together, Gemma came out of her room to join the party. She then had a coughing fit so violet that she managed to gag herself. Colin, being a ninja daddy, picked her up and held her over the sink while she had a nice early morning heave.

It was amazing. His quick thinking and graceful scooping and swooping made me love him even more. He know's how much I hate puke. I think the floors love him now as well.

Just another day in the life.

Cookies

2010-08-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

This is my signature cookie recipe and it only comes out perfect if you follow the instructions. But don't worry, there is plenty of room for creativity. Here we go!

Flour, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, baking soda, salt, assorted leftover chocolate chips( milk, dark, and white) and leftover English toffee.

Obviously, you don't need to do this if you don't use toffee.

Eat some of this as a treat.

Colin is particularly sensitive to lumps of baking soda. I always whisk together my dry ingredients to avoid complaints. Also, I know that I spelled whisk wrong in the Polaroid. Thank you.

Make sure and pack the brown sugar firmly.

If you leave the dough in a ball it makes the dense, chewy, perfect cookie that we all love.

That's right. Right on top of the nutritious veggies.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or 2 cups of any other stuff. For example, I have used dried cranberries and white chocolate chips, toffee bits and a bunch of leftover chips (as seen in this recipe), peanuts and dark chocolate chips, pistachios or almonds and dried cherries, etc, etc.

Directions:

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips (or other "stuff") by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 1.5 inches apart.

Refrigerate dough for one hour. 40 minutes into the chilling, begin to preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Bake for 17-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are a light golden color.

Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

To Gemma's High School Boyfriends: Future Punishment

2010-06-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

I had a crappy afternoon. I really don't want to talk about it. Wait, yes I do. I have chosen to express my feelings and simultaneously exact my revenge on Gemma in the most maternally satisfying way possible. The future boyfriend letter. This WILL be printed and saved for a later date.

Dear Gemma's High School Boyfriend,

Today was a special day for your now grown-up (and potty trained...I hope) girlfriend. It didn't start out special but somewhere around Gemma's nap time things got interesting. You see, my little baby girl is in a state of sort-of-potty-training. She is fond of removing her own diapers and running around the house with her ample baby butt jiggling for all the world to see. (You see what I'm doing Gemma? This is called payback. I'm into delayed gratification.) Anyhow, dear, sweet, beautiful Gemma was found in her crib with a neatly folded diaper in her hand and poop everywhere else.

"Mommy, I had a poopy diapoo." (Hopefully she has her "r's" down by now too)
"Oh, God help me...." I cried.

This was my afternoon. Cleaning poop off of the cabbage patch doll that used to be mine 25 years ago, and vacuuming dried poop chunks from the carpet, And doing lots of laundry (with a heavy hand while pouring the bleach,) and bathing one, very cute, feces encrusted toddler. This is my life. I really do love it despite my irritated tone at the moment.

So future boyfriend, the moral of the story is, Gemma did silly things as a baby. Gross things. And if you don't think through the consequences of your actions you too might be cleaning poop off of a crib very soon.

Lovingly,
Erin (That's Mrs.Smith to you buck-o)

Vegan Blueberry-Whole Wheat Muffins

2010-02-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

I had a craving for muffins this morning. Also, we are trying to use all of the stuff in our freezer and pantry so that we don't have to move a bunch of food to our new house and we can save some money in the process. This means that we only have Chex cereal (i.e. boring cereal) on hand right now and I just gave the kids the last of the pancakes that I froze so I needed some breakfast foods.

I had never made egg-free blueberry muffins before and I decided that today was the day. I was also feeling very health conscious so I made them a little too healthy tasting but Gemma said they were yummy. And I am going to ignore all comments about her being a biased critic because she has never tasted a horribly unhealthy/delicious Costco blueberry muffin.

I adapted this from the "Rich Muffin"- w/blueberry modification recipe in the Pillsbury cookbook. (Circa 1980, the one that says "New microwave ideas! Recipes & ways to use your revolutionary kitchen helper!" on the cover. Tee hee.) However, I changed so many things about it that you probably wouldn't taste any similarities between the two recipes.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups of white flour

2 cups of whole wheat flour (you can use all white flour if you desire)

1 cup sugar

7 tsp baking powder (6 tsp if you use eggs in the recipe)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

2 Tbsp milled flax seed + 6 Tbsp warm water (or two eggs)

2 1/3 cups soymilk (or enough to make the batter is the right consistency. Flax and whole wheat flour soak up a lot of moisture leaving the dough...well, doughy and needing more milk than your average muffin recipe)

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups of blueberries either fresh or frozen (thawed and drained)

Preheat oven to 400°.

Line muffin tins with paper or silicone cups.

In large bowl, mix together the first six ingredients.

In a medium bowl combine the flax mixture (or egg), soymilk, and oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry being careful now to over-mix.

Gently fold in the blueberries and spoon the batter into baking cups filling them 3/4 full.

Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 24 medium muffins.

House

2010-02-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

You know how some people wait until the end of their 12th week of pregnancy to announce that they are expecting? I could never wait to tell people when it came to pregnancy but when it comes to home buying, I wait until the first trimester is over, so to speak. So, here it is: I am extremely happy to announce the we are buying our first home!

I have never allowed myself to dream about home-ownership because I didn't want to live in a constant state of dissatisfaction with my surroundings. But, the time had come when it made sense for us to take the giant leap from renting to owning and here we are.

We looked at a house a few weekends ago and liked it, which got us thinking about buying. It was fun to think about owning but the man doing the open house was pushy and awkward. So we called an agent named Jeff who was on a flier that we had picked up for a home that was for sale. It was kind of random but it worked out. We met him on a Saturday, he asked if we were pre-qualified, we said no. He suggested that we do that before we looked at any more houses or interview any more agents.

On Monday Colin went to a mortgage lender and got us pre-qualified. The next weekend Colin and I were celebrating our fifth anniversary by having my parents watch the kids for us while we stayed downtown. We used part of our time away from the kids to look at houses with Jeff, who we decided to use as our agent. It was exhausting in a good way. There are so many affordable houses in Spokane. In Western Washington we had always been overwhelmed by the lack of affordable housing and the general crappiness of what we could afford. It is so different here.

Anyway, after two full days of looking at lots of houses and even more online listings (hundreds), we had a top three. On Tuesday (Feb, 9 2010) we put in an offer on a house!

The house we are buying is a brand new split-level home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, three car garage and a full unfinished basement that has a roughed in bathroom. We ended up putting in an offer above the asking price of the house because we are asking the builder to finish the basement for us and put in an a/c unit. Our basement will have a large family room, another bedroom, another bathroom and a laundry room. We can't wait until our closing date March 24th, 2010!

Here are a few pictures of the house. I'll put up more later when I can take some with our camera since these were taken during construction by the builder.

The outside

Living room (view from dining room)

Dining room (view from living room)

Kitchen (view from dining room)

Oh, and we're also having the builder put a microwave in place of that hood above the oven.

An important lesson for Ben.

2010-02-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Ben and I watched Mulan yesterday. After it was over he said "I want to watch the bonus features." (How he learned about bonus features, I don't know.) So, I menued around and found the bonus features which consisted of three music videos from the Mulan soundtrack sung by Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, and...wait for it... Jackie Chan. Ben, not knowing who Jackie Chan is but sensing the excitement in my voice, chose the song "Make a Man Out of You" sung by Mr. Chan himself. The video opened up to Jackie picking a weapon (giant closet pole) and swinging it around artfully and then proceeding to poorly sing Ben's favorite song from Mulan in...wait for it... Chinese.

About 30 seconds in to the epicness Ben turns to me and says in a dead-sounding voice "Okay, I'm done now." He then left the room.

Lesson learned: Celebrities ruin everything. Especially your favorite Disney song.

Jackie Chan Music Video

A little bit about me.

2010-02-03T22:56:00.000-08:00

I never really talk about myself on this blog so I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. Here it goes.

I don't like cats. And it's not just because I'm extremely allergic to them. It's because they are cold-hearted, aloof animals and they always leave piles of crap in my yard which I always, without fail, step into.
My favorite color is green. But my love for green encompasses the entire green family including turquoise, teal, sea foam, lime, olive, etc,.
I also like brown.
I am an odd mixture of lazy and OCD. It is difficult to live with me. Colin is a patient man.
I really, really like to watch people play video games. Just please, don't ask me to play.
I have an ever-growing list of pet peeves that I enjoy complaining about.
I laugh at my own jokes.
I love Jesus.
I am not a dreamer. I am usually pretty happy with life and I am a teeny bit afraid to dream because I don't like disappointment.
I need to work on that whole dreaming thing.
I grew up listening to my parent's records which included (but was not limited to)Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Sea Shanties, Miriam Makeba, The Beatles, Neil Diamond, Keith Green, etc,. This shaped the person that I am today greatly.
I love my family a lot.
I love to bake but I don't really like to eat what I have made. I've been accused of making people fat. I have a feeling that I'll be that old lady who forces people to eat "one more helping" because she think that they need to.

Perfect Eggless Banana Bread

2010-02-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

Every couple of weeks I find myself with a few brownish, overly aromatic bananas on my hands. I used to put them in the freezer which was a terrible idea because I never, ever used them. Really. Never. So I had this freezer full of putrefied bananas that all eventually got thrown away after the appropriate "time period of keeping food you will never eat" elapsed.

Anyhow, I am proud to inform my readers (All two of you. Hi Mom.) that I now make a banana bread with my spotted reject bananas every week or so. It has been so great for breakfast and because I perfected my recipe, it is really easy and eggless to boot. Yay!

Before you do anything put your three bananas into a gallon sized ziplock bag and squish them until there are no lumps bigger than the size of a pea. When it's time to add the bananas you just cut the corner off of the bag to get the bananas out without any mess at all.

Note: Banana squishing is a good job to give to children who like to attach themselves to your legs whenever they sense you have any sort of task that you need to accomplish.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp milled flax seed

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

3 bananas

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour an 8x5 loaf pan.
Mash bananas until smooth and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla, flax and water. (The flax and water is an egg substitute. You can add one egg in it's place if you don't have flax on hand.)
In a separate bowl combine flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients. Do not over mix!
Add banana by gently stirring it in. Again, don't over mix. It will make your bread tough and it won't rise as well if you do.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
Cool for 10 minutes in pan before transferring to a cooling rack.

You can use whole wheat flour if you want but it may change the texture of the bread. We like to toast slices of banana bread and put butter or cream cheese on it for added un-health.

Invasion of the Fruit Bats from Marbles & Obles

2010-01-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

Ben loves fruit bats. I have no idea where he got the idea that fruit bats are so exciting but nevertheless he is quite taken by them. My only guess as to why he likes them is because he had a brief interest in Batman. He shortly realized that Batman is a tad scary ( almost everything scares him these days) and this led to him choosing the more-tame fruit bat as his personal mascot. He plays fruit bat almost everyday which consists of Ben spending good amount of time hiding under my bed covers which he calls his "fruit bat cave."

Ben's 4th birthday is coming up in March and I asked him what he wanted. He started out by flapping his arms. When asked what he was doing he said "I'm being the fruit bat from Marbles & Obles. That's what I want for my burf-day" What?

Then the light bulb came on. Around three months ago we were at Barnes & Noble and we showed Ben a copy of the book "Stellaluna." So, in his own Ben-way, he was asking for a book about a fruit bat. I just love how his brain works. It makes me smile.

Why men never get what they want for Christmas.

2009-12-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

These are realistic examples of the online chats that Colin and I have had regarding Christmas presents.

Colin: What do you want for Christmas?
Erin: Oh, I'm glad you asked. I made a list of links to the items I want. I gave you lots of options so that I can still be surprised. :)

-Rasp grater
-Frosting spreader
-Amazing necklace
-Another great necklace
-This dvd set
-Or this dvd
-Medium cookie scoop
Etc., etc., etc.

Erin: What do you want?
Colin: Oh! I want a (fill in the name of some obscure piece of computer hardware that costs $500).
Erin: Uhhh... Anything else???
Colin: Nothing that I can think of. Well, maybe you could just get me a gift certificate to newegg.com.
*crickets heard chirping*
Erin: And this is all you can think of? Nothing more personal?
Colin: Nope. But I'll like anything you get me.
Erin: Well I guess I'll have to come up with something on my own.

The result:

Making a spectacle

2009-10-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post some pictures of the kids for your viewing pleasure.

A nice Fall-ish picture ofBen playing in the leaves

I think that they go the other way Gemma!

There we go!

Ben's turn! This is what I get when I tell him to smile.

Gemma's reaction to Ben getting a turn. She's not the best at sharing these days.

Ben makes this little fist whenever he knocks his blocks down. It's so cute that I had to post a picture of it.

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

2009-10-28T11:18:00.001-07:00

The Kitchen Sage offers his advice

Yesterday I got a call from our Life Group leader asking if I could bring the dessert for the week. I had been signed up to bring it the week before but we were all sick with colds so I was unable to bring the pumpkin cheesecake that I was planning to make. I was super excited to try this recipe and although I had never done a cheesecake quite like this one, it turned out really well.

My only issue was the water bath that I had to do in order to cook it properly. I didn't wrap my spring-form well enough I guess, and the water got into the crust a bit. I took to the internet and found some advice for soaked crusts and all was well after I let it cool on a wire rack for a while and let the crust air out.

But, being me, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I got a brilliant idea. I was going to do chocolate feathering on top! Why oh WHY did I think that this was a good idea? Let's first say, that this would have been a great idea if I had done it when the cheesecake was still a bit warm. I tried to do it when the cake was cold and it looks like my Ben was responsible for the cake decor, not his grown-up mommy. So, lesson learned. Never try to do chocolate feathering on a cold cake. At least it will taste good. Next time, I'll listen to the Kitchen Sage.

Here is the recipe and some embarrassing pictures:

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (Oreos)
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/4 cups vanilla or white chips, melted and cooled
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 teaspoon each ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg
White chocolate curls, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°
Press cookie crumbs onto the bottom of a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in melted chips. In a small bowl, combine pumpkin and spices; gently fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Place on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 16 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. Place in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan. Bake at 325° for 60-65 minutes or until center is just set. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with white chocolate curls if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 10-12 servings.

Before

After. What have I done?!

Cranberry Bog Bars

2009-10-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Last night was my night to bring a dessert to our Life group. I was really excited to have an actual reason to bake something yet I had a serious problem finding the motivation to do the baking project that I had originally planned. We had all been sick for over a week and even though I felt pretty good, I spent yesterday doing very little. Unless you count watching Mulan with Ben as a productive activity.

Anyway, by the time that I was ready to bake, I didn't have the time to do anything epic so I settled for these "Cranberry Bog Bars." This Taste Of Home fall cookbook is proving to be extremely useful! They were so easy to make and they had such an obscene amount of butter in them that they couldn't not be good. I didn't have pecans on hand (let's face it, I never have them around. They set my teeth on edge.) so I subbed them with raw almonds which toasted up really nicely during baking. I am going to have to make these again. Also, they are egg-free.

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups butter, softened, divided
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar, divided
3-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 can (14 ounces) whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy. Combine 2-1/2 cups oats and flour. Gradually add to creamed mixture until crumbly. Press into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Spread with cranberry sauce.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt remaining butter; stir in the pecans and remaining brown sugar and oats. Sprinkle over cranberry sauce. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Starbucks Gingerbread Recipe!

2009-10-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today I got the inspiration to find a good gingerbread loaf recipe. Then, I thought to myself "Hey! I wonder if anyone has come up with a recipe for Starbucks' Gingerbread loaf." Well with the help of Google, I quickly found a recipe and to my surprise and extreme delight, it is egg-free! Waa Hoo! It turned out very well and it tasted so yummy.

Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf:

BATTER
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/4 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract, optional
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon baking soda

FROSTING
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt.
Then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in orange extract.

Mix baking soda into applesauce and stir into creamed butter mixture.
Add flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

FROSTING:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and orange extract. Slowly beat in confectioner’s sugar.

Once the cake has cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top. Decorate with chopped candied orange peel .

The tale of the epic zucchini and the consequent baking splendor.

2009-10-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Holy Toledo! That's a big zucchini!

I was given a ginormous zucchini by mom. The thing was like a cave-man club. Colin and I actually joked around with it quite a bit and I was almost serious when I told him that I would hit an intruder with it if the opportunity presented itself. Apparently someone at my mom's church had an over-abundance of zucchini in their garden and decided to share their bounty with the church.

Anyhow, the thing was really big and when I cut it open, the seeds were the size of pumpkin seeds. I scraped out the pithy center with a spoon and then grated it. I ended up with 4 1/2 cups of grated zucchini. Hmmm, what does one do with 4 1/2 cups of grated squash? Bake! And then bake some more. So I made a batch of zucchini chocolate chip bread and did five mini loaves instead of two big ones and then froze them immediately after cooling.

That didn't use up all of the squash so I also made a batch of 24 zucchini cheese rolls. I kept a dozen out and froze the other half. Colin ate one fresh out of the oven and proclaimed "Now I know why I married you. Other than the fact that I love you. You bake really yummy things!" The amazing thing is, I still have a cup of grated zucchini left in the fridge begging to be used. I got my recipes form the Taste Of Home fall cookbook that is currently on newsstands.

Zucchini Chip Loaves

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup canola oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup raisins, optional

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, zucchini, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips and raisins if desired.
Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans. Bake at 325° for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 2 loaves (12 slices each).

Modification for chocolatization:
My Mother-In-Law did a batch of this as well but she changed it up a bit and made it into "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Loaves." She added 1/2 cup cocoa powder and cut the cinnamon to 1 tsp and cut all of the raisins and allspice out. Apparently it turned out very well. It's more chocolate, how could it not?

Zucchini Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup grated peeled zucchini
1 teaspoon salt, divided
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 package (1/4 ounce) quick-rise yeast
1 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water (120° to 130°)
1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions:

Place zucchini in a small bowl; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let stand for 5 minutes; drain.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, combine 3 cups flour, yeast, 1/2 cup cheese, sugar and remaining salt. Add zucchini; toss to combine. Combine water and butter; add to dry ingredients. Add remaining flour to form a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Divide dough in half; shape each portion into 12 balls. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Repeat. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 2 dozen.

Snufflebug

2009-09-30T13:43:00.001-07:00

New word courtesy of Ben.

Snufflebug \SNUH-ful-buhg\, noun,verb: To Steal covers from another person with whom you are sharing a blanket with. A person who steals the covers. Use: He tried to snufflebug the blanket but his efforts were in vain.
Snufflebugging The act of stealing a blanket with one swift jerk of movement.
Use: Please stop snufflebugging the covers, I'm getting cold!

Do you fancy a cup of tea and a buscuit?

2009-09-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a friend Amy's post on Facebook of an old Real Simple recipe, I took to the kitchen and baked a delicious pan of Lemon-Chamomile Shortbread. Yum! I'm enjoying a piece of it right now with a cup of tea and I am feeling very happy and very British.

Lemon-Chamomile Shortbread

Yield: 16 cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Grated zest from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon loose chamomile tea
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Raw sugar crystals (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

2. Combine the butter, sugar and salt. beat with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. Blend in the lemon zest, loose tea and flour until smooth. Press into pan. (In order to make it fancy I made fork indentations along the rim and sprinkled it with raw sugar crystals)

3. Bake 30 minutes or just until the shortbread begins to turn golden.

4. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into 16 wedges.

Midnight Colinization #4

2009-09-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

Midnight Colinization #4: "It was Mom. They were just goofin' around with Mom."

Note: This was said with a bit of a chuckle. Practical joke maybe?

Apple Blueberry Crisp

2009-09-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

Apple Blueberry Crisp

When I put my apple blueberry crisp in the oven, I was scared. I didn't use a recipe and I was beginning to doubt my cooking skills. Also, this was my first time using agave nectar in the place of sugar. In the end, it turned out pretty well!

Anyway, with a few tweaks, this could be fantastic. Don't get me wrong, it's tasty, but the fruit was a bit tart and I probably could have used another 1/4 cup of agave in the topping. If you make this with regular brown sugar I would say to use a full cup and to cut the flour to 1/2 cup.

Here is an approximate estimate of what went into the crisp:

Filling:
3 Fuji apples sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups of blueberries
3 Tbsp of corn starch
2 Tbsp of lemon juice

Topping:
1 cup of oats
3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup of blue agave nectar (no, it's not actually blue)
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tsp of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put apples and blueberries into a large baking dish.(I used a round 9" wide 4" deep ceramic crock.) Toss the fruit with the lemon juice and then sprinkle on the corn starch and toss.

In a medium bowl, mix all topping ingredients. Butter should be cold and it should be cut into very small chunks with a pastry blender of knife. Because of the liquid from the agave, this will be like a dense, sticky dough. Use your fingers to drop small amounts of the dough on the fruit until the top is evenly covered in the topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Note: Because this was a bit doughy, I pulled it out after 20 min and broke up the topping with a fork and put it back in and it turned out great.

I just couldn't keep myself from posting this one. The steam was so pretty.

Nighttime prayers

2009-09-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Ben's prayer tonight: "Thank you Jesus for muffins and for Honey Smacks with soy milk."

Midnight Colinization

2009-09-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

I've never shared with anyone other than Colin, the crazy things that he says to me at night. You see, Colin talks in his sleep. Being Colin, he can't do it like a normal person and talk about food or something. No, he spits out the most random phrases imaginable and I've recently started writing them down. With Colin's permission, I will now be documenting his sleep talking on my blog. It will be called "Midnight Colinization."

You see, at night I always read. I usually read too long because I'm kind of a book nut. Anyway, while I read, Colin is off in dreamland. A couple of times a week he will say something hilarious, ridiculous, and totally random. It usually begins like this: Colin starts making a gulping, clicking sound with his throat and then he begins to thrash around a little. He usually turns to me and starts mumbling incoherently. I say "What did you say Colin?" He repeats himself two or three times until he is speaking more clearly and then, I have my pearl of wisdom. He promptly turns over and begins the snore-fest.

So, without further ado, I will publish the first three Midnight Colinizations.

Midnight Colinization #1:
"Erin, you'd look funny coming out of the wall, mounted like a deer."

Midnight Colinization #2:
"I think it's best if he didn't hug his hogs!"

Midnight Colinization #3:
"That's some pretty fabulous foam inside the shampoo."

Note: I don't edit the grammar in these quotes and I SWEAR that I did not make this stuff up!

Gemma goes to Costco

2009-09-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today in Costco, Gemma made a very loud squeal in the book section. It turned a head or two. To the untrained ear it would have sounded like she was quickly screaming "EeeeeeeOhhhhhh." To the trained parental ears of Colin and myself, it was easily understood as Gemma saying "Peeeetotes!" Which again, to the untrained ear would sound like "whattheheckdidshejustsay?" But to the trained parental ears it was easily deciphered as Gemma screaming the word "PRINCESS!"

Yes, Gemma saw a boxed set of Disney Princess books. This is what caused The Great Costco shriek of 2009. So, being the good parents (i.e. softies) that we are, we picked up the $6 set of boks and handed them to our little lass. Of course she began chanting "peetote" followed by "fankies"(thank you) and a kiss for Daddy. Let me point out that she is only 21 months old, yet she is already able to bend us to her will and melt our hearts. Well played Gemma. Gemma-1 Parents-0

Every creature was stirring. Even the Mouse.

2009-09-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

The kids were very noisy tonight after we put them to bed. This is what I overheard.

Ben speaking to his Yucky Blanket: "...and I'll have a hat for you and gloves to keep your hands warm. But that's just pretend that you're real, Yucky Blanket. I love you Yucky Blanket. (high pitched voice)I love you too Ben."

Gemma speaking to baby doll- "Heeeeeey Lola, heeeey Lola, hey! Lola! etc,."

Carrot-Pumpkin Muffins.

2009-09-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

I baked again today. It was really fun to bake in the morning and have a snack to bring to a playdate. I always bring something "Gemma safe" so today I made Carrot-Pumpkin muffins. Of course, they were eggless and they turned out really well. I have been struggling to bake perfect muffins that had no egg and I think that I finally succeeded! Yee Haw! I found a recipe on a vegan blog for carrot muffins and I messed with it quite a bit adding pumpkin and cutting the amount of sweeteners. My recipe is below.

Also, I should say, I had one of these cut in half with cream cheese and it was heavenly. These could very easily be turned into cupcakes with the addition of cream cheese frosting. Yummy.

Eggless Carrot-Pumpkin Muffins

Dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
(I use the O Organics brand because it has the best vanilla flavor)
1/3 cup of unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup of warm water and 1 Tbsp of flax meal mixed together and set aside to congeal in a small dish (this makes the exact consistency of egg and serves as a binder in the muffins)
1/3 cup soy milk (or regular cows milk, we just use soy)
Give or take a bit on the soy milk, I just added it at the end until it was a nice batter consistency

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (2 big ones or three regular sized)
1/4 cup raisins
Sugar in the raw for the tops

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin tuns with papers.

Sift or stir dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix together wet ingredients except for the soy milk, carrots, and raisins. Combine wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl and stir until just mixed (it's important not to over stir) Then add the carrots and raisins. Add the soy milk to get it to the right consistency. It should be a thick batter, not too runny, but also not like a dough.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full, sprinkle tops with raw sugar crystals, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe made 24 mini muffins (15 mins to bake) and six regular sized muffins (20 mins to bake.) Cool on a wire rack. Also, do not try to take them out of their wrappers until they are completely cool or they will stick to the muffin liners. Enjoy!

Autumn: The Happy Season

2009-09-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Eggless Chocolate chip cookies

Fall is in the air. I can feel it. Today, the sun is shining and the horizon is a crisp, bright blue. There is a definite bite of cold in the air and my cheeks look a shade rosier every time I go outside. Although it isn't technically Autumn until September 21st, I'm just going to pretend that it's already here. I can't get enough of this time of year. September is usually when I finally come out of my lazy-days-of-summer heat coma. I re-connect with my inner housewife and thus begin a new season of baking, sewing, knitting, and curling up on the couch with a blanket and reading. (okay, so I read all year-round. Whatever.)Life outside of the home slows down but indoors, I feel like I'm just waking up.

To celebrate the changing season, I baked cookies today. I have wanted to make some eggless chocolate chip cookies for a long time. I found a good base recipe and tweaked it. It make a pretty good cookie. I also experimented and added oatmeal to half of the dough and baked them in a mini-muffin tin instead of a cookie sheet and I actually liked them more than the basic cookies.

It was very fun to be able to allow Gemma to eat cookies and not be worried about them making her sick. They were the first home-made chocolate chip cookies that she has ever eaten. It was pretty special. I took some pictures and have put up the recipe as well.

First bite, not so sure about this "warm cookie" business.

Hey! That's good!

Seasoned cookie connoisseur trying out the new recipe

It passed inspection.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the brown sugar, white sugar, margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until incorporated, then mix in chocolate chips.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges begin to brown. Cool for a minute on the cookie sheets before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

To make oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bites:
Add 1 cup of rolled quick-oats with dry ingredients. Spoon dough into greased mini-muffin tin and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees on top rack.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bites

Camping in Montana (and the King's living room)

2009-09-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

The upwards view from our campsite. It was even more incredible at night. I've never seen so many stars...

On August 21st-24th we went camping in Montana at Lake Alva with our friends The Andersons, The Kings, and Mr.Syris Trahan. We had a grand old time sitting by the fire and sharing stupid/embarrassing stories (I think that Jon King took the cake with his "poop can" story. Honestly) singing, and playing guitar. We also spent a good amount of time eating, and eating some more, and then eating s'mores. We played at the lake and let the kids get as dirty as possible. Gemma had a great time sucking on rocks and Ben spent a large amount of sitting on a box next to a cooler, holding the handle of the cooler and pretending like he was riding an "ice ta-box." (I'm pretty sure he was trying to say ice toboggan)

After two very chilly nights we all decided that we had spent enough time being at-one with nature so we packed up our camp and headed to The King's house in Missoula. We ate delicious pizza and played a super fun card game called "Bang." Ruth King (who made the most amazing marshmallows) made some to-die-for cinnamon rolls for breakfast. She even made a tiny batch for Gemma without eggs. I was so touched that she considered Gemma's allergy. Anyhow, we had loads of fun and hope to go camping again next summer.

The few things that I would change would be:

The amount of nasty aggressive bee type-things attacking our food and us. Colin got a sting and so did little Naomi King. That was not okay.

Also, the toilets were REALLY NOT OKAY. I've never been in a toilet that smelled so pungent. Try to imagine this: A cheap knock-off perfume factory explodes and takes with it the neighboring sewage treatment plant, causing the two overpowering, acrid aromas to mingle and swirl about in the same airspace. That is precisely what these wretched pit toilets smelled like. I almost added some puke smell to them. I didn't. But seriously, it was so strong that I held my breath in them. Yet, despite my best efforts, after I had run 10 yards from the defiled area, I would breathe out only to find that my nasal passages had trapped "the reek" and I was forced to inhale the offending fumes. *shudder*

Okay, enough about the toilets-of-wretch... Here are some pictures!

Our epic tent "The Cave of Wonders". Yes, that's a hinged door.

Ahhh, nature. Now, where do we put our massive amounts of stuff?

The King Family. (From left to right: Jon, Naomi, Ruth)

A happy Colin. He's happy because the ancient percolator worked (I had serious doubts.)

Syris in his ottoman-equipped camp chair reading Wired Magazine. Because, it's important not to lose touch with technology when you are in the wilderness of Montana.

Ben driving the "ice ta-box."

Gemma enjoyed sharing her special rocks with Aunt Theresa(Anderson).

Gemma and Uncle Jon(Anderson). Jon King pointed out that Gemma closely resembled a tiny ewok. I heartily agree.

Naomi King peeking in on Caleb Anderson. Adorable kids!

Naomi. Or, as Ben and Gemma called her "Maoni." Same letters, wrong order.

Colin made this percussion instrument with an old guitar string, flattened beer caps, and a stick. We saw some at a street fair and he got inspired.

Ben playing the back-woods percussion instrument.

Syris in his awesome Costa Rican (correct me if I'm wrong please) hammock. How cool is it that Syris slept in a hammock? (I'm glad that a bear didn't lumber into the camp and eat him)

Montana. The happiest place on earth.

The picture that will make Gemma cringe in 10 years

2009-09-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what else to say about this picture, but that Gemma will most likely dislike this picture in ten years. I personally, think that it captures the spirit of The Moot quite well and I will relish showing it to her future husband. :)

Sporty Shorts

2009-09-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ben has decided to wear sports themed underwear today in lieu of pants. He is calling them his "sporty shorts." The fancy underwear are nicely complimented by a cowboy themed tee-shirt and green froggy rubber boots. Should I be worried?

Ranch Dressing

2009-09-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

I just went out back and cut a ton of fresh chives. They made my hands smell, but I don't mind it right now at least. Anyway, in order to use my bounty I whipped up some scrum-didily-umptious ranch dressing. Here's the recipe:

1 cup of non-fat plain yougurt
1/8 cup of mayonnaise
1/8 cup finely chopped chives
2 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon of dill
1 Tablespoon of dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder (NOT onion salt)
1 teaspoon of Kosher salt

Put all ingredients into a mini food processor and give it a few pulses (until it turns a lovely light-green hue) and then store in a jar or airtight container.

Why Naps For Mommy Are a Bad Idea

2009-08-28T16:29:00.001-07:00

Today has been pretty interesting. I'm not going to say bad because despite all that has transpired today, I'm still pretty bubbly. The day started with Ben bouncing in to our room at 5:45 am to inform us (cheerfully, mind you) that his mouth hurt. Upon hearing this revelation I realized that crap, my throat hurts. Ahhhhh, I see now. After my revelation Colin croaked out, "I feel sick, my throat hurts." Seeing as how Gemma has been sick for a day already, I now understand that every one of the Smiths has a cold at the same time.

When Gemma's nap-time came, I was exhausted. I almost fell asleep reading "Frog and Toad" to Ben so I decided to rest while Gemma was napping. I closed my door and had Ben come into my room and play with some books and toys. He was a bit feisty in the beginning, slamming the closet door repeatedly, but eventually he quieted down and I tripped off to dreamland.

When I woke up 45 minutes later, I had a little surprise waiting for me. I had (un-opened) tampons on my head "making Mommy pretty." Ben found my bag of feminine items and he had collected them in an empty laundry basket. He was pushing them out of the side of basket torpedo-style and saying that he was "Shooting sticks. For my work." I'm sorry Ben, but what job is this exactly? I fail to see how that is legitimate work. That was not the end of the madness. The floor had sanitary napkins adhered to it and I was told by Ben that, again, "I'm doing my work, I put windows all over the floor."

This is what I get for taking a nap. I knew I should have ignored all of those unwanted bits of advice to "sleep when your baby sleeps."

Ass-tronomy lesson

2009-06-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

I've always stayed away from potty humor. I honestly do not think that it's funny. The males in our house are usually very polite and never make rude jokes (out-loud at least). Until today. I have been teaching Ben the order of the planets. He's very interested in all things astronomical and has decided that he will "be an astronaut and go on missions" someday. Anyhow, he was doing such a good job learning. I was having him recite the planets for Colin and it took a turn for the worse around the seventh planet. Here's how it went down:

Me: "Ben, tell Daddy the order of the planets."
Ben: "Mercury, Venus, Erf (Earth), Mars..."
Me: "What's the big one Ben?"
Ben: "Oh! Jupiter. Ummm..."
Me: "The one with rings."
Ben: "Saturn!"
Me: "What's next?"
Ben: Stares blankly
Me: "Urrrr...."
Colin: "Your Butt!"
Ben: "He he, your butt!!! Uranus!"
Me: "Good job Colin."

We didn't get to Neptune.

Ben ate dinner in an unusually good mood because of his new joke, occasionally yelling "your butt!" It was soooo classy. I couldn't be more proud. The worst part was, I found myself hiding snickers from Ben. I never laugh at this kind of thing but this time, I just couldn't help myself.

Gemma's special words

2009-06-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here are a few silly and cute things that Gemma says:

Gummy- Monkey
Mommy
Daddy
Bee- Ben
Dapee- Diaper
Booby- Poopy
Wubby- Water
Cuppy- Cup
EAT!
Dees! Dees!- Cheeks! Cheeks! (said while pinching my cheeks)
Uppy- Up
Dow- Down
Bookie- Book
Buckie- Binkie
Walkie- Walk
Caw- Chalk
Weeeee!- Slide or swing
Ba, Ba- Splash, splash
Beh Bee- Baby
Tseees- Cheese

Egg-free recipes

2009-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, our dear girl is allergic to eggs. It has been interesting trying to feed her and we've pretty much banned foods with eggs in them around the house. My biggest challenge has been baking without the leavening properties of egg. I thought I would post some recipes on my blog so that I can use them and also, in case you ever want to bake for us, you can have some safe recipes. :)

Eggless Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour ( I’ve been trying to use more whole wheat flour so I use 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup regular)
1 cup sugar, plus 2 tsp. more
4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
3 Tbs. melted butter
1 cup fresh blueberries
Raw sugar crystals for the top

Heat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a medium-size bowl. Stir in milk by hand and melted butter. Fold in blueberries. Fill each cup 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops of muffins with raw sugar. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Carrot Cake Loaf

Ingredients
9 large carrots, shredded
2 cups flour
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup raisins; chopped (either golden or dark raisins)
2 large bananas; mashed
1 cup apple sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: 1 cup of chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two loaf pans OR line the pans with "release" aluminum foil
Mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.
Bake about 1 hour or until top browns.
If you want to glaze your loaves, just mix 2 cups of powdered sugar with 1-2 TB of milk or cream.
You can make a thinner glaze by adding more liquid.
Pour this over the cooled loaves and spread evenly.

Anatomy 101

2009-01-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

How often do we take for granted our vocabularies and the knowledge that we have. Sure, we know our body parts, their names and functions but we had to learn that all and someone taught us. I decided to teach Ben a more in-depth understanding of his body. Gemma is currently learning to touch her eye when we say "eye" and so on. It's very cute because whenever we say (in that border-line pratronizingly sweet voice) "Where's Gemmma's nose?" She presses her little snoot as flat as it can get and then starts making a whistley sniff sound while crinkling her eyes up and shreiking with delight. She's a doll.

Anyway, Ben's understanding of his bady is a bit more advanced than Gemma's condsiring the fact that he's has had two extra years to learn about the human body. I have been quizzing him about the lesser-know body parts. How many people know where their philtrum is? Well, Ben knows. He can now identify his philtrum, septum, nostrils, palate, gums, taste buds, temple, eye lids, jaw, scalp, throat, ear lobes, thumb, pinkie fingers, index fingers, knuckles, ball of foot, arch and heel. He has also learned the five senses and the parts that give us the ability to hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. Let me remind you that he's not even three yet. I know I'm bragging. I'm honestly, just really impressed with my little genius.

Quoteable Quotes

2008-09-30T11:47:00.001-07:00

Okay here are some cute quotes from Ben (who refuses to be called anything but "Monkey Moo" at the moment). Right now The Moot (aka Gemma) is at the "ba ba ba, ma ma" stage so her quotes aren't quite as memorable as Ben's but her time will come.

Ben saw his pool hanging in the garage and very sadly told Colin: "That is my swimming pool. I love to play in it, but it is taking a nap."

The other day Ben said "A am a stinky vinegaroon. I need to take a bath."

While playing together Gemma managed to get a hold of Ben's hair and pull a chunk of it out by the roots. Ben didn't cry or fight back but he looked up at me with a pained expression while holding his head and said "Does Ben's head hurt?"

We call Gemma our vacuum baby because she spends her days scanning the carpet for lint, hair, crumbs, rocks and anything else gross that shouldn't be eaten, so that she can eat it. While my mom was babysitting the other day, Gemma has gotten under the table and was doing her vacuuming and Ben said to my mom in a slightly disgusted tone of voice "Those are called bits, Gemma eats the bits." He has also tattled on her and exclaimed "Mommy! Moot (Gemma) is being a vacuum baby!"

The other day I brought Ben into bed with me because he woke up way too early and I was hoping that he would go back to sleep. That did NOT happen. instead he wiggled around and entertained himself by annoying me while I tried to sleep. I actually did fall back to sleep for a bit but once he realized that I was sleeping he located a hole on my shirt and poked his finger through it. He thought it was hilarious and he kept on on poking me and then finally asked me "Are you naked?" Groggily I said "no Ben." To which Ben replied "Are you half naked?" I then got to explain why holes in clothing existed. I did not get to go back to sleep.

Words that are not said properly at the moment:

yeast- "geese"
zit- "zip"
camera- "crama"
Sandal- "sannual"
Buzz Lightyear- "Bud White-Ear"

Big Sky Country

2008-09-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

I'm getting excited for our trip to Montana! If you've never been there then you can't understand that the sky really is BIG there. I'm a bit anxious about the incredibly long drive but we've done it twice before just not with two kids. We have a lot of fun things planned mostly involving food or the out-of-doors. Anyway, I'm just glad that Colin finally decided that he didn't know enough about sailing (from reading on the internet)to rent a 20' sailboat. I was a good wife and didn't crush his dreams, but good gracious, I was relieved when I could put my abundant and irrational fears to rest. If you are reading this, sorry Colin! :D

We are leaving tomorrow at 4:00 am and we will be Tweeting (on the website "Twitter") along I-90 from here to there. We would be overjoyed if you want to follow us along the way. Please do so at :

https://twitter.com/ErinEliseSmith
and
https://twitter.com/davidcolinsmith

Sewing and other notions

2008-08-29T22:47:00.001-07:00

I decided recently that I wanted to sew and so now I'm kind of going nuts with it. I thought that I'd put up some pictures of Gemma in my homemade creations. I have been kind of making the designs up so that has been fun. Who needs patterns right.... Fabric was purchased from www.sewmamasew.com.

Mommy-Of-Two Olympics

2008-06-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Colin got off work late last night and I had been having a pretty stressful day. He called as he was leaving the office and I suggested that we have pizza for dinner. All I had to do was call it in and he would pick it up. I also had to pre-heat the oven. This seemingly simple task turned out to be the most challenging 30 minutes of my day. As it turns out, I was in the Mommy-Of-Two Olympics and I had to win the gold before I had my reward, a dinner prepared by someone else. Here's the play-by-play.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen! Thanks for tuning into to the Mommy-Of-Two Olympics! Our competitor today is Erin Smith. Let's see how she does. She's at the starting line and, she's off!

Erin starts the competition strong with a bolt up the stairs while holding the thirty pound Ben. She quickly sets him down to play while she finds the Papa Murphy's website, decides on a pizza, calls in and places an order under the name Colin. Amazing! This event was completed in almost record time! Now to the finish line, pre-heating the oven. But wait! She isn't done with this leg yet because Ben has just surprised her with a setback. While she was ordering he found a pump bottle of lotion and emptied it's contents onto the nightstand, smeared it in his hair and rubbed it all over his hands and arms. Erin surprisingly bounces back and scoops up Ben and washes him and the nightstand off while remaining untouched by the lotion explosion. She is moving on like a pro.

Erin starts to head downstairs to pre-heat the oven but as she is entering the hallway with Ben in tow she hears Gemma wake up from her nap with a horrific wail. Still thinking on her toes, she enters Gemma's room grabs her and plunks her on her free hip. This mom isn't going to let anything get in the way of the finish line! She bounds down the stairs with 45 pounds of dead weight on her hips and it doesn't even phase her. She's almost to the bottom of the stairs, but wait Gemma has a surprise as well she has vomited all over Erin's shirt and herself. Without skipping a beat, Erin sets Ben down at the bottom of the stairs and hurries to the living room. She strips Gemma, puts her in last nights pj's that were miraculously on the couch and tears her own barf saturated shirt off to reveal her black lacy nursing bra! But there is no time to go back upstairs to get a new shirt right now. Erin can see the oven, her finish-line. She can taste her cheesy, saucy victory.

With Gemma in the bouncy seat Erin begins her sprint to the finish. Just as she enters the final stretch she realizes that Ben is nowhere in sight. Wait! Ben has escaped onto the deck. Wasting no time, Erin runs outside to grab Ben. But wait, she is only wearing her bra! Thank God nobody sees her! With victory on the brain, Erin drags herself (with Ben on her hip) to the kitchen and turns on the oven. She's done it! She has reached her goal.

A jingle of keys is heard and the door is opened! Colin is home! What amazing timing. But wait what is that draft? Erin looks down to see that Ben has unlatched her nursing bra on one side. As Colin rounds the corner holding Erin's delicious winnings. She realizes that Colin was the true winner. He got pizza and an eyeful!

A funny thing happened on the way to the English language

2008-03-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some funny things that Ben has said recently:

I was holding my breast pump when Ben asked
"what's that?"
He then answered his own question.
"pump!"
"Gemma's milk."
"wahhhh wahhhh wahhhh"
"Mommy's bwessss"
"besss besss"
"bassss"
"Ben's bath!"
Next, Ben looked up at me and said frankly,"I want to take a bath."

Wow! that was some serious free association!

I was asking Ben about all of the people in our family. We were going through the names of all the people we love and he didn't mention Gemma. I said What about Gemma? He looked at me and then pointed across the room at Gemma and said nonchalantly "It's over there"

I heard Ben scumbling around in the kitchen. He had obviously pulled some things off of the counter. When I entered the kitchen I saw that he was playing with a lid and a bag. I asked him what he was doing and he replied in a matter-of-fact tone "finding muffins." Oh really? I didn't know we had any muffins!

Ben likes to say "Ben is cute and po-creeshusss." He is trying to say precocious.

The Business of Being Born

2008-03-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

Today I watched the film "The Business of Being Born." I really enjoyed it. I'm not surprised that I liked it so much considering it falls into my favorite movie genre which is, what else, documentaries. It also really touched me considering the fact that I have two children of my own and have an unhealthy obsession with hearing birth stories.

Anyway, It was really amazing and shed so much light on the flaws of modern American medicine and how birthing is treated like a business or even illness, not a beautiful, natural thing.

When I was in the hospital with Ben they induced me after a week of unrelenting high blood pressure. They gave me pitocin for five hours and then told me that they were taking me off the pitocin because there weren't enough night nurses to help me deliver. Looking back, I should have screamed in the doctors face and said "HELL NO! You started this and we are finishing when I am ready" But I didn't. My labor stalled out and even though I had gotten to 6cm so easily, I still ended up with the c-section because I was interrupted while my body was doing it's natural thing. It makes me so sad to think that I had no idea that it was my right to stay in labor.

I now see so clearly the flaws of America's health care system and it pains me to see other women who think that they are not allowed to speak up and be heard by the people that they pay to help them. The rate for c-sections in America is the highest in the world. We also have the second highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the developed world. This is appalling considering how much more we pay for health care than any other country in the world.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who has children and I would insist that anyone considering having a baby or who is pregnant must see this film! I wish that I had know what my rights were. I'm seriously considering becoming a labor and postpartum doula because it is important for me to help other women to not end up with unsatisfactory births. Sorry for the rant everyone, I feel strongly about this. If you read this far, thanks for listening!

Literally wonderful

2008-03-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

I have so very much enjoyed my book club as of late. Last month we read a really amazing book called "Look Me In The Eye" by John Elder Robison. It is a memoir (my favorite genre)about a man with Aspergers syndrome. Really insightful and probably the cleanest book that I have read in a while. No *ahem* intimate scenes, just the occasional bad word. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys people studies. We also had a fun dessert theme this past month and we all brought desserts from the cook book by Jessica Seinfeld "Deceptively Delicious." I made some fantastic blueberry oatmeal bars with pureed spinach in them. Surprisingly yummy.

This month we are reading a novel titled "Away" by Amy Bloom. It has a very pretty cover. That's all that I like about it right now. I am just not able to get into it so far. Maybe things will change.

My big treat came today when my delightful mother-in-law volunteered to watch Ben for the afternoon. I started reading "Away", got four chapters in and then decided that I'd had enough and I was going to paint. After I cleaned up the house. So once i was finished nursing Gemma and tidying up, I painted a really nice picture for our living room. I'm actually quite proud of it. I think that I will buy a frame for it with my fun money. I've posted a picture for your viewing pleasure! Anyway, thank you Patty for my relaxing "me time" I really enjoyed myself! That's about all for now. Happy reading and painting to you.

Wook! Maw-sit!

2008-02-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

The mind of a child is a curious thing. I thought that I understood kids very well but that was before I hatched two of them. I feel like learning about your kids can wear you out and frustrate you. Parents, ever heard this?

"Wook! Maw-sit!"
"What was that Ben? look at what?"
"Maw-sit"
"I don't understand"
"Maw-sit"
"Mom sit?"
"MAW-SIT" (jabs finger into stuffed monster)
"Ohhhhh, monster. Yes Ben that is a nice monster"

Note to Mommy, maw-sit equals monster. I do this daily, learn new words in Ben-ese. If I didn't do it, almost nobody would understand him and how frustrating would that be for Ben? This is my job folks. I interpret made up languages, change poopy diapers, force-feed veggies even if I have to puree them, comfort hurt and sick babies and save the world* on a daily basis.
*Saving the world often means finding a favorite lost toy.

I don't honestly feel that I could be the best mom for Ben if I didn't understand that the word for snack is "nat" or that he is calmed down during a tantrum by chewing on a soggy brown blanket fondly named "Yucky." And that's another thing. Ben names things. His Blankets are "yucky" and "cozy". The stuffed animals are "Zaz" the moose, "Kimmit"the penguin, "Sero" the monkey and "Ginger" the horse. Names are important to him.

Gemma is another story all together. She is so different from Ben. Of course she is only two and a half months old but I already know so much about her. She only fusses when she wants something. Usually it's food, a new diaper or a nap but lately she has started fussing when she feels lonely. This is a new thing for me. If any of you know Ben he is very independent. He never wants to cuddle, he plays by himself most of the time and for a while if I tried to feed him he would refuse to eat unless he put the food in his mouth by himself. But, Gemma loves people. She thrives when she is being held and cuddled and looked at. She will actually sleep in my arms, a rare occurrence for Ben even when he was first born.

I can't even imagine what it would be like to spend all day away from my babies and expect to know a scrap of insightful info about them. Thank God for stay-at-home mom-ism!

Painting to the White Stripes

2008-01-22T13:40:00.000-08:00

Today Benjamin and I had a grand old time finger painting and listening to the crunchy rock'n'roll of The White Stripes. We sat at the dining table and basked in the blinding sunlight while we both smeared paint around with sponges, brushes and best of all, our hands. At first Ben was trying to avoid getting his hands gloopy. He kept saying "messy, messy." Eventually, he went in for the kill and stuck his hand in a blob of red paint.

I painted a rocket ship in space and Ben decided to copy me. His first piece was titled "rocket." His second piece was titled "banana muffin cupcake." The first picture actually looked like he was trying to copy mine it was pretty neat. Maybe he'll be an artist someday.

After Ben had lunch, threw a fit because there was no more paint, and then went upstairs for his nap wile proclaiming loudly, "rock on!" I decided to write a blog about it all.

While uploading my pictures, I was nursing Gemma at the computer and she got inspired by Ben's works of art. She attempted to create a very abstract painting of a mom. It was me sitting in a chair with vomit covering my arm, leg and crotch. She was very thorough in covering her canvas. Obviously spit-up was her medium and I was the unassuming canvas. She titled her piece "vommy mommy." I got to go express my artistic feelings with the washing machine. I really poured that soap with flare. Too bad it got washed away. Honestly, I had a great afternoon. Rock on!

Chatter box

2008-01-21T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ben is such a little chatter box! When he is around people that he is comfortable with, he will not stop talking! I'm just going to record a few funny things that he has said recently so that I don't forget them.

At my parents house, we were having dinner and Ben was asked if the thought Gemma was pretty. He replied matter of factly "she's sick."

That same night while eating he refused to eat his lasagna which he usually loves. We asked if he wanted to eat his dinner and he shifted his gaze to the full plate of food and slowly shook his head while saying "I don't like it" with much disgust.

Ben heard me saying "Oh Gemma Gemma" and "Oh Gemma Lou." He now walks around the house when hears Gemma crying saying "Oooh Gemma Gemma Gemma, oooh Gemma Wooo" (he can't say L's).

Last night at Colin's parent's house we were all being chattered at by Ben during dinner. He decided to give a full narrative of the movie 'Finding Nemo' which he watched in it's entirety while perched atop his "ginger horsey." It went something like this:
"Nemo, Dowee (Dory)"
"Scary shrap (shark), water, mine, mine, mine"
"Finding...Nemo, Goot...movie"
"Goot...movie"
"Happened? Finding...Nemo"
"Swim Down, Fish, Bad, Arr Arr"
"Yeah! happened?"
"Goot movie."
"watch it, show, goot...movie"
"Oh baby"

Repeat five times. I have no idea where the "oh baby" came from.

Ben was given a Curious George jack-in-the-box by his Grandma patty and Grandpa Stan. He enjoyed watching us turn the crank for him, but was frustrated when he tried to do it himself. He soon figured out that he could make the monkey pop by pressing the little release on the lid. I tried to show him how fun it was to wait for the monkey but as I was helping him turn the crank he got impatient and clenched his teeth and glared at the box. He then growled "Hey! You! Monkeeeey!." It had us all in stitches.

Ben loves to listen to music. He will often request to listen to "Harray Connuck" and "Johnny...pause...Cashhh"

Of course, if you ask Ben to repeat any of this he will just look at you, smile, and say "Noooo" in a very agreeable and high pitched tone.

Mommy time a la book club

2008-01-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

Over the past two years, I haven't taken much time for myself. I can remember very few days when I was able to enjoy time all alone. that is one of the hardest things for me to deal with as a mom. I can take a lot of crap (literally) from my kids. I love watching them grow and knowing that I helped make them who they are. However, it can be a bit draining for this mommy to not have alone time. I LOVE alone time.

So, in order to give myself a little break, I joined my playgroup's book club. I felt so good about myself when I actually finished a WHOLE book (Water For Elephants by Sarah Gruen). The kicker was that I got to go and have a girls night and talk with my friends about what we read. I know that lots of people have been in book clubs, but this is my first and I am loving it.

Of course we talked about the book but we also spent a good amount of time laughing. We heard stories about a deranged ex-boy friend who still sucked his thumb, moms who nursed their kids to age five and older, and of course we all shared stories and asked for advice about our own kiddos. I had a great time. Colin, if you read this, thanks so much for letting me abandon you for a night! I owe you one.

The Smith children's inheritance.

2008-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that my children have already received their inheritance from Colin and me. However, it's not money. They have been given our eczema, my big cheeks, Colin's beautiful eyes, and a treasure trove of odd personality quirks. I feel bad for our kids that they have to have some of these traits but I guess that in order to get the good stuff like musical ability and long skinny fingers, you have to take the eczema and in-grown toenails with grace.

I am really awestruck every day when I wake up and see myself and the person that I love the most in the world (Colin) manifested in two amazing children. However, I feel guilty when I see poor little Gemma with a crusty rash all over her face that is the fault of both me and Colin since we both have eczema. Then I remember that she also has my thick hair. It took me a while to like my hair, but now I love it. Ben has Colin's sturdy frame, which makes it hard to lift him, but he also has his sweet and mellow disposition. Of course they aren't exactly like us, but it is just so neat to see what they did inherit.

Anyhow, I'm not sure where I wanted to go with this, but I wanted to put up a couple pictures to show how Ben inherited my "squink eye."

Happy "Kriffitz" from the Smiths

2007-12-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

Baby Gemma

2007-12-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

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"

2007-03-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

Answer: We don't have a dog.

El Nino

2007-01-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

"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...

2007-01-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-02T23:31:00.000-08:00

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

Magician for hire. Will work for boob.

2006-12-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

The only real magicians in this world are babies. I know that this is a bold statement and I'm sure that you David Blaine fans out there will argue with me, but I believe this with all my heart. I have created a list of evidence to prove my point.

Item one: The shrinking cheerio trick. Ben puts the cheerio in his mouth, covers it in drool, places it back on the high chair tray and ten minutes later it is mini. Amazing!

Item two: Mind control skills. Ben can make his Mommy and Daddy do anything he wants by either smiling, crying, or saying "dada" in that irresistable breathy whisper.

Item three: The expanding cheerio trick. Ben puts the cheerio in his mouth, covers it in drool, chews it up, spits it out, and covers ten square feet in cheerio mush.

Item four: The super poop trick (Colin's favorite). Ben can eat four ounces of baby food and when it comes out the other end it has expanded to ten times it's original volume! Ta Da!

Item five: Hypnosis. Much like baby snakes and their potent poison, Ben's hypnosis was much stronger when he was first born. I can't even remember some of the terrible tyrannical things that Ben did to us, because I was in such a fog. When I wasn't blocking out the spit up and colic, I was staring into his eyes for hours because I couldn't believe that he was mine. This trick is really impressive but Ben only uses it at bedtime these days in order to stay up longer.

Item Six: The finale. In the vein of David Copperfield's disappearing airplane. Ben has managed to change a human heart. Yes you heard me right. "But how?" you say, listen and be amazed. When I found out I was pregnant with Ben, Colin was shocked. He was unsure of our future and only until Ben was born did Colin seem at peace with being a daddy. I was sure that it would be difficult to convince Colin to ever have another one. I was sure that down the road sometime, I would have to delicately inform Colin that he would be a father of two. I was wrong.

Let me clarify, I AM NOT PREGNANT! (But I thought I was yesterday.) I told my dear husband that we might be in for a crazy year and instead of freaking out, he said "Oh good, I was thinking that other day when I was playing with Ben, that I want another baby." This shocked me! Anyway, I took the test and it ended up negative and I was jumping for joy. Colin on the other hand cried. (I'm sure he'll love me for telling you all that a grown man cried.) He was sad that I wasn't pregnant. He had decided that because Ben was more wonderful than he had ever imagined, he wanted more kids! This is truly the most magical trick that I have seen Ben perform. He changed a person's heart.

Leave it to the babies to do all of the magic tricks folks, it comes easy to them.
And, if I still haven't convinced any of you stage magic fans, then by all means, enjoy the show! But I promise, Ben could do it better.

Thanksgiving

2006-12-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

This year we Smith's have celebrated many firsts. Too many to name, really, but I am reminded of how special they all are during the season of thanks. I guess this is just going to be a list of the things that have taught me how to love life with my baby boy and Colin, good and bad!

I am thankful for:

-God's amazing grace.
-The opportuniy I have been given to raise a child of God.
-Every smile that Benjamin has ever shown me.
-My marriage, which gets better every day.
-Patience.
-Tiny hands and toes.
-Baby kisses, especially wet ones!
-Sleeping Ben.
-Bedtimes and structured schedules.
-Technology and our new endless limits of communication.
-The fact that babies forgive you while you learn how to be a good parent.
-Showers.
-Disposable diapers.
-Coffee.
-Ben's laugh.
-A loving husband who works so hard.
-Ben's first tooth. Because it is SO CUTE!
-The way that Babies trust us with every ounce of their being. God gave us a perfect model of how our relationship with Him should be.
-My little family and the closeness that we share.
-My own Mommy.
-My big extended family. Even the ones that hurt me over and over, because I have learned how to extend so much grace and patience because of them.
-The opportunity to share my thoughts with friends and family in this blog.

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!

~Erin

Great expectations...out the window

2006-11-08T14:00:00.001-08:00

Hello to all! I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Life has been crazy around here. As some of you know, we recently moved to Marysville, WA and Colin has a fantastic new job! I am also able to stay home and not work (for money :P) now because of our new geographic and vocational change. Yay! And, now that we are caught up, here's the fun stuff.

Ever since Ben graced us with his presence, my life and brain have been in a constant state of change. I think the biggest difference I see in myself is how I deal with other people's opinions and advice. My big epiphany came when I realized how angry and guilty I felt after having an emergency c-section after 24 hours of labor. I had been in the hospital for a full week before Ben was born and I thought that even though the last week of my pregnancy was not as I had planned it, I was expecting the birth itself to be perfect. I was planning on a drug-free, calm, smooth experience. Obviously that didn't happen.

I remember holding my sweet boy for the first time alone and thinking "Thank you God, he is so perfect, but I wish that I could have had a natural birth, that would make him even more perfect." This is when the gigantic hand came down from heaven and smacked me on the face. I realized then and there that I had become a sponge, soaking up whatever my family and friends had told me was the "right way to do things." I had been pushed from all directions to have a natural birth, because natural is best, and if you don't go natural, your baby will be born with four arms and cry pesticides instead of tears. (As you can see from my last statement I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder)

Anyway, what I ended up concluding is that I have a perfect baby boy because of God's grace. That's it, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I have learned to trust my own instincts when it comes to parenting and taking care of my family. I can now listen to people politely but I don't feel guilty anymore because I made a decision that went against a friend or family member's advice. I have to say that I feel liberated and free these days because I am doing what I think is right and I am trusting God to push me in the right direction. And believe me, when it's time to hold another sweet new baby for the first time, I will think (c-section and all) "Thank you God for my beautiful child, this is perfect, because you made this."

Johnny Cash and goosebumps

2006-08-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

There is no music in the world that can make me cry and give me goosebumps like the man in black, Mr. Johnny Cash. I was sitting here with Ben on my knee, trying to check my mail, when he started fussing. I was inspired to put some music on and as I put on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Ben calmed down. The perfect harmony of Johhny and June's voices made my eyes start water and I whispered to my baby boy "someday Ben, you'll listen to this music and it will change you, because it changed me"

I guess the purpose of this post is really to thank my Daddy. I can't blame anyone in the world for making me love music other than my father. I can remember rainy days when we would put on "Bob Marley: Legend" and we would dance around the living room until I had an asthma attack. Or those days when I felt sad, Dad would put on some Bob Dylan or Buffalo Springfield and I let the music feel sad for me.

Colin and I have talked a lot about how we want to raise Ben and some things we aren't sure about yet, but one thing is for sure, he will grow up in a home full of music. Just like I did. One day he will thank us for it.

Little baby, big mess

2006-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past five months Colin and I have really enjoyed the world of being parents. We think that our baby is cuter than all other babies, we have an unhealthy obsession with Ben's poo (consistency, texture, regularity, etc.), Ben has been sleeping through the night since he was ten weeks old, I can't stop buying baby clothes (we may look like bums but Ben is one well dressed lad), and our hearts are full to the brim with love for our new lil guy. I would say that we have no complaints but that would be a lie I have one...

One complaint that is, CLUTTER. Yes clutter, and the worst kind of all, baby clutter. I feel as though baby clutter can only be related effectively to a disease. It starts out small, unobtrusive even but over time it grows into a huge pulsating mess of tiny socks and large primary colored toys. We began with a dresser of clothes, a crib and a bouncy seat. That didn't last long. Ben needed a swing, and a stroller, and a garish play mat with a billion dangling toys, next the mother of all eyesores...The exersaucer. For those of you who aren't familiar with these monstrosities, please see the picture above

I am not sure if there is a solution to this problem, and to be honest, if it makes Benjamin happy, then we'll do whatever it takes. But I will say, Ben, you can have your A.D.D. causing exersaucer, but I draw the line at a bounce house. Period, paragraph!

The "now I get it" moment

2006-08-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

For all of you who have children, I thought that you were all crazy for the past four months. Ben started out life as just a little "peanut" as the nurses called him. He was cute but fussy. He took to breastfeeding like a champ but he wanted to eat ALL THE TIME. I remember many days in the first few months where I would hold a screaming baby for hours and wonder "why the heck do we have kids? There is no reward in this non-stop, unpaid job." I asked Colin if he had any idea why we had a baby and he gave me an answer that I won't write here but needless to say , it didn't help. I finally Called my wonderful sister-in-law Heather who has three boys and at the time was pregnant with her fourth (a girl)! I asked her "Does this ever get better? Will I ever be rewarded for my work?" She told me "you'll see, You'll know in a few months." And I did.

Ben had been practicing his smiles in his sleep for us. One day when he was about 14 weeks old I was playing with him on the bed after his morning feeding. I was kissing him and tickling his feet and then all of a sudden something changed in his eyes and a big smile came across his whole face. I felt my eyes start to sting and then I cried. "He's a real boy!" I sobbed. Now two months later at four and a half months old, I get all kinds of fun smiles, giggles and even snuggles from my Ben, but I can still remember the days when I didn't get it. Now, I SO get it.

Thank heaven for little boys

2006-08-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

Dearest Benjamin,

The past four and a half months of my life have been the best that I have ever had. On March 28th, 2006 you were born and my world was turned upside down. I never knew that I could love a little five pound baby so much and my love has grown exponentially every day. I want to write this blog for you. I want to document every little thing that you do that makes me smile, cry, or laugh. I love you little guy, you are my sunshine.

Love,
Your Mommy