A Flea-ting Autumn

Embarrassing,  Yes, it is Halloween night and your papa is posting for the first time since August.  In my defense, let me give you a rundown of the craziness of the past 2 months:

-Our beloved doggie, Hubert, got fleas, and some of those fleas thought it would be fun to bite you.  Now your Grandpa (Doctor Deacon Lt. Colonel Deputy Vice Prefect of Corby Greg Gehred) assures us that the fleas were harmless.  But we wanted to kick their annoying little flea butts anyway, so we have turned the house upside down, employed the full strength of Borox Power (ask Mama about that) and then even had an exterminator.  We think the situation is good now, but wowsers has it taken up our time.

-Your Continued Allergy to Sleep.  Okay so it is not a REAL allergy, but you sure do not enjoy sleeping kiddo!  Good for you that you are so good natured, fun, lovey, happy and altogether amazing, because the nighttimes have been rough, and Mama and Pap are exhausted.  Way too exhausted to post!!!

Nonetheless, we can at least post some good pictures from September and October.  Here they are...

 

MEET THEM IN ST. LOUIE, LOUIE

Well, you ended your first summer with a trip to St. Louis, where EVERY one of your Griffin cousins was there to greet you.  It was the first time that your Aunt Bev and Uncle Tien's kids got to meet you, and one of them, your cousin Caroline, took a special shine to you, and helped to take care of you by feeding you, watching you and entertaining you.  Look how happy she is in the picture below, just to be sitting right next to you!

Your First Summer

 June had us testing your mettle as a traveller (your dad refers to your mom's family as "road warriors"). Early June was Portland and the middle of June found us in Wisconsin, where you saw the places and people of Fort Atkinson, the place your grandma and pa Gehred lived for 15 years before moving just a few miles from you here in South Bend. Anyway, the end of June brought a marathon of a trip, a challenge of whether you could keep up with your "warrior" grandparents. 10 days. 5 states. And a foreign country. Time of departure: 2:30 a.m. Welcome to travel with your grandparents.  First stop on our journey was Madonna House in Canada to meet your Aunt Teresa who is part of the community there. You were practically glued to Aunt T, as she held you every chance she could. So you got a lot of attention not only from her, but also from the other members of MH (about 100 of them). Thankfully stranger anxiety hasn't started with you, yet - instead you were soaking it all up!

 From Canada we went to Valatie, NY to see your Great-Uncle Peter (who is also your mom's godfather). It was technically your second visit there (though last summer you were in-utero). Uncle Peter is a Holy Cross Brother, and he lives at St. Joseph House in Valatie with about 30 other Brothers, including a few who worked with your dad at Bishop MacNamara high school in Washington, D.C. Their warm hospitality (and good food!) always make it an enjoyable place to be.

Here we are in front of St. Joseph's in Valatie. St. Joseph is the special patron of the brothers, and Br. Andre Bessette, a Holy Cross Brother from Canada who will be canonized in October, was known for having a great love for and devotion to St. Joseph.

Next on the travel circuit was Rochester, NY, where your Grandma Gehred is from. Her sister, your great-Aunt Barbara and her husband Larry were celebrating 50 yrs of marriage, and their 5 children, spouses, and 15 grandchildren, plus other family and friends were on-hand for the occasion. We stayed with cousin Maria and her family, and her youngest son Silas (pictured above) took a shine to you and was your special playmate for our time there. He even woke up early the day we left to say good-bye. 


Since June was such a whirlwind we tried to keep July on the mellow side. The name of the game has been trying to be more consistent with sleep and get you on some semblance of a schedule. We're coming along on that front. There have been some other milestones as well. On the vigil of your feast day (St. Benedict, July 11th), we started you on solids! You were tentative at first about the whole deal, but got into it, and now you're eating like a champ, at least your rice and oatmeal cereal. The peas from a jar also went down easily, but you broke your mom's heart by rejecting the green beans she grew for you in the garden and prepared with love. After two more tries (and a little trickery - mixing the green beans and peas together first) you did indeed eat the beans. We've also added sweet potato to your menu, and the list will keep growing....
You also cut your first tooth (bottom right front). It's sort of like a little dagger, and you are loving to bite down these days - ouch - which I suppose means more may soon follow.
Other fun little developments are that you're rolling with the best of them, you're sitting up better (though you can't sustain it for long without a little support) and you're "talking." Da-da was first said by you, appropriately, on Father's Day and seemed to be your favorite utterance. I think I heard ma-ma once or twice in June/July, but in these first few days of August ma-ma has been repeated often and has surged ahead!! Of course we can't yet claim that you are attributing meaning to these words - maybe that will be the news in the next blog post......

YOUR PAPA'S FIRST FATHER'S DAY

Well, at least the first one where he can hold you, since the last one you were in utero.  here we are, along with the Papita, Granpda Greg!

More Family Time

Another memorable visit of your Grandma Griffin, plus her sidekicks Aunt Pat Young and Ryan Young.  Here are some the pics.  Now, it might seem that there are a few pics unrelated to you... namely from the fishing trip on Lake Michigan that your dad and Ryan took, but they are related, since we ate the delicious fish that night (and hence it helped to feed you!) and since it shows what a stud fishermen your dad is... Ryan can attest to that!  Okay, here are the pics:

A Famous Family!

So you made the newspaper for the first time!  The South Bend Tribune for today (June 11, 2010) had a story on our neighborhood, about how it is revitalizing by people buying old re-habbed houses like ours.  They interviewed us and used this picture.  One person commented to your papa about "the cute baby, noble dog, and beautiful wife."  He agrees!

You can read the story at:  http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100610/NEWS04/100619963

Your first trip... Portland!!!

On May 26, 2010 you elevated thousands of feet for the first time... and were a great traveler:  A+.  We went from South Bend to Portland, with a stop in Minneapolis.  You had a great trip, and enjoyed quality time with our many friends and family in the City of Roses (and co-op businesses, more on that later!)  We stayed with Uncle Danny, Aunt Meg, Teddy (who is still very busy building an imaginary bridge to his new school), and Andrew.  Right nearby are Uncle Neil, Aunt Nikki and Natalee, Jackie and Maggie.  Here you are with all the Gehred cousins in Portland...

They also took us to see many sights.  Here we are at the famous Multnomah Falls:  though it does not appear so in this pic...you were fascinated by the rushing water!

Here you are having some "Bacon 'n Egg" time with your cousin and buddy Andrew... nice outfits, made by Aunt Meg!

We also have some really good friends in Portland, like Mark Holloway.  He and his partner David cooked us amazing Salmon dinner worthy of all the fame northeast coastal cooking gets.  He also is wearing a Cowboy Mouth t-shirt.. your favorite band!

Though this may LOOK like an ordinary moment with Uncle Danny, it is not.  He cut and filed your fingernails... not an easy feat for you since the last time we tried trimming your tiny little nails we broke a little skin (oops!) and you cried for hours!  Aunt Meg had some name for your uncle's service, but I would call it a "Dan-icure"!

Here you are loving life our last evening there... at a party for Uncle Neil's birthday (I think he's 40). 

Your first theology conference!

Now, the initial reason you went on your first trip was that your papa was giving a talk at the College Theology Society conference.  And even though they put him in a lame-o slot (the last session, after most people had left!) still it went well.  Among the audience were your aunt Meg, uncle Neil, godfather Patrick, and Mark (who took this picture).  The talk itself was on Catholic Social Teaching and economics.  In particular, I talked about how business could be run on a cooperative, rather than competitive model (more on that as you get older!)  But you see the man on the screen behind us... the whole talk was dedicated to him.  His name is Ronnie, and he just died last month.  He is part of the community where your Aunt Teresa lives, in Canada.  He was a farmer his whole life, and dedicated himself to teaching by example crazy ideas like that the world's resources are created by God for everybody, not just a few, you know, wild stuff like that!  AND.... before you were born--get this--Aunt Teresa asked all of her friends what the name would be, and Ronnie (unbeknownst to us) said "His name will be Benedict John."  Whoa... especially since your name is not all that common, Benedict doesn't even make like the top 10,000!!!  Anyway, here you are at your first theo conference: 

Okay, now this picture comes thanks to Annie McGowan, wife of your godfather.  It is an older pic, but relevant to theology since it shows Karl Rahner, one of the most important theologians of last century.  He was a feisty guy and the pic shows him ready to duke it out (nonviolently of course).  And aroudn that time YOU also loved to put your dukes up.  So she snapped this great photo.  Look out, maybe you will help influence Vatican III!

Settling into life

Well, kiddo, we have heard a few stories of babies' temperaments improving after baptism. And it seemed to hold true for you. There wasn't an earth-shattering change, but at two months you did turn a corner and settle into life a bit more. So what, other than baptism, did two months bring for you. Well, you got your vaccines - thankfully post-baptism so that you only had some mild fussiness. :) You also took your first road trip - we celebrated Easter in St. Louis, and you got loved up by grandma Peggy and many aunts and uncles and cousins, like you Aunt Vickie below. You were a big hit!! You really were a trooper of a traveller, too, and on the way home we only stopped once, which enabled us to get home in time to watch an exciting NCAA basketball final (the wrong team won, but we can get into that later). April for you has been pretty much hanging around South Bend watching spring unfold. The weather has been lovely (definitely not a given in SB) so you have been on a lot of walks with mama and papa and Hubert, which you enjoy. You're also "talking" more and more - your favorite conversation partner: artificial light. Yes, you've made good friends with the various lamps around the house. :) In general you are more aware of the world around you, too. You actually now notice the dog, a discovery that a few days ago made you laugh. You also are very interested in your hands (particularly in chewing on them) and you repeatedly will make fists and assume a boxer's stance as you work through the complicated task of maneuvering them to your mouth - sometimes they hit their mark, sometimes not. Yes, you are generally quite pleasant company these days. Now if we could just get the sleep thing down better...  and you know, you will not be able to change the world unless you take some long snoozes!!!

Here you are on the day you got your first vaccinations... you were a real champ!

Your Baptism

The day of your baptismal day dawned cloudy and rainy - "an appropriately watery day," as your dad put it. I won't go into the long details about how we decided the time and place for this special sacrament, but it ended up being on March 13th (we celebrated the vigil Mass of Laetare - be joyful - Sunday) at the Log Chapel on Notre Dame's campus. Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez was the presider and baptizer and helped us plan a beautiful liturgy.  You will surely learn more about Fr. Gustavo as you grow older.  He is a quite famous theologian from Peru and considered the father of "liberation theology," which is focused on reading the Bible from the perspective of the poor.  Anyway...back to your baptism... 

You, little Benedict, were not feeling the "laetare-ness" of being anointed (by his grandpa/deacon Gehred).

We sang the Litany of the Saints, calling on their prayers, as the people gathered (the saints-in-training) came up and blessed you, offering their own prayers for the newest member of the Church. Here you are getting a special blessing from Grandma Gehred.   This was a particularly beautiful part of the Baptismal liturgy, and you were peaceful as a dove for it.

Grandma Griffin blesses her youngest grandchild.

Benedict John is presented and welcomed into the Christian community. You seemed to like the attention :)  By the way, the baptismal gown and bib you are wearing go back a long way.  The gown was worn by your Grandma Gehred at her baptism back in 1884... nah, but it was quite some time ago.  And the bib was put on your mom after her Baptism in 1976.  Tradition.

About 45 people joined us for the baptism at the Log Chapel, which is a replica of the very first building on Notre Dame's campus. 

Godfather Patrick McGowan (far right) is taking on the challenge of helping us raise you in the faith. Godmother Kathy Schuth (far left) has the additional task of passing on her awesome drum-playing skills.

Fr. Gustavo giving you your first lecture on liberation theology.

From left: aunt Christine,cousin Sarah, grandma, and auntColleen drove up from St. Louis (along with friend and photographer Kathy Blanke) for the baptism. We were grateful they made the long journey to be with us, staying less than 24 hrs before driving back.

Here's the Holy Family... along with Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the background!   Like them, we have a beautiful baby, but we couldn't find a sheep like the one in Joseph's arms.  

At the door to the Log Chapel, leaving to head to grandma and grandpa Gehred's for the celebration, which included a Tres Leches cake (see below) from a local Mexican bakery.

This is the humungo cake we got the occasion.  The same kind of cake we had at our wedding, and have not had since!  Someday you will have the joy of eating this amazing cake, and seeing one with all the cool designs and ornaments (bibles, rosaries, icons) that the Mexican bakeries specialize in.  We should also mention here the DINNER that came before the cake.  Your Grandpa and Grandma Gehred welcomed us all into their Party House, and boy did they do it up... The made Pita Pockets with Grilled Chicken (the Grandma Gehred had to rescue from a burnt state) and every kind of fixin' you can imagine, including mom's famous humus.  Delicious.  You should get baptized more often!  No, no, once is it!

A Time of Firsts

So, as you are about 6 weeks now, you have experienced many firsts.... Here are just a couple of pictures that represent these milestones... They may not be exactly the first time, but you get the picture... new experiences like bundling up to head into our cold winter weather, and warming up with a nice swim and bath in the big whale given to you by the Fechter family back in St. Louis.

Another Generation of Griffin

Well, your grandma Griffin would have been happy with a boy or a girl, but we think she was especially excited with you since the Griffin name will continue another generation. Can't you see her satisfaction?

Your Irish Eyes Are Now Smiling!

Okay, so you are actually probably about 25% Irish (though your dad was always taught he was 100% Irish, he also was taught that everything, including water, was invented at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Anyyhew, you have now passed the baby stage of blank stares and distant glances. You can now LOOK at us and smile too. In fact you JUST smiled at me as I am sitting next to you and mom as I type this! Interesting… your best smiles seem somehow always to come after a meal. And today you have had about 27 meals already. But we are very happy about your smiling, and you now (at 6 weeks) are interacting more, responding to our voices... fun stuff!