Ollie Ollie oxen free!

Well, after enduring extreme heat and humidity, Karrie was induced this morning at 7am. Today marked her 39th week and the Dr. and Karrie both agreed that it was time to get this baby out, even if the due date was still a week away. So Karrie's mom was nice enough to come down to watch Milo for us and we headed to the hospital. Sure when you are induced it lacks the experience of being able to drive 100mph to the hospital, but it also means you don't have to carry a very uncomfortable 30+ pound basketball around for another week. To make a rather long and somewhat messy story short, Karrie delivered a healthy 8 lbs 13 oz baby boy at 1:02pm today. Now I know what your thinking, how did little, tiny Karrie manage to squeeze out an almost 9 lb baby? All I can say was that there was a lot of mineral oil used and Karrie is one tough cookie. Not only did she push the little tyke out in less than 30 minutes, but she did so with a baby face up in the birthing canal.

Once the baby was out then came the really hard part... naming him. Karrie and I didn't have as hard a time naming Milo. With Milo we knew the middle name way ahead of time, and we had the first name narrowed down to two choices. So the decision was either one or the other. But with our second edition not only were we at a loss for a first name, but we also had no clue for a middle name. Karrie and I had probably three-four first names but we weren't convinced by any of them. As for middle names we felt the name should hold some personal significance for us and this year, but nothing really came to mind. So after much pacing, and hair pulling we felt the name Ollie Stoke Smith was appropriate.

Ollie was a name that Karrie and I had long considered. We both initially loved the name, but with months to procrastinate and few cheerleaders for the name itself we put the name on our list for later consideration. But having held our son, no other names seemed to match him so well. As Milo is to Milo, so will Ollie be to Ollie.

The middle name was all Karrie. She wanted a name that would invoke our feelings for Galveston, for Ike, for life. She suggested a name that could describe the same love, drive, and need I discovered for surfing this past year as well as our expectations and love that we have for life with each other and Milo and now Ollie. She suggested Stoke. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the term, here's the Webster definition of stoke:

stoke
Pronunciation: \ˈstōk\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): stoked; stok·ing
Etymology: Dutch stoken; akin to Middle Dutch stuken to push
Date: 1683
transitive verb
1 : to poke or stir up (as a fire) : supply with fuel
2 : to feed abundantly
3 : to increase the activity, intensity, or amount of
intransitive verb
: to stir up or tend a fire (as in a furnace) : supply a furnace with fuel

In surfing, stoke refers to "that feeling you get from nailing your first wrap or barrel, or sticking that bigspin you have been working on for months. The feeling you get whilst gliding effortlessly down the wave, when your mind forgets all your everyday worries, and its just you and the wave, and you are living just for that moment." It is not merely the joy and adrenaline one experiences from surfing, but also the peace one feels as life slows down for one perfect peel. What better describes the joy and focus that Ollie has brought into our lives.
Karrie was thinking of the term as it applies to surfing, but this year and this birth has certainly "poked and stirred and supplied our lives with fuel." Our hope is that one day Ollie will discover this same stoke for his life that we have this past year.

So without further ado, We would like to present to you, our and your Ollie Stoke Smith.