What a difference one month can make

We made it to seven months! I feel like Georgie has suddenly started showing so much more personality in the last few weeks - we are starting to see a difference in her moods and in what she likes or doesn't. Plus, she's hammering out a bunch of developmental milestones all at once: teething, almost crawling, sitting up, and scowling. (That's a milestone, right?) We have yet to achieve sleeping through the night and I am about at the end of my exhausted rope (again), but we have a plan for putting her on a more rigorous schedule so maybe that will help? Please?

Georgie has a new sound or look every few days. She figured out how to gasp (the way we do when we get all excited about something) and does it really exaggeratedly. She spent an entire day scowling at everyone (lips pursed, eyebrows scrunched, eyes squinted) and now only does it when she's upset about something. She also learned how to suck in both of her lips over her gums, making a sour lemon face. She is keeping us on our toes and making us laugh all the time. We have been trying to get her to eat baby food but she has not been very enthusiastic about it. She loves chewing on a celery stick though, so maybe if she can feed herself she'll be more excited about solid food.

Her very favorite thing right now is standing/walking. She will fight with you until she has your fingers to pull herself up and walk around. That's the one sure way of getting her attention - just hold out your fingers. She can't pull herself up without help - yet - and she has a long time before she'll be able to balance on her own. But when she does, holy cow, she will never ever stop moving. As it is, she has not figured out crawling yet but she has combined scooting with swimming strokes and rolling over to get anywhere she wants to. She it the most determined when a phone or remote is out of reach. It's kind of hilarious to watch:

Georgie has pretty much mastered sitting up, though she still loses her balance sometimes. Her poor little head gets a lot of bonks some days. She has one tooth on the bottom and it looks like another coming in next to it and possibly another on the top, but nothing's broken through yet so it's hard to tell. Teething has not been fun so far. She wakes up a lot at night anyway, but it's been especially bad as of late. We still swaddle her because she falls asleep more easily that way, but she always gets one or both arms out so we have a plan to start weaning her off of the swaddle. We kind of want her to sleep more first, though, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. 

Georgie makes "ma" sounds a lot, usually when she's mad or crying, so it almost sounds like she's saying "mama" which I love. She always loves to play with her daddy and adores my mom and dad and siblings. She knows that her Nana will always pick her up so even if she's content to play on the floor, as soon as she sees my mom, she reaches out and starts fussing to be held. Spoiled, oh so spoiled. :) She is still darling, sometimes frustrating, and always growing, and so far, seven months is a great age!

Some lessons learned

One of the best parts of watching General Conference twice a year is that it acts as a kind of checkpoint for me. Whether I have specific questions or not, I get a sense of where I am in my life and a reminder about where my focus should be. I have really enjoyed all the talks this weekend and a few have stood out to me, but not in a "wow that was just for me" way. Mostly I have been nudged toward small insights on how to be a better mother, a better wife, a better disciple of Christ. The gift of General Conference is clarity, and anyone who has ever tried to weary cloudy contacts or glasses can attest just how valuable clarity is. 

I want to live a more deliberate, conscientious, purposeful life. Our lives have been very haphazard over the last few weeks and months. Well, really for the last six months. Time sped up once we had a baby, but my/our ability to keep up seemed to slow down. I blame a lack of sleep and Georgie's lack of schedule in particular. But it's been very wearing to feel like we are only just treading water and each time we get a little respite, another wave comes to threaten our stability. We need to find our rock again and anchor ourselves more strongly to it.

Sometimes the great task of life is to find a balance between all the demands and responsibilities of our time and energy. But I think maybe the first part of balance is finding and organizing priorities. Right now, half of my time is Georgie and the other half is work. Sounds balanced, but the things that should be/are my higher priorities aren't getting adequate time and attention. Like, say, my husband. My relationships. Myself. I truly don't know how other working moms do it, but I recognize that what I'm doing now isn't quite working for me and my family, and I need to make some changes.

A few weeks ago, I got my haircut for the first time since Georgie was born. It was so refreshing to feel pretty again, and as I drove home, I noticed that my thoughts had turned to people I hadn't talked to in a while - friends, cousins, my England girls. I thought about making some phone calls or sending emails, making time to catch up and really talk and listen to these people I care about but don't often get to see. I realized that because I felt happy and taken care of, my natural inclination was to want to reach out to others. Don't worry, I recognized the principle at work: If I take some time for myself, I will have more to give to others. Happiness is something to be shared, something that wants to be shared. And when I get what I need from the day - sleep, productive work time, a content baby - I not only am able to meet others' needs, but I want to. I'm happy to do it, versus feeling overwhelmed, overburdened, and stretched too thin.

All these thoughts feel like they are circling around the same idea - as good as my life is, I can make it better, happier, more fulfilling by planting myself more firmly in the things that are (or should be) my priority. Again, as I type this, I can hear echoes of Conference talks and Sunday school lessons. Maybe that's the real gift of Conference - sparking our thoughts and feelings to reach the conclusions that we needed to discover.