A Wedding, 4 Years, and 9 Months

June has been a busy busy month for us and this week was the capstone of it all, starting with the sweetest event I could have dreamed up - my cousin Anna's wedding.

Anna and I are only 6 months apart in age and we've been "best cousins" since we were babies. We used to pretend to glue our hands together so we wouldn't have to say good-bye at the end of family gatherings. (Clearly, if we're glued together, we'd have to have a sleepover, right?) We finally made that dream a reality when we roomed together during my last year at BYU. Anna is pretty much the kindest, sweetest, nicest, smartest, most driven person on the planet and I think she found her perfect match in Dan. I'm so so so happy for them!

My very favorite of their photos, taken by my uber-talented aunt Robin Johnson, who also did our engagements/bridals/temple photos and who is pretty much amazing if you need a photographer. Just sayin'.

The next day was our 4 year anniversary (Can I say how much I love that Anna's anniversary and mind are almost the same?) and it was a low-key celebration for us. Factoring in a baby changes just how much celebrating can go on, but we did alright. We got some yummy treats and we watched our wedding video to reminisce and then watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and lest you think that's way lame, I'll repeat: We watched an entire movie - we actually got to just watch it! - without trying to keep Georgie entertained or jumping up to save her from herself, making dinner, working, or otherwise multitasking. It was relaxing and something special because of how infrequently it happens. And then the following Saturday we went out shopping and got dinner while we had some free grandparent babysitting. It was definitely our least exciting anniversary yet, but it was just right for where we are in our lives right now.

And then the next day was Georgie's nine month checkup. Official stats:

Weight: 16.2 lbs (18th percentile)
Length: 27.3 inches (33rd percentile)
Head circumference: 17.4 inches (62nd percentile)

She's finally starting to chunk up a little! Probably all that solid food she's been (not) eating. Baby G still does not care for baby food on any kind of regular basis so we've been trying to find other stuffs for her to eat - bananas, cheese, watermelon, peaches, crackers, bread, etc. She loves to chew on vegetables and will actually eat most of a cucumber spear if I leave her to it, especially if I dip it in humus now and again. Mostly she is still nursing, which I don't mind - it's actually the most stress-free form of feeding right now, which is something I never thought I'd say!

Georgie is FINALLY sleeping better, but the sleep training is starting to wear off and she's tending towards waking up 2-3 times a night again. (She's also got a top tooth coming in, I'm pretty sure.) We aren't quite recovered from the last sleep training so as soon as we are, we'll be back at it. Naps are going great, except that she has abruptly dropped her morning nap. I can't tell if she really doesn't need it because she's getting more sleep at night or if it's because we had a crazy week and she missed her morning nap several days in a row. Please bless it's the latter!

This was Georgie's first time on a swing. As you can see, she was rather unimpressed.

Georgie is crazy busy and active all the time. The milestones are coming faster and faster now, I swear. She's waving, giving kisses, asking to be picked up, knows where the food is and asks to be fed (if I sit down with her on my lap, she swan dives to the side to be nursed), and says Mama and Dada and sometimes seems to know what she's saying. She has mastered the three-fourths crawl: two hands, one knee, and pushing off with the right foot. She is a speedy little crab walker! She is also a total pro at pulling herself up and sitting herself back down. She can even pull up on a flat surface like a wall - there's no stopping her! She still walks runs with help (like her little push toy my mom found at a yard sale - see photo below) and sometimes does laps around the living room by holding onto the furniture. And (saved the best for last) she took her first steps this month, too! She let us balance her and then took a couple of steps (and practiced just standing on her own, too) for about a week and then she figured out that crawling is faster and now refuses to walk. Which I'm fine with - gives me more time to get those safety gates installed.

Every month Georgie becomes more of a little person, making us laugh more and frustrating us less. I am enjoying myself enough to savor the small loves she gives, not worry about the slobber when she gives me kisses, and treasure her arms reaching for mine. I know we'll only be on this upswing for about nine more months and then we'll have a screaming, stubborn toddler to deal with, so I am really loving it now!

Book Review: The Book of Mormon Girl

After a long hiatus of not having time/energy/interest/capacity for reading, I have read a surprising (to me) number of books in the last little while. There's one in particular I wanted to discuss:

The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith by Joanna Brooks

Joanna Brooks got a lot of attention during Mitt Romney's campaign (she was on Jon Stewart - the height of fame!) and became an unofficial spokesperson of sorts for the LDS church. I was introduced to her a few years ago when I heard her read an entertaining and intriguing excerpt from her book, plus I currently get notifications when she posts on her Ask Mormon Girl blog. She's a feminist, a liberal, and not afraid to speak up for herself and the things she believes in. This book is a memoir of her journey to get to this place in her life, and it was a fascinating, funny, thought-provoking, amen-sister kind of book. (For the most part, but I'll get to that in a sec.)

The memoir takes you through Joanna's growing up years in Southern California and she paints a vivid, accurate portrait of what it was like. She creates a really solid foundation for the struggles that came later and that foundation sets up the rest of Joanna's story in a way that makes sense of her decisions and choices and creates some beautiful themes throughout. Though Joanna is currently a member of the Church, she considered herself to be "in exile" for about ten years after a series of excommunications of semi high-profile feminists within the Church that occurred during the nineties, and her journey back is compelling, though a tiny bit rushed (I thought).

While I found a lot to relate to, Joanna's experiences and feelings diverge from my own in some pretty distinctive ways. Which isn't to say I couldn't appreciate what she wrote and how she wrote it and especially her courage in telling her story, but it sometimes frustrates me that many of the well-known LDS nonfiction authors are so...unorthodox. Frustrates me because it's one version of the Mormon story that I know from my experiences in grad school can give a skewed perception of the Church overall. (It also gives me hope because I'd like to be that LDS nonfiction author who tells the slightly less harrowing story of being a more orthodox member of the Church from Utah who still has something worth saying.) I am glad that the unorthodox stories are out there because they really do need to be told, especially for members of the Church - we are very different people with unique trials, doubts, journeys, and perspectives, and once we dig into these stories, that's when we begin to break that Mormon cookie-cutter mold. So that's good. Just speaking as someone who fits that cookie-cutter mold in all the obvious ways, I feel like mine is still a story worth sharing.

So all that aside, this is a great read. The first bit is a wonderful slice of Mormon life in the 70s with all the quirks and fears and grand destinies that come with growing up in the Church, and the overall themes and messages are beautiful. Definite recommend with 3 1/2 to 4 stars. 

Trying to catch up with social media

I feel like an old person sometimes, trying to keep up with all the ways to connect and share and friend online. So I'm trying this...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin