Life is good-

I saw an awesome book at Barnes and Noble today called The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha and it was very inspiring. Here's what would be in my "book of awesome" today:

I can see again! I had no idea how much my prescription had changed, and I'm not-so-secretly glad my glasses broke. Everything is much more clear now.

Not that I needed to, but I added even more books to be "to read" list, including The Book of Awesome, another dystopian novel, The Carrie Diaries (yes, I'm a Sex and the City fan),a book called Little Blog on the Prairie, and a few others.

Brayden had a blast in the nursery after being not so quiet in Relief Society. I got compliments from the ladies in there along with an old YW leader later in the day about how cute he is, how well he walks, and how chubby he is. Yes, I take that as a compliment since I am his main form of nourishment. :)

We were given two gifts from different family members today- both unexpected. We love our family so much and are so grateful for their support. I also had a yummy dinner with my parents.

Oh, that dinner was so good! See, trying to be good and all, I have avoided fried chicken like the plague the last few years. It's seriously been at least 2-3 years since I had any. Well, I ended that streak tonight and have no regrets. It was delicious.

Reading this post on the awesome blog and watching the accompanying video. I love the song Livin' on a Prayer. It totally fits Adam and I right now. Our jobs may be crappy (mine almost non-existent), but we're together, happy and making it work somehow.

This quote: Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are… Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect Tomorrow. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in my pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
- Mary Jean Iron

These pictures of my cute boy:

My sad little punk boy attempting a smile


Can you see the heart shape on his cheek? He woke up from a nap like that and I thought it was so cute! It may not be as noticeable in the picture though.


And this is my drunk boy (jk)! Isn't it funny when you end up with silly pictures of babies?


I love the joy on his face... and I love his blue fingernails! My friend Karen gave him his first manicure last week. Daddy and Grandpa didn't like it, but I think it's cute.

Gilgal Garden

We went to the Gilgal Garden today. Have you been there? This place is so unique. It is Utah's only identified "visionary art environment." We've been here before, but we were in the area and decided to see it again. I love all the quotes engraved into the stones. The Joseph Smith Sphinx is very interesting, to say the least.








I really liked this last one. It's a sculpture inspired by the scripture in Malachi about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. The white heart represents the dead while the red heart represents the living.

Summer 2010 plans

Meeting our newest family member in June (Nicole and Andrew's baby)
Celebrating Brayden's first birthday in July
Gilgal Garden
Swimming (our condo pool finally opens tomorrow)
International Peace Gardens
Wheeler Farm (including the County Library's Summer Reading Kickoff Party there)
Get a membership to Hogle Zoo
Going down slides and swinging at the park
Try to go camping up at the ranch
Take Brayden on the baby rides at Liberty Park and/or Lagoon
Silver Lake (attempt hiking with Brayden)
See the penguins at the Living Planet Aquarium
Concert in the Park at the Brigham Young Park downtown
Millcreek Movie Nights

I'm so excited for summer!

Babies

If you're like most people I've asked about this movie, you've never even heard of it. I'm "unique" apparently, because I have been excited for it since I heard about it months ago. Embedding is disabled, but you can find the trailer here. It's a documentary featuring the first year of life for four babies from around the world (San Francisco, Tokyo, Namibia, and Mongolia). It's a beautiful film. There's no narration or subtitles, which was good and bad. I got to just enjoy watching the babies, but at times I did wonder what the parents were saying in the background or why certain things were being done. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone interested in anthropology (the study of humanity) or even just cultural studies. Actually, anyone who likes babies should see this, because these babies are adorable!


I know I haven't blogged about my birthday and my first Mother's Day. I was definitely spoiled last week. I had a little photo shoot on my birthday with a friend at Sugarhouse Park for a breastfeeding photography project. We went to Cowboy Grub with my family for dinner. I got many presents, including a framed canvas to finally hang up on our walls (yes, our walls have been mostly bare this whole year we've been here), photo coasters and a frame, the Hunger Games trilogy, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Best Ever Games For Kids, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, a Cinemark gift card that I am excitedly planning exactly what movies I want to use it for this summer, and some money I am going to start a zoo membership with.

I also got this book featuring beautiful newborn photography. It has quotes alongside the pictures, and these are my favorites.


"The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps- does anybody know where it was borne?" - Rabindranath Tagore

"We all smile in the same language." -Anonymous

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone (so true)

"Loving a baby is a circular business... the more you give the more you get and the more you get the more you feel like giving." -Penelope Leach

One last thing in this post that is probably getting too long. Adam ordered me this necklace from the vintage pearl. I love it! Brayden already broke the chain, but we e-mailed them and they are sending out a new chain. I was so thrilled with their customer service, especially since I have had some less than stellar service with another website lately.

Defending motherhood

I've read two different stories in the news this week that have really made me defensive of motherhood.

Jillian Michaels

I know I've praised her before. I love the show The Biggest Loser and her workout dvds are definitely worth buying. Then she started peddling diet pills and I thought a little less of her. Now she is on the cover of this month's Women's Health magazine. She said this:

“I’m going to adopt. I can’t handle doing that to my body."

Are you serious? Don't get me wrong, I am all for adoption. I just think that as a public figure and fitness expert, she's seen as a role model and her attitude doesn't seem like the portrayal of someone with a healthy body image. I realize she was overweight and has worked hard to lose weight and keep it off. I lost over 50 lbs right before getting pregnant, and it has been a huge struggle for me physically, emotionally and mentally to deal with this yo-yo losing, gaining and trying to lose it again. However, it has been worth every stretch mark, every ugly thought about my body, every extra pound. I used to think she was a strong person, but now I think every woman who has given birth or is willing to do so is stronger than her.

Baby as tyrant

Elisabeth Badinter, a French philsopher and feminist, has written a book taking the whole "motherhood is oppression" idea one step further. She claims that women now are allowing their infants to take over their lives by breastfeeding, cloth diapering, making homemade baby food, etc. There are so many ridiculous comment I can't just pick one:

“It may seem derisory but powdered milk, jars of baby food and disposable nappies were all stages in the liberation of women.”

About breastfeeding- “This worries me, because we are creating another model of motherhood where the mother is with her baby 24 hours a day for at least six months. This is a model that eats the personal part of each woman as an individual.”

“These new feminists (the contemporary American feminist movement) say that we have hidden and undervalued the essence of women, which is motherhood" but this is wrong because “it shuts the sexes in different circles,” leaving the women isolated in parenthood.

Are you serious? I have reached a whole new understanding and appreciation for womanhood after becoming a mother. I'm not oppressed because I choose to breastfeed. I am enlightened. So thanks for worrying about me, Elisabeth, but I'm just fine. I'm better than fine. Sure, there are moments I wish it were easier to go out with my husband and moments I wish for the carefree life I had pre-Brayden, but overall...

I'm the happiest I have ever been.

10 months old

and I can't get enough! Brayden has been SO fun lately! He played a game with us the other night. I was sitting on one chair and Adam was on one five feet away with the couch in between. We spent a good ten minutes telling Brayden to "go get Mommy" and he would cruise over to me, and then I would tell him to "get Daddy" and he would cruise back and forth. Adam and I were laughing and he had the biggest smile on my face. Last Tuesday night, while I sat on the floor with my legs out in front of me watching Glee, he climbed back and forth over my legs laughing. He thinks the "bonk" game where you bonk foreheads is pretty fun too (don't worry, I'm really soft). He loves pushing his walker around although he cannot steer it (he has figured out how to pull it backwards though, and move it physically to go a new way). We've introduced puzzles, and he loves taking the pieces off and leaving them all over the place. He lights up when I open a book and loves the pictures. He's waving more than he ever did before, and will wave for both "hi" and "bye." He loves playing "peekaboo." Unless he's asleep or nursing (well, even that is getting more acrobatic), he is on the move, as evidenced by these out-of-focus pictures.

The Princess and the Frog

Just a warning: this post is going to prove how much I over think things. At least in this instance, I'll blame it on the gender studies class I took on discrimination.

I did not want to see The Princess and the Frog. Why? I thought that the movie must be racist because the first black princess Disney features turns into a frog. Dumb, huh? I also didn't like what I heard about their stereotypical use of voodoo magic or about how she's a poor waitress.

I think you'll all realize where I am going with this. One, I need to calm down a bit. Disney is not out to make a political statement here. Two, Disney proved me wrong. They made Tiana out to be, in my opinion, one of the strongest princesses.

Spoilers possible from this point on, so beware if you haven't seen the movie yet:

At the beginning of the movie, I still thought I was right. Tiana was, of course low income, and her friend was rich. Then she's a waitress and still poor and her friend's still rich. I cannot tell you how much it pleases me that Tiana ends up achieving her dream of owning a restaurant plus gets to fall in love and her spoiled rotten (albeit still kinda sweet) friend doesn't. I also love that Tiana saves Naveen... usually the Disney price saves the princess. I just love that she works for what she wants and I think that makes her one of the strongest princesses yet. I also enjoyed the banter because normally Disney lacks in that aspect.