a good season

so it's been three months since we moved to michigan. we're past the newborn period! now the fun begins. i'm anxious for fall to start so i can get into an activity routine. i'm planning to join a bible study fellowship (bsf) group that meets on tuesday mornings and a mothers of pre-schoolers (MOPS) group that meets on friday mornings. my dad and step-mom have been encouraging me to consider joining a tennis league as well and after initially hesitating, i think i'm going to do that too. hopefully that will be on wednesday mornings. our church small group will resume on sunday evenings. and we'll have a pretty full schedule!

we've slowly emerged from two months of teething mayhem over the last week or so. bina is eating table foods much better. she's been walking for a few weeks now and getting more and more sturdy on her feet every day. she recently started pointing. mama's nose is especially fun to locate with that adorable little pointer finger of hers. we have lots of fun going on walking adventures to places like the grocery store and the mall. last week we went to trader joe's because we heard that they have mini shopping carts. they did not disappoint! bina terrorized the store for a half hour and had the time of her life. she picked up a 12 pack of toilet paper and loaded it up in her little cart and proudly pushed it around. at the mall near our house she found a tank top in express that she just loved. had to wrench her away from it kicking and screaming. sorry, bina. it's just not appropriate for you. let's go check out the baby clothes at h&m...

this is a good season. i've been looking forward to bina beginning to walk so that we could go on adventures together, just me and her. and we have! god willing, someday we will have more than one little and my attention will be divided out of necessity. so i'm thoroughly enjoying this time with just bina, exploring the world around her and capturing its heart with those big blue eyes of hers that everyone always comments on. she is so full of life. so excited about all the things. and boy does that little one have goldfish radar. when we were in h&m she wandered from the baby section around to a wall display and then dropped to the ground, reached underneath the display, pulled out a goldfish, and tried to stick it in her mouth. i intercepted it, to her dismay. and then we went home and had some lunch. a fair trade-off, i think.

this past weekend we ventured back to northern michigan. i wanted to test out being up at my dad's cottage without a crowd of people and see if bina would manage better with sleeping. and she did! she got up a little earlier in the morning than usual and took a bit shorter naps, but overall she did great. and we slept. and we had a lot of fun. david came up with the idea to go rather last minute. i'm so glad he did and that we went. my confidence in our ability to go up and enjoy ourselves without dealing with nighttime sleeplessness is restored. the dogs came with us again and i think walloon lake is destined to be their most favorite place in the world, as it is mine. before we left to drive home on sunday, we all took a trip out on the pontoon. we docked at a sandbar and david and the dogs got out for a swim. the weather was beautiful and the dogs had the time of their lives swimming and chasing a tennis ball. bina enjoyed watching them from the boat. she's getting used to her little life jacket. i hear year two is much better for acceptance of the life jacket fate! good thing, because we sure do love being out on the water.

and now it's monday again. bina slept until 7:45am this morning. we reached home around 10pm last night. i was hoping she would sleep in a bit as she didn't go down as early as i had thought she would in the car. no night waking and sleeping in worked out great! today we did our meijer grocery run. i'm not a huge fan of meijer. i don't like the chaos of a big store like that. but the prices! i can't justify going to kroger even, or the busch's that is just around the corner from our neighborhood. busch's is a good little grocery play ground for bina on week nights when we want to get out of the house and walk around somewhere cool. so i suck it up and go to meijer for our weekly grocery runs, and enjoy the smaller stores for wandering with bina. it works out pretty well. and i am always blessed by the number of people ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over how adorable bina is. it especially helps me on days when she's a super fuss. oh yes, you're right. she is super cute, isn't she? i had forgotten. but now i remember.

so here's to enjoying the present and looking forward to what the future holds. fall in michigan is my favorite time of year. the changing leaves, the crisp air, trips to the cider mill and apple picking, layers of clothing, jackets, scarves, boots... oh i can't wait!! and i can't wait to share it all with my little bina bina.