da-da-da-da-da-da-DA!

zuzu started babbling yesterday. da-da-da-da-da! is her favorite. my goal this summer: to change those da-das to ma-mas, ha!

we have had a great first weekend of summer. friday we finished bryan's man-cave--he works so hard and has done such a wonderful job watching our baby on my teaching days this semester, i really felt it was important to give him his own space, where he can practice music, work on heroclix mods (his hobby), read comic books, you know, boy things, without being disturbed. i still need to get a bit of furniture for it--i'm hoping to find a roughed up hobby-table and maybe a cushy chair--but for the most part its all manned up. its right off our sunroom, so its a quiet little corner of the house.

saturday we had some of our new friends over. they have a daughter zu's age, and it was really sweet watching them play together. i'm hoping we can get to know this couple better, and maybe even introduce them to other young families at our church sometime soon.

I feel like God has already begun to bless us with friendships since we've moved here. bryan makes friends so quickly, but for me it takes a long time. luckily, our church has other young couples our age with babies about zu's age, so small group is a built-in play-date and get-together with other moms.

sometimes i get nervous about meeting other moms..i worry that they'll think i'm weird or wrong in how i do things or they'll judge me as a bad mom--all paranoid thoughts, i guess!--but the moms i've met at our church have all been so kind and welcoming.

i know that Renee of a few years ago would have absolutely dreaded our monday night band practices (where the guys go off to practice while the ladies chat and watch babies--very old-timey sounding). i probably would've begged bryan "do i HAVE to go? maybe i am sick??" but now its often one of the highlights of my week. i don't know if its that i'm just more comfortable in my own skin then i used to be or that the families in that church are so inclusive or maybe a combination of those things.

either way, i'm enjoying the life God is building for us here.