Penny's started waking up twice at night again. I don't know if this is a growth-spurt thing, or if she's got her days and nights switched again, or what. But she was up at midnight and 3:30 last night. Dammit, we really were okay with her sleeping four or five hours at a clip!

This is our karmic balance for daring to hope that she might start sleeping through the night occasionally.

At least this weekend we managed to get down to visit K.T. and Kevin and Jessica. I'd promised K.T. that I'd cook her some meals to help her through those first couple of weeks, but then everyone in my house got sick, and entirely besides feeling far too miserable to cook for ourselves, much less anyone else, I didn't think K.T. would appreciate our germs.

So this weekend was the first that I've seen them since our visit to them in the hospital right after Jessica was born.

I can't get over how different K.T. looks. I guess the weight she lost wasn't quite so visible while she was pregnant (yay, water retention) but it's astonishing now. I'd be jealous, except that I was witness to the grumbling and bitching about the diet she was on for the last nine months.

Jessica, of course, was adorable, though she slept for most of our visit. (Or maybe it's because she slept...? Babies are funny like that.)

And tiny. Penny looks small to us as we're hanging around the house, but next to Jessie, she looked like a monster.

Penny spent an unfortunate amount of the weekend being unhappy and fussy. Especially Saturday. It might have been overstimulation, I suppose; Saturday was pretty busy.

But for every moment that she was unaccountably fussy, there was a moment when she was happy. For every cranky wail, there was a smile or a coo. I'm still amazed at how in love I am with her.

My birthday is Sunday. It kind of snuck up on me this year. I have to confess that I'm not all that interested in it. It's not like I'm trying to deny it or pretend I'm not getting older. I just keep forgetting about it.

My mom called and asked what I wanted to do.

"Do?" I said.

"For your birthday," she said. "Do you want to eat here, or go out, or what?"

"Oh, yeah. Um... I'll get back to you."

I still haven't decided.

Karen teased me on IM last night with the information that she was packing my birthday present. Until that moment, it hadn't really occurred to me that anyone except Matt and my parents might get me a present. And I only mention them because they'd already told me they'd gotten me something.

And the surprisingly rapid approach of my birthday means that Karen's and Matt's birthdays are coming up soon. And then Christmas... I really need to get busy, don't I?

--Liz