The deck proceeds apace. I didn't have a picture yesterday of the weekend's progress, but I took a few pictures last night. It's going to be great.

That's Kyle - our "friendly neighborhood handyman," as he calls himself - over on the left, working on the stairs coming down to the yard.

This is the view from the far side of the upper deck, standing right in front of the kitchen window.

And the view from the far corner of the lower deck, looking back toward the house.

I'm very excited. I can't wait for our inaugural cookout. (Looking like probably Memorial Day weekend, now...)

I'm thinking of planting some climbing-vine sort of things around the posts that hold it up, to keep the bottom from looking quite so stark. Roses, or ivy, or morning glories... Something like that. (Roses would be my first preference, but I'm still looking into how difficult they are to care for. Ivy and morning glories are both practically plant-and-forget, which certainly suits my style - or lack thereof - of gardening.)

Not much else to report on the home front. Penny ate a whole four-ounce jar of sweet potatoes-and-chicken last night, roundly rejected the green beans I offered (apparently brand loyalty can strike even at her tender age, as she usually rather likes green beans), and slurped down the remaining yogurt.

And daycare reported that she ate the whole jar of her squash for lunch.

I'm beginning to hope that she's finally decided that solid food is acceptable. If this keeps up, I'll have to make an emergency mid-week run to the grocery store for more "dinners" and yogurt for her. I'm not complaining.

Maybe one of these days, it will occur to her to pick up one of the Cheerios we keep putting on her tray and put it in her mouth.

And we got a box of baby clothes from Karen yesterday, all of which were adorable beyond words. (Well, except the onesies, which were just... you know. Onesies. Very useful, but not quite as cute as, say, the little dress embroidered with strawberries.)

I was happy to see some pants and shorts in the pile, but I don't know if they're going to fit Penny for very long - or, indeed, at all. The problem with denim is that it doesn't stretch. At all. And it's kind of stiff, for all the things a newly-mobile baby wants to do. So while I found the little jeans (also embroidered with strawberries - Karen likes themes) extremely precious, we're probably going to have to try to exchange them. Alas.

On the other hand, she sent hats with chin-straps, which we really need, as Penny pulls everything off her head as soon as it's put there. And the most stylin' sunglasses for babies ever.

(Picture shamelessly stolen from Matt's blog.)

--Liz