A couple of weeks ago, when we were visiting K.T. and Kevin, K.T. showed me her pen that lights up, that she stole from Kevin.

I thought it was really nifty, and wanted one.

Last week, I noticed that Heather has a light-up pen at work. She got hers from a trade show.

I joked about stealing it from her.

So Amy, who was there when I was coveting Heather's pen, yesterday brought me a light-up pen of my own. It lights up in several different colors, which is pretty cool. So now I'm happy that I have my own light-up pen.

Matt said, "Amy's just trying to butter you up so you'll let her come babysit Penny again."

I said, "It could work."

I think Penny's finally got the hang of putting food in her own mouth. Last night, between spoonfuls of baby food, she ate about ten mandarin orange segments, and only dropped two on the floor - one of those deliberately, as a signal that she was Done.

And she put four or so Cheerios in her own mouth before she started dropping those on the floor.

So I think she's finally Got It.

While Matt and I were eating (we try to eat at the same time, whenever we can, these days) and Penny was wandering all over the kitchen and living room, I fed her a little piece of fresh tomato off my plate. She came back for more, and didn't stray far from my side until I ran out of tomato to share.

(Yep, she's my daughter, too.)

Though I discovered last night that she doesn't like potatoes in things much more than she likes peas. And I've tried her a few times on "meat sticks" - baby-food versions of vienna sausages - and she didn't like those, either. So she may well eat nothing but "Beef and Macaroni" (baby-food spaghettios) and "Chicken Lasagna" (baby-food chef-boyardee) until she's ready to graduate entirely to table food.

I'm going to be out of the office for probably most of this morning. Penny's 1-year checkup is this morning (with immunization shots, boo-hoo) and I'd like to be there so I can ask the doctor my neurotic feeding questions.

And since Penny's pediatrician is notoriously behind-schedule, I imagine that fairly shortly after that's over, it'll be time for me to head over to my chiropractor's office.

So I'll be out from, oh, 9:30 until after noon. Good thing it's not looking like an especially busy day...

--Liz