We got a box yesterday from Matt's grandparents.

It was addressed to both Matt and I, so I knew it wasn't a birthday present. But I had no idea what it was. I'd forgotten the conversation we'd had with them at Rachael's wedding.

Grandpa Brooks made Penny a stool. It's perfectly sized for her, and sturdy enough to take just about any damage a kid can dish out.

It's got her name on it - carved, actually. The letters come out like puzzle pieces. And embedded in the loop of the P is the 2003 penny that we'd taped to Penny's birth announcement.

I almost cried, then changed my mind and grabbed my camera.

Penny likes sitting on the stool - and what surprised me is that she figured out almost immediately what Matt and I meant when we said, "Penny, do you want to sit on your stool?" She walked right over to it, turned around, backed up a little more, and sat. It was funny. I've got a movie I'm going to upload to the photo album later today or tomorrow showing it. (I thought I'd asked the question while I was recording, but I guess I forgot about the couple of seconds of delay between pushing the button and actual recording start. Ah, well.)

And speaking of developments... Penny spent some more time playing with her blocks yesterday - mostly taking them out of their box and putting them into Matt's laptop bag (a favorite activity).

But then, smack in the middle of that activity, she picked up a block, smacked it down on top of another block, and went back to filling Matt's bag. A minute later, she did it again.

Maybe she does this at daycare all the time, but it's the first time Matt or I have seen her stacking blocks. Well, it's the first time we've seen her do it successfully.

A little while later, she managed a four-block stack, but while I was getting my camera out again, she knocked it over attempting to put up a fifth.

And I think she might have got the hang of saying "Mama" and "Dada." It's hard to tell if she really means us, but I'm hoping.

(She certainly likes copying noises. This morning, she copied Matt hissing like an angry kitten, and then she imitated Matt imitating her, which almost put me on the floor laughing.)

All of which may bore to tears those of who who don't care about babies, but it's better than whining about all the things that went wrong on me yesterday, isn't it?

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

--Liz