The weekend was pretty good... aside from the fact that we had to go back to nearly the beginning of sleep training with Penny.

I got a box from Jill on Friday, and it turned out to contain lotion. Taken together with the "spa" box Karen sent, I told everyone I was beginning to wonder if I had some horrible skin condition that I couldn't see and everyone was too nice to actually tell me about...

But the lotion from Jill smelled amazing. Like cinnamon-buttercream icing. It's probably a good thing there was a warning on the jar, "DO NOT EAT," or Matt and I might have been tempted to try it.

Saturday we went over to my folks' for my birthday dinner with the family. That was really nice - Penny was in a great mood, and everyone got a huge kick out of watching her lug "my" birthday balloon all over the house.

And I got some really nifty presents, including money for new clothes, and a gift certificate for Barnes and Noble. The gift certificate I'll probably use online - I'm not sure I want to test Penny's patience by making her wait while I browse through a real bookstore - or that I want to end up spending most of the certificate on books for her. But sometime soon, I'll have to make some time to go clothes shopping.

And we had apple pie (my favorite!) and ice cream for dessert. Yum! Another moment of amusement - I told Mom that Penny was to get her own bowl of ice cream, and so she did. Penny protested every time Matt broke from feeding her to put dessert into his own mouth, which was funny enough... But then Penny's ice cream ran out.

She actually broke down into heartbroken sobs until my father caved and went to get her some more.

It was funny as heck. The whole evening was very nice, aside from Matt and I noticing that Penny had developed a reaction to one of her immunizations - the whole top of her left thigh had turned red and puffy, and the skin was hot to the touch. But she didn't seem to be in any discomfort, so we decided to just wait and see whether it got better or worse.

Sunday was a nice, lazy day around the house. At least, it was until we tried to put Penny down for her afternoon nap. Apparently, when Matt and I weren't looking, the crib was lined with glass and full of poisonous snakes, or something. She screamed bloody murder for the better part of an hour before finally collapsing from sheet exhaustion.

And then she woke up after only about 45 minutes. So she was still tired and borderline fussy for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

So we put her to bed a little bit early. And she screamed bloody murder again, though only for about 10 minutes that time.

And she woke up at 12:30, and instead of going right back to sleep as soon as I went in to give her a hug and reassure her we were still here (which is what she's been doing for a couple of weeks, now) she screamed and cried when I left the room. Matt went in fifteen minutes later to reassure her, and he didn't have much more luck than I did. But another five or ten minutes after that, she dropped off again.

And then she woke up again at 3:30. Again, I went in to comfort her (and change her diaper, which was at least a legitimate reason for her to wake up and call for us) and put her back to bed, and she was fine right up until I closed the door to her room. Scream scream scream.

Fifteen minutes later, Matt went in, and - thank you, merciful gods - managed to get her calmed down enough that she went back to sleep.

And she was so exhausted from all that, that she was still asleep this morning when our alarms went off. At quarter-past six, Matt had to go in and wake her up, and she resisted, trying to curl up into a ball on his shoulder and continue sleeping. At least she was cheery when she finally woke up.

(And the immunization reaction on her leg, while still clearly visible, had faded from bright red to a kind of pale bruise purple, and was no longer hot to the touch, so I think it's mostly passed. Thank goodness.)

So, yeah, I think we're back to the sleep-training basics. Whee.

But on the bright side of things - Penny went the whole weekend without a single bottle!

I don't think I can call it "weaned" yet, because I suspect daycare is going to give her bottles, still, as a means of getting her to calm down enough to take her nap. But it's definitely progress!

(Maybe this weekend, I'll pack up all but 3-4 of her bottles, and reclaim some of the cabinet space they were taking up...)

--Liz