Penny's been doing an odd thing lately, where she doesn't want to get out of bed right away after she wakes up.

She woke up at 5:45 this morning and commenced talking to herself. I did my best to ignore her until our alarms went off at 6, and then I got up and went to get her.

She sat up when I turned on the light, but did not lift her arms in the "pick-me-up" signal. She pointed to a picture on her crib quilt, and asked, "Ish?" "Ladybug," I told her.

She pointed to another picture. "Butterfly."

She picked up a toy. "That's Mr. Night. See the stars?" She looked at the palm of her hand, at the faded star I'd drawn there the night before. "That's right, star!" She hugged Mr. Night, then set him aside.

She picked up her Piglet stuffie. "Is that Piglet?" She made a whispery-sounding "ka, ka," which is what she does when she's trying to imitate oinking. "That's right, that's what a pig says!"

Having satisfied herself on that score, she tossed Piglet aside and picked up her little cloth crib-book, and handed it to me with unmistakeable intent. It's only six pages long, so I "read" it to her, and showed her all the little moving/crinkling/rattling flaps.

She stood up and pointed at the window. "Ish!" "Window." "Ish?" "Window." "Ish!" "Window."

She pointed at the changing table. "Are you ready to get up? Go get some fresh pants?" She shook her head no, then - finally, at least 10 minutes after I'd walked into the room - held up her arms.

This isn't an isolated occurrence, either. She's done this, to a greater or lesser extent, almost every time we've come to pick her up in the morning or after a nap, for the last week or more.

It's not that I object to her wanting to stay in bed a little longer. I just wish, if she was going to stay in bed and play for a while, that she'd let me stay in bed a little longer.

Heather came into my office yesterday looking for a lunch buddy. It's nice to get out of the office occasionally, so I agreed. As we were talking over lunch, she revealed that she's looking for a "diet buddy" - she's trying to lose her baby weight, plus a bit more, and the net result is that we're looking to lose close to the same amount. So I told her that - after the holidays, because trying to diet during the holidays is just setting up for failure - I'd be happy to join her.

Mind you, I think "diet buddy" just entails moral support. But that's okay. I've been dieting for just a bit shy of a year, now, and my weight's stayed more or less the same for the last six weeks. Some extenuating circumstances, I allow, but it still couldn't hurt to have someone around to help me rev up my motivation and enthusiasm once the holidays are over and it's time to start another year's worth of diet.

--Liz