It was a fairly good, if busy, weekend.

When Penny went down for her nap on Saturday, Matt left to go to DC. So Penny, naturally, slept for all of about 45 minutes.

So I did what any parent would do in my situation: I packed her in the car and took her down to visit my best friend. Which went far more smoothly than I had any right to expect, with a baby on only half a nap and no backup parent. Penny was cheerful and mostly well-behaved, though she did insist on spending 80% of our meal standing on the booth next to me and playing with the packets of sugar rather than eating her meal. But she wasn't screaming, and she did concentrate on her meal long enough to allow me to hurriedly cut up my own food, so I count it as a victory.

Kevin endeared himself to Penny forever (or at least what counts as forever in a toddler's mind, which is to say, for about half an hour) by giving her pieces of strawberry poptart. I tried to take a picture of the way she was hanging on him like a groupie, but it just looks like she's slouching.

She and Jess had a lot of fun playing together. They even voluntarily shared toys, sometimes! (Other times, of course, they had to be stopped from snatching things from each other, but hey, whaddya want; they're toddlers.)

Jess: Whaddya mean, I can't have it? She just keeps throwing it away, anyway!

I don't think that's what they meant by Tooth Book, Jess...

K.T. gave Penny a balloon (that she had been planning on throwing out, anyway, but Penny's love for a balloon does not end when it begins to lose pressure) and Penny played with it happily in the car, right up until she zonked out.

It wasn't until Sunday morning that I realized I'd left my camera's spare battery and its recharger at K.T. and Kevin's place. Oops.

Sunday morning was a little rough, without Matt there. Penny woke up at 6, and I'd been up until almost midnight. We got up, got dressed, watched an Elmo DVD (so I could get the laundry started and cook breakfast without interference), ate breakfast, cleaned up, did some more laundry, went to the grocery store, came back and put all the groceries away... by 9am.

I tried to take her outside to play, but after about 20 minutes, she wanted to come back in. I guess it wasn't as fun without Matt there to chase her around.

But at 11:30, when I was reading her a book, she put her head on my shoulder and left it there for the whole book - a sure sign of sleepiness. I read her just one more book after that, and had her down in her crib for a nap by 11:45.

I ate lunch and showered, and started watching the clock to see if she was going to take another 45-minute nap. I did more laundry, I opened and sorted mail, I did some other minor chores.

When she'd been asleep for an hour and a half, I breathed a sigh of relief. When two hours rolled around, I was happy. At two and a half hours, I started wondering if I was going to miss the Pampered Chef party that I was supposed to be going to that afternoon.

Naturally, the day that I'd had no specific plans aside from "go down to Chesapeake and hang out," she took a short nap, and the day I had an actual event to attend, she napped for just shy of three hours.

I wound up being even later for the Pampered Chef party than I'd warned Sam I would be, but it actually worked out well, that way. The presentation was over by the time I got there (I didn't miss it; I've seen it before, and I already knew what I was going to buy) so Penny wandering around pointing at things and naming them didn't disturb the show, so we didn't have to make John take her away.

Penny and I hung out with John and Sam for a while after the party was done. I even left Penny with them for half an hour while I walked over to the Target for a couple of things. As usual, Penny latched onto her Uncle John and wouldn't let go. Which he reinforced by giving her yet another balloon. She followed him all over the apartment, stopping only occasionally with a "Mama? Mama?" to make sure I was paying attention.

(Interesting development, though - when she had a poopy diaper, she came to me, tugging at it as if trying to get it off; and when I put the changing mat on the floor, she voluntarily laid down on it. Potty training may not be quite as far off as I thought.)

We got home, and I did some dishes and then took her upstairs for her bath. Matt came home just as I got her undressed, so after he got his luggage in, I let him take over the bath.

She slept in until nearly 6:15 this morning - ah, the luxury!

--Liz