Well. It was a good weekend, but my lord, busybusybusy.

Friday night, my mom came over for one last visit with us (Penny) before she and Dad take off for Cancun again. Mom also took the opportunity to clean the perishables out of her fridge at me. What I'm going to do with a dozen fresh brussels sprouts, I have not the slightest idea.

Saturday afternoon was my office's bowling party. I wasn't sure how Penny would react, but she did really well. She was a little uncertain at first, but eventually let herself be lured out onto the floor of the bumper lane, where we had all the other kids clustered, and she really seemed to be having a good time.

But mostly, I think she stuck around for the popcorn.

Sunday morning, we went down to visit K.T. and Jess. Both girls, apprised of the upcoming visit, drove K.T. and I crazy asking for each other, and they really seemed to have a good time.

There was one scary moment when Penny, in an excess of rambunctious play, managed to knock Jess off the end of the couch -- which wouldn't have actually been too big a deal, except that she got stuck between the couch and the wall, and her neck wound up tilted at a horribly unnatural angle, terrifying both K.T. and I.

But less than five minutes passed before Jess stopped crying to laugh at something Penny did, and about twenty seconds after that, both of them were trying to climb back up on the couch to jump on it some more, so no lasting harm was done (though I think K.T. and I have a few new white hairs).

We walked down to the local Indian restaurant for lunch. The waiter looked positively grouchy, the whole time we were there, until right at the end of the meal, when Penny was getting restless and they hadn't brought us the check. Since there was a large open area right next to our booth, and since the restaurant was still pretty empty, I let Penny get down to run around a little. By this time, I did not care if the waiter disapproved of my energetic child. But as soon as she started running back and forth, he burst out with the biggest grin I think I'd ever seen.

I don't get it.

Of course, with all the excitement and exercise, Penny took a wonderfully long nap -- she drifted off in the car on the way home, woke up as we were pulling into our driveway and demanded to know what I had done with Jess, and then conked right back out when I put her down in her crib, and slept for another good two and a half hours.

Which was lovely, except that by the time she'd woken up and had her afternoon snack, it was getting kind of late, so I didn't get to go to the grocery store yesterday like we usually do on Sundays.

So that'll be tonight -- I'm still trying to decide whether I want to leave work a half-hour early to make the schedule work out, or if Penny will just deal with everything being pushed off half an hour or so.

I took Penny to school this morning, and TJ was there waiting for us. We held hands and danced, and then when I said, "Penny, come give Mommy a hug and a kiss," TJ yelled, "Yay!" and he jumped up to hug me, too.

There are worse ways to begin a day than in a hugpile with a bunch of cute kids.

--Liz