It was a good weekend, thanks for asking.

K.T. and I got together on Saturday for some best-friends-together time. We went shopping and did some scrapbooking and then went and did some more shopping. And we talked the whole time, of course. It was nice to have a conversation with her that wasn't interrupted every thirty seconds by one small child or the other.

I got about four scrapbook pages done, and I bought some clothes. I was skeptical, but Lane Bryant's new sizing system for jeans really does work. (Even if I won't be able to wear them until this bursitis on my knee clears up; the jeans are tight enough there's no way the brace will fit under them, and bulky enough that there's no way I can put the brace on top. Alas.) And I must go back after Alex is weaned; they had lots of clothes that I loved but were either impractible or impossible for my H-cup chest.

Matt had his D&D game that night, so he left right after dinner. Our neighbors had picked up some glow-stick jewelery from the dollar store and invited Penny to stay up after dark and play with Ray, so I put Alex to bed and took the baby monitor outside with me.

Penny and Ray had a fantastic time playing together even before Ray's dad broke out the glow-sticks. But when he handed Penny a glowing purple necklace loop, Penny gasped with delight and said, "It's Hallowe'en again, at last!"

And then she and Ray concocted this elaborate game in which they threw their glow-sticks out into the yard, took off their glowing jewelery, and pretended to go to bed on the porch chairs. Then they'd jump up and say, "It's morning, hurrah! Hallowe'en!" They'd race to put their jewelery back on, then go out into the yard to "find" the glowsticks, which they told us was their candy. And then they'd start over again. They must have played this game a dozen or more times before we finally decided it was late enough and chivvied the kids into their respective houses.

I let Penny keep her glow-stuff on a shelf in her room, where she could see it as she fell asleep.

Sunday, Alex was up early (5:15) with a low-grade fever and a nasty-sounding cough. He was in good spirits, though, and a dose of Tylenol contained the fever. By the time Matt was up, though, I was ready to go back to bed. I went upstairs around 7:45 and laid down for what I thought would be no more than half an hour (and probably less, as Penny has an uncanny knack for deciding she has to play in our room whenever I try to take a nap) but rather suddenly it was 9:30.

It wasn't enough sleep, but it was enough to keep me going. Alex dropped off for a nap, himself after lunch, just as I was finishing up the grocery list, so I went to the store by myself. When I came back, Matt took Penny to Target so she could pick out a bathing suit and he could get some formula for Alex.

Penny also got some sandals for the summer -- pink and sparkly Hello Kitty sandals, in fact. They don't have heels, so they're completely useless for running, but Penny's in love with them. She insisted on wearing them to play with Ray and the other neighborhood kids, and then she wanted to wear her bathing suit during the evening, after her bath.

(I let her -- what the heck, right? -- but drew the line at her wearing it to bed.)

Alex's fever didn't come back, but intermittent sniffles and a wet cough stayed with him. He woke up at 9:30 instead of waiting for his usual feeding at 10, and then woke up again around 1am. Matt and I braced for a long night, but that did the trick, apparently.

Penny came in our room at 5:50 this morning to wake us up. She was in her bathing suit again.

I told her she needed to wait ten more minutes before we woke up, so she went and got her blanket and curled up on the floor beside the bed. It was really quite cute, especially since I'm pretty sure she actually did go back to sleep for a little while.

So far, this week looks pretty calm. I need to call Penny's doctor and make an appointment for her starting-school physical and vaccinations and such. And Sunday is Mother's Day, so we'll probably do something with the family.

So, you know, I'm kind of waiting for the explosion that'll throw everything off-kilter. It's bound to happen.