Zach Dotsey

Milly doesn’t like loud noises.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that she buried her head in my chest when Amanda was vacuuming and this past weekend when the blender was being used she’d get real tense and grab me really tight.

Tonight we went over to Anna and Barry’s, as they made a birthday meal for me.  All the Frazelles were there, plus Amanda’s mom, Karen, who is staying with us tonight, Amanda’s grandparents and my brother, Adam and Hannah’s boyfriend, Christian.  After they sang Happy Birthday to me I mentioned to Christian that this was the first time I had a rock star sing that to me.  The band he’s in, Rio Bravo, will be recording a studio album next week.

We tried putting Milly down for a nap while we all ate, but she wasn’t having it and we got her back up part way through dinner.  We had the pack & play set up in Anna and Barry’s room and went to put her down in there a little later, after we and she ate.  Barry and Earl were back there, and before we could put Milly down Barry accidentally caused a very loud noise that left my and Amanda’s ears ringing.  Milly didn’t do anything at first, out of shock I think, but then she started crying and wouldn’t stop.  We got her calmed down eventually, but there was no way she’d let us put her down, and it was getting on past her bedtime.

After a few minutes we decided we needed to get on home, hoping the drive and familiar settings would make it easier for her to go down.  I hated to leave so soon after eating when we were planning on hanging out for a bit, and I think Barry felt bad, but we really had to get her down.

Milly did well in the car, but once we got her upstairs she cried every time we laid her down in the crib.  She’d roll over then stand up and once she got up she’d be happy, but of course she then didn’t want us to leave.  Eventually I just had to go ahead and leave, and I think she was quiet by the time I got down the steps.

Amanda and Karen were tired and didn’t want to play Puerto Rico, so we just watched a little TV before they went off to bed.

Other than all that, my day was taken up with work.  I don’t feel like I’ve been as busy as I’ve been in the last few months, but it is getting busy once again, just when things were calming down a bit.  I don’t mind being busy, I just want it to be more manageable than it has been.  Manageable might not be the right word.

Zach Dotsey

There was an earthquake early this morning off the coast of Chile, an 8.8 with a whole lot of aftershocks which  has killed, last I saw, over 200 people.  On top of that it was reported that a tsunami from it was heading towards Hawaii, but I don’t think anything came of that.

In my own life, Amanda got up with Milly this morning, which was nice.  She fed her then put her i n bed with me after she ate.  My baby was in a good mood.

A little later we, along with the Lambeths, ate a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage then went over to the Frazelles’.  Ben mentioned wanting to see them, plus he and Jessica wanted to take Graelyn out to see the beach.  I don’t know if the girls were off their schedules or what, but Milly and Graelyn took turns being fussy, Milly more so.  Since Milly was being so fussy (and Graelyn wasn’t at that point), Amanda, Milly and I stayed in the house while the Lambeths went to get a few pictures.  It was also cold and there are giant pipes running the length of the beach since they’re pumping sand to one spot to replenish it.

Anyway, we hung out with Anna, Barry and Kirsten (Hannah made an appearance as well) then headed on back to the house after stopping to pick up some steaks for dinner.  We also got some cake in celebration of my impending birthday.

We gave Milly and Graelyn a bath together, which was fun.  We used Milly’s bathtub thing and put Graelyn in the seat part with Milly in the deeper part.  They both love baths and seemed to have fun in there.

Milly, as I think I’ve mentioned lately, has been really distracted while being fed lately.  Everyone else was busy getting dinner ready while I was trying to keep Milly entertained (as I said, the babies were very fussy today) and since Amanda, Ben and Jessica had talked about Veggie Tales earlier, I thought I’d pull up some Veggie Tales videos on YouTube for Milly to see what she thought.  Well, it held her attention, and she drank all her formula while watching them.  I suppose it’s the dawn of the electronic nanny era in our household.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that.

Dinner was great.  Ben fixed the steak and we also had green beans and salad.  Amanda’s salad is always good, but it seemed even better than usual tonight, and Ben’s steak was just outstanding.  After that we ate some very yummy cake and sat around talking insurance and politics for a bit before settling into watching District 9, which Ben got from the Redbox at Lowe’s Food.  I don’t think anyone else liked it as much as I did, but I’ve been wanting to see it since before it was in the theaters and I was not disappointed in the least.  I thought it was really, really good.

Harvey was very smelly tonight.  I don’t know what the deal was, but he smelled like fish.  He did yesterday too, but Amanda was able to wipe him down with some Nature’s Miracle to take care of it, but that didn’t work tonight so I ended up giving him a bath.  He smells much better now.

I think the plan is to forgo church tomorrow morning.  As I understand it’s mostly going to be sort of a call for volunteers, and since Amanda and I together volunteer three out of four weeks a month and Ben and Jessica will be leaving, not to mention that we were up later than usual tonight and it will probably be stressful getting the babies all ready on time, I think we’re just going to get up and go grab some breakfast.

It was Upset Day in college hoops.  First, Kentucky got beat by Tennessee then Kansas got beat by Oklahoma State, so the top two teams in the nation, both with only one previous loss, both lost in the same day.  Georgetown, ranked 11, was beaten by unranked Notre Dame and Texas A&M beat Texas.  That one wasn’t a huge upset as they were ranked 21 and 22, but Texas was #1 earlier in the season and I think started out at #2.  In the ACC, Carolina finally got a win, this one coming at the expense of Wake Forest on their own court, which has to be embarrassing this year.  That irritated me because the Tar Heels were tied with NC State for last place in the ACC, but then NC State finally got another win (over Miami), so the Heels are still at the bottom, but now it’s a three-way tie between the Heels, the Wolfpack and the Hurricanes.  Of the three though, the Heels have the worst overall record, so that’s nice consolation.

Zach Dotsey

On Friday I noticed a text message from Elliot Clark from sometime after 2:00 in the morning letting the world know that his and Melissa’s baby, Ella, would be here soon.  I hadn’t heard anything since (and I didn’t want to put anything on here since I didn’t know what was going on), so I texted him and asked how everything was going.  He called this evening and told us that mom and baby were fine.  Melissa’s water had broken but they didn’t think it was what it was until just a little later.  To my understanding, Ella, who was early, wasn’t turned right.  They had actually been scheduled to turn her anyway, and when they couldn’t get it done at the hospital they went ahead and had a c-section.  So, welcome to the world, Ella Jane Clark!  We’re excited about another little friend for Milly.

Amanda and Karen’s big adventure was to go to a place where they could blow glass and make their own things with the Frazelle ladies.  I think Amanda said she made a bowl and Karen made a vase.  Sounds like they had a fun time.

The morning was pretty much just me and Milly.  Amanda’s grandparents, Peggy and Earl Lemons, got here with a kitchen new sink for us.  Well, it wasn’t entirely new, but it was gently used.  They go it from their church, which just got a new sink.  It’s a bit deeper than the one we had, plus the fixtures work much better.  On our old one, you had to push the handle up pretty hard and the sprayer was all gunked up.  The nice thing about that was that even though the spray only came out of one hole, it had a lot of pressure, so it was pretty good for cleaning.

Anyway, they got here around 12:30 I think.  I was watching Carolina play a close game with Boston College to help determine which of them was going to be tied for second last in the ACC.  Fortunately, the Eagles were able to pull out the win.  NC State had a big upset over Wake Forest after that, but for most of those two games Earl and I were working on getting the sink installed.  Michael came over early in the second game while his grandpa and I were on a run to Lowe’s and Amanda and Karen got back just as we were finishing up.  Earl had said to me that he wondered what Amanda might give me tonight if she was really pleased with the sink.  I thought that was hilarious.

Amanda went to a jewelry party thing at the Cains’ house while their other half came over just as everyone else was leaving here.  We flipped around the TV a bit and settled on watching the Winter Olympic sport of curling.  People make fun of it, but we really got wrapped up in it.

Zach Dotsey

Looking at others sometimes gives you a different perspective of yourself.  My first little sister turned 30 today.  It’s one thing to turn 30 yourself, but when someone you’ve always associated with the word “younger” turns 30, it makes you think a bit.  Not that 30 is old by any means, but it is the number of an age where you start to consider that the person should be mature and grown up, but to me (not saying Erin isn’t either of those) she’s still my little sister, and there’s no way she should be 30 years old already.

Today was a busy day.  We finished a website and published it and are just about done on a redesign that’s been in the works for a week or two.  I’ve got another one I was trying to finish up this week, but I don’t think that will happen.  I also had a meeting with a potential new client this afternoon.  I think it went well, and I sincerely enjoyed listening to the man.  I like the way he talks about his business, and I can tell he takes pride in it.

Today was also Melissa Nicholson’s (I think she’s hyphenated the last name to Nicholson-Clark now, but I’m not sure so we’ll stick with Nicholson) 30th birthday.  Milly’s cousin (well, Amanda’s cousin, Milly’s second cousin) Hannah Frazelle came over and babysat tonight her for the first time tonight while Amanda and I went to Indochine for Melissa’s birthday and had a good time with people there.  Elliot did a really nice job putting together a surprise party for her.

Amanda and I considered leaving to go to Rougemont today, but with all I had going on it just wasn’t a good idea.  Adam headed up there to surprise Erin, but he’ll be leaving in the morning so we won’t see him.  Andra got there yesterday.

On the Duke message board there are what’s called avatar bets for the Duke-Carolina games.  Each person can have a picture under their username which is called an avatar, and you pair off UNC fans and  Duke fans, and the fan of the team who won gets to pick the avatar for their counterpart.  I tried to get in on it last year, but we ran out of Heels.  I did get into it this year though, and the avatar I created and gave to my counterpart was very well received.  I got a request to make another one for someone else, which I think is also a pretty good one.  Keep in mind that as cheesy as they are, that’s the point.  The Carolina people have to look at these every time they post a message.

It’s supposed to snow an inch or two this weekend here in Wilmington.  I assume that being in Rougemont, we’ll still get to see some and maybe have a chance to get some pictures of Milly in it.

Zach Dotsey

I spent a good bit of time this morning cleaning up the office.  That was the intent, anyway.  I got a lot done, shredded up a bunch of old bills, reorganizing the filing cabinet, clearing off the desk and another table, but at a glance it doesn’t look like much has been done.

Amanda’s itching to play Puerto Rico.  The last time she was wanting to play a game like that we ended up making our own Settlers of Catan.  No way we’re doing that with Puerto Rico though, plus Amanda’s not laid up post-surgery now either.  She looked for it while she ran out to do some errands today but couldn’t find it, so she’s ordered it from Amazon.com.

I started watching the Duke-Georgia Tech game, but we have been talking to the Frazelles about going to see Avatar for quite a while and had made plans to go today, so I watched half of the first half and DVR’ed it.  Cyra came over to watch Milly and we headed off to see the movie.

Barry bought our tickets, which was really nice of him.  Amanda brought some candy but no drink, so I did spend $5.75 on a medium Cherry Coke.  Of course, the thing was about a liter and we got free refills.  Free refills ended up being one refill on the way out of the theater, just so I could feel okay about spending almost $6.00 on a drink.  I can’t remember the last time we bought a drink or candy at a theater.

So, Avatar was cool, and it was in 3D.  I’ll admit that towards the end of the movie, when I was caught up in watching it and wasn’t thinking at all about what I was doing, I swatted at a 3D bug.  That was little embarrassing, like I’d never been to a 3D movie before.

Anyway, out of the six people in our group who saw it (all of the Frazelles plus me and Amanda) everyone really liked it except for Anna, who said it was too long and boring.  So if you’re talking movies to her and she goes on about how much she disliked Avatar, just keep in mind that 83% of the people she saw it with liked it.

Back home, Cyra said Milly had been good with her.  Milly was asleep when we left and didn’t react negatively to Cyra getting her up, which is good.  It sounded like they had a nice time together.

I did a good job of not checking up on the basketball game while we were out.  I did see that Duke was up a little at the half, but I didn’t check anything after the movie started.  In fact, I was wearing a Duke shirt and made sure to cover it up with my coat to make sure nobody said anything in passing.  I turned the game on as soon as Cyra left.

Duke lost 71-67.  I’ll go ahead and say that.  Georgia Tech played some really aggressive defense and the game was allowed to be played much tougher than you usually see in the ACC.  To add to it though, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler both only scored nine points, but Jon Scheyer scored 25.  Duke shot an absolutely abysmal 6-28 from beyond the arc.  I’ll credit some of that to the Yellow Jackets’ defense, but I remember seeing some wide-open shots that just wouldn’t go in.

What’s really boggling though is that Miles and Mason Plumlee combined for 9-10 shooting, but nobody really looked to keep passing the ball to the post.  I really wish they’d start doing that more, particularly when the outside shots aren’t falling.  Mason looked particularly good.  Dude’s getting better every game.

I wasn’t too upset about the loss.  I didn’t have  good feeling going into it and Georgia Tech is ranked in the top 20, so it didn’t sting as bad as it could have.  I think Duke will learn from it.

I ended up walking upstairs and back down several times tonight.  Amanda suggested watching a DVD in bed tonight, so I went to get the old Xbox, which had been in the guestroom, then I went to get something to watch, then I came back down to look for the remote, which ended up being upstairs anyway, and then I discovered that the batteries were dead so I had to come back down to replace the triple A’s.

Amanda’s prerequisites for picking something to watch were that it wasn’t something we haven’t watched yet and something that didn’t take too much attention to watch, since we’d probably both fall asleep anyway.  I ended up picking the first season of Arrested Development.

I finally decided to start watching Arrested Development a few episodes before it got canceled and always wanted to go back and watch it, so Amanda had picked up the full series for me for Christmas.  So, while we hadn’t seen it, it was a good choice anyway.

Zach Dotsey
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Since I couldn’t get the car started last night, well, since I couldn’t get it to turn on without jumping it every time, I called Nick to see if he could pick me up for church, since I was running a camera this morning.  It turned out that he and Amy were hanging out with the Paschals last night and Nick had left his phone.  I had tried calling Amy, too, but since they were in the middle of a movie they didn’t answer, which is understandable.

Anyway, Nick ended up getting my messages and tried getting in touch, but I go to bed between 10 and 11 on the nights before I serve at church, so I didn’t see any of that.  When I picked up my phone and headed out the door this morning I discovered that Nick had come by the house just in case and had left just a minute or two before I walked out the door.

I felt bad for wasting his time, but it was really nice of him to try so persistently to get back in touch with me and to help out.

Since I had the only working car I left after I finished running the camera at the 9:00 service to pick up my girls for the 11:00 service.  Amanda was just about done getting ready when I got home and Milly was playing on the floor in the nursery.  She gave me a huge grin when she saw me.

After running the camera at the 11:00 service I sat with Amanda for the message, and after the service I went to pick up Milly from Grow Zone while Amanda made straight for the ladies’ room.  Amanda’s aunt and uncle, Anna and Barry Frazelle, saw me on the way to Grow Zone so I talked to them for a minute and we made plans to get together later.

I met Amanda with Milly back in the main auditorium where I also saw Seth Holloman’s parents.  I asked his mom if he was back in from visiting his wife, Dana’s parents in Kansas and she said she’d just gotten a text during the service that his plane had landed at RDU.

Back home I talked to Seth about coming over to watch Duke host Clemson to start the ACC basketball season.  He ended up just staying home and relaxing, which is understandable coming from a different time zone then still having to drive a couple hours.

After a little time at home Amanda, Milly and I headed over to the Frazelle house.  Hannah was home and Anna and Kirsten showed up a few minutes later.  Barry arrived a little after them.  He asked if I could help him with something and when I went outside I saw that he had a new 40-something inch plasma TV.  I walked through the house to open the side door for the room it was going in and mentioned something to Anna, who was in the kitchen, something about getting a new TV.  Anna’s response was, “Whaaa?”  Apparently it was a surprise.

After I helped carry the box into the house I smelled something funny and realized it was my hand.  I said something to Barry about the TV’s box smelling funny then he said he had dragged it through part of the yard and it was probably some of their dog Scout’s dookie.  I asked if he thought so and put my hand in his face.

That was funny, but it turned out that the box and/or the TV itself did smell odd.

We set up the TV, which gave them a lot more space in that room, and played some Wii.  Amanda and I introduced the Frazelles to MarioKart and Rayman’s Raving Rabbids before we all played a little Fit.

Anna fed us dinner, but we had to go very soon after eating because we didn’t have Milly’s dinner with us and it was just about her bedtime.  I was worried about getting back home in time for tipoff for Duke’s game, but it turned out not to matter, thanks to Wake Forest and Xavier.  They went into two overtimes and most people only got to see about two and a half minutes of the first half.  I was seething inside at this, but I controlled it well.  Amanda even commended me.  Wake eventually won, but I didn’t really care- I was just ready for my game, the conference game between two ranked opponents, to be on.

The good news is that Duke held Clemson, who is, by all accounts, a pretty good team this year, to just 12 points compared to their own 30.  Clemson came out with a run to start the second half, but then Duke woke up and beat the Tigers 74-53.  It was nice revenge for the embarrassment Clemson put on the Blue Devils last year.

Zach Dotsey

It took me a while to get around to it, but I did get a little work done today.  I was able to work on one of the two items I wanted to make progress on, so that’s not too bad.

But you don’t care about what I did at work today, do you?  You want to hear about Milly’s first Christmas Eve.

Amanda went out and bought a few stocking stuffers, did some laundry and packed for our visits.  I gave Milly a bath in the baby tub inside the tub and she seemed to really enjoy it.  When I first put her in she was kicking her leg around a bit like she was enjoying watching the splashes.  There’s a plastic monkey on a cord attached to the baby tub that she always sucks on.  I call it her sea monkey, and she had fun with that, too.  She was almost laughing some.  She’s much easier to bathe now that she can sit up straight and stand up with support.  I can also pour water right down her head and over her face without it making her fuss.  That’s something that will help her, growing up at the beach and all.

We packed up the car with presents and such, basically everything we’d need for the weekend sans dogs, and headed on to the 3:00 service at Port City Community Church.  I invited my brother, Adam, to go along, but he was going to be at a showing of Avatar during that time.

The church service was nice.  It was packed, of course.  They didn’t have any of the children’s services today so there were a lot of kids in the main auditorium.  It was the first time Milly had been to grown up church since she’s been old enough to go to Grow Zone.  When she was smaller she would sleep through the loud music then fuss during the message.  Now she paid close attention to the music, I think because she liked all the lights and the big video screens, and the napped during the talking.  It wasn’t really a sermon, more like a remembrance of the meaning of Christmas and an explanation of how Communion fit into it.  All in all it was a very nice service.  All three services tonight were broadcast live on the internet too.  I think they’ve done that with a few services up to now, but tonight was the first one where they really got the word out I think.

I got to talking with an older woman who was sitting next to us before the service.  She took an interest in Milly and was holding her when the music started.  She seemed to really enjoy holding Milly, and Milly seemed to really enjoy playing with her gold watch, so I let her stay there until we all stood up.  Her oldest son is in Iraq, so I told her I’d pray for him tonight.

After church we picked the dogs up then headed to Beulaville to Amanda’s grandparents house.  I sat in the back with Milly on the way there so she could eat and when I saw a sign for Chinquapin I got in Milly’s face and said it and she laughed.  I kept doing it until she stopped laughing as hard, which took longer than I would have expected.  I like saying “Chinquapin.”  I say it as I imagine the locals would: Cheenka-pee-in.  Whatever- Milly likes the way I say it.

The Frazelles were already there and the Mercers arrived a little while after we got there.  Milly was, as usual, the star of the show.  Everybody got their time in playing with her before we put her down for a nap and ate a breakfast dinner.

She’s really working on getting up on her hands and knees, by the way.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she is crawling, at least a little, by the time we get back to Wilmington.

Milly got to open her very first Christmas present ever.  It was her first wrapped present, for that matter.  It was from the Frazelles and it was a copy of Where the Wild Things Are.  She got clothes from her great-grandparents.  Everyone else opened their presents after her.  I got a couple long sleeved graphic tees from Express (can’t go wrong with that for me) from the Frazelles and a button up shirt and jeans from Peggy and Earl.

Amanda and I realized that it was past 8:30 and therefore well past Milly’s bedtime so we took off.  We thought, as late as it was and as prone as she (like most babies) is to falling asleep in the car, that she would nod off, but she spent most of  the trip to Amanda’s parents’ house talking and making noises.  Once we got to the house and set up the pack & play Karen bought she went down pretty quick.

The pack & play, I might add, isn’t just for Milly.  It’s an investment in the future as we figure on having at least one more kid and one day Michael will probably have a few of his own.  Even though those things fold up pretty well, they do take up a good bit of space when traveling, so the fact that my mother-in-law bought one to keep at their house is much appreciated.

After everything settled down Phil went to bed and the rest of us, Amanda, Karen, Michael and I, played Wits & Wages, which Amanda picked up today while she was out as a present to both of us.  I continued my winning streak that started at Ben and Jessica Lambeth’s when they introduced the game to us for two games, but then Karen won one and Amanda won the two after that.  Undefeated no longer.  Oh well.

It’s now about time for Santa to be here, I suppose.  I’m looking forward to Milly playing with wrapping paper and trying to eat ribbon tomorrow.

Zach Dotsey