When we got home from church my cousins Jeff Cherryholmes and Eleanor Horner were waiting for us.  Jeff’s been staying out at my parents’ house and Eleanor came to visit her dad, Uncle Roy, who has also been staying with my parents.  Amanda told her on Facebook the other day that she should bat her eyes at Jeff to get him to bring her down here for a visit, so she did and he did.

We had a really great time with them.  After Milly had a nap we all headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  Milly already liked Jeff, but she took to Ellie really quick too.

Eleanor absolutely loved the beach and spent almost the entire time jumping waves.  I think she said she’d only been to a beach once before, about five years ago.  I gave her a couple pushes on my surfboard, but they both ended up in wipeouts, so I gave her an out and she took it.  The waves were small and close to the shore, but they were alright and I caught a few decent ones before heading in to spend time with my visiting family.

Milly got in the shallows again today, but she was done after one small wave, a bit bigger than the others, knocked her on her back and underwater for a second.  She wasn’t in any danger and Amanda had her back up almost immediately, but she just wasn’t too happy staying there after that and spent the rest of her time outside on the beach blanket.

Amanda and Milly went in after a bit and I took the opportunity to carry my surfboard back to the Frazelle house.  When I came back I caught up with Jeff and Eleanor, who had walked to the jetty and were on their way back.  When we got back near the beach blanket we bumped into Hannah and Maddie, Amanda’s cousin and her best friend.  They invited Ellie to go out snorkeling with them and Jeff and I continued on down the beach, going about halfway between Crystal Pier and the water tower before turning back around.  We had a nice talk.

We spent a good bit of time after that, Jeff, Eleanor and I, just swimming in the water (which felt great) and jumping waves and the like.  We headed back in a little after 4:00, packed everything up and went back to the house.  They took off pretty soon after getting back.  Jeff had to take Eleanor all the way back to Rougemont then he was heading to his brother David’s house.  He’s watching it while David and Oxana are on a trip.

Milly went down for a nap and we watched some TV.  We realized that we’d both gotten burned, me worse than Amanda.  We’d lathered up pretty good today, too, though I probably (well, definitely) should have put on some more sunscreen after being outside a couple hours.

Milly was a lot of fun when she got up.  She was playing with Amanda’s iPod Touch, which of course looks a lot like my iPhone, and she would hold it up to her face and say “Hello.”  It was awesome.  I mean, it wasn’t a clear “hello,” but it was definitely “hello.”  We tried calling some of her grandparents so she could say it to them, but of course she wouldn’t do it anymore by the time we got one of them.

After that, when Amanda went to feed her, Amanda was saying “yogurt” while making the sign for it.  (There’s apparently no definitively set sign for “yogurt” so we chose the one we like, which is making a “y” with your thumb and pinky then sweeping the pinky to your mouth.)  While Amanda was doing that Milly made a noise that really sounded an awful lot like she was trying to say “yogurt.”  Then Amanda asked if she wanted some yogurt and Milly nodded her head.  This is all so fun!

Congrats to the Duke Blue Devils, by the way, for locking up the third Plumlee brother.  Marshall Plumlee announced his commitment to Duke University last night.  If neither Miles nor Mason Plumlee leaves Duke after next year, there will be three Plumlee brothers on the team.  Marshall is the biggest of the three, standing seven feet tall compared to his older brothers’ 6’10″.

Zach Dotsey
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Despite the busy-ness I did go to lunch at the mall.  We went a few minutes early and picked up my new replacement wedding ring.  Amanda had “LOVE YOUR GIRLS” engraved on the inside of it, a reminder that it was also a Father’s Day present.  It’s titanium and very lightweight.  It also resembles Amanda’s wedding ring a bit.

We ate with Amanda’s grandparents and Michael, and Anna and Kirsten joined us a little later.  Milly was excited to see everyone.

Hannah and Barry, on a side note, are both about to head out of town.  Hannah’s going to Hatteras to go camping with some friends and Barry’s going to Costa Rica.

We went to a Night of Worship at Port City Community Church tonight.  The band really brought it and the crowd was really into it.  It was mostly music and singing, but there was also praying, a short message and communion.  It was really a nice thing for the church to put on.

Michael and Jenn watched Milly while we were at the church.  It started at 7:00 and we thought it would be done by about 8:00, so we let Milly go to Michael’s new apartment, but we ended up not getting out until almost 9:00, so it was a late night for the Bug.

Milly seemed to enjoy her time over there.  Everything apparently went well except for when Milly, who likes to take things and put them into other things, thought it would be cool to put Michael’s mobile phone in his drink.  Michael yelled, “No!” or something and Milly got upset and cried for a bit.  His phone is fine though, so we thought it was pretty funny.

LeBron James is leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and going to the Miami Heat with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.  He made a ginormous deal about his decision, and I don’t really care because I don’t watch the NBA, but it was all anyone was talking about for a bit today and ESPN had like a two hour special on it.

On the plus side, since those three players are pretty much maxing out the Heat’s salary cap, some people are speculating that Jon Scheyer might have a good shot at joining the team, since he’d be a rookie free agent (and therefore cheap, but filling a role).  I hope it works out for him.

Zach Dotsey

After we got home we put Milly down for a nap.  They said she’d been good in Grow Zone and she didn’t complain until we were almost home.  She went right to sleep.  Amanda made us some bagels with egg and cheese and ham.

We got Milly up and fed her a few minutes early so we could go out and pick up some birthday presents for Gavin Holloman, who was celebrating his third birthday in a little room at the movie theater at Mayfaire.  The party was Toy Story-themed and Dana, Gavin’s mom, went all out, making cookies and cupcakes that looked like characters and things from the movies.  Seth, Gavin’s dad, had a Buzz Lightyear outfit and came in dressed up in it, but Gavin told him he wasn’t Buzz.  I don’t think Gavin’s reaction was quite what Seth was hoping for, but we adults enjoyed it.  Milly really enjoyed the cupcakes.

I finally met and had conversations with Seth’s siblings, Brent and Millie.  (Spelling the name with an “-ie” instead of a “-y” is the accepted norm, but it feels so odd to type that now.)  I’d actually talked to Millie briefly before, and she said I seemed familiar, but she didn’t really remember me.  And I’d reached out to Brent on Facebook a few weeks ago just because we have a ridiculous number of friends and acquaintances in common, so it was odd that we didn’t know each other.  But now we’ve met and he’s shared his iPhone 4 with me.  (I really want one of those.)

After the birthday party just about everyone else went to see Toy Story 3, but figuring Milly isn’t ready to sit in a theater that ling yet, we just took off and went over to Anna and Barry’s.  I’d told Amanda this morning that I really wanted to go surfing if there was anything out there since I knew it would be a little while before I’d get another chance to do it.

Well, it started thundering before we got to Wrightsville Beach, and when Barry and I walked out to look at the water there was some killer lightning off in the distance.  We hung out at the house for a bit and Milly got to play with Anna, Barry, Hannah, Kirsten, Maddie, Christian and Micah.

It finally did rain a little and the weather quickly passed, so Barry and I went out for a bit.  It wasn’t too bad out.  The waves weren’t breaking quite right, but I managed to catch a few anyway.  While Barry and I were out in the water, Amanda, Anna and Milly went for a walk, but not on the beach since the wet sand would have made walking on the beach a pretty tough chore.

Milly went right to bed when we got home around 6:00.  She’d only had one nap today and that one had been cut short.  Despite that, she was pretty good all day.  It might have helped that she had all kinds of junk food at Gavin’s party and she ate a lot during her time at the Frazelles’.  She was still tired when I got her up at about 7:45, but she was so sweet sitting in my lap drinking from her sippy cup (no bottles today!) and watching the end of Knocked Up.

Zach Dotsey
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Barry and I had a good time surfing.  It was small but clean, and not very crowded.  Some nice set waves came in from time to time and I got to really work on my turning today.  There were some nice little drops and we had a really good time out in the water.

Inside, Milly apparently was eating just about the whole time we were out surfing.  She ate a whole banana and some ice cream.  Amanda told me that Milly had also choked on a Goldfish, but I didn’t realize how serious it was until she was telling me more later.  It seems that Milly had put a Goldfish in her mouth, something she’s been eating for months now, and then yawned.  When she yawned the Goldfish got sucked into her throat and Amanda said she coughed once, but then she just looked at Amanda with her mouth open and couldn’t make any noise.  Amanda tried hitting Milly’s back, but that didn’t do it.  Then our baby started to turn blue.  Amanda panicked and reached into Milly’s mouth without thinking.  She could feel the offending Goldfish, and sticking her finger down there apparently caused Milly to puke.  Milly cried for a minute but was just fine.  Amanda said that she, Hannah and Kirsten, who were all in the room at the time, we shaking afterwards.

Of course, we know that sticking a finger down a baby’s throat could lodge whatever’s choking her into her throat even more, and I’ve since looked up the proper techniques for helping a choking baby.  You can find all kinds of information on that here.

Amanda opened up a bit more about how scared she was later this evening.  She said she just kept seeing Milly looking at her with her mouth open, unable to breathe.  It really is horrifying to think how badly the whole thing could have gone, and just one day before Milly’s first birthday.  I thought about how awful it would be to come in from being out in the water to hear such bad news.  Milly’s been eating food for so long that we just sort of take it for granted.  The scary thing is that Amanda said Milly wasn’t making any noises during the whole thing.  If she’d been in another room she’d have heard one cough and that was it- nothing that would have raised any suspicion of something bad going on.

The rest of the day was much less eventful than that non-event.  We went to church this morning where a new series talking about future generations was started.  Really got me thinking about being more intentional with any plans we have for Milly.

They didn’t have the cruisers room in Grow Zone today for whatever reason, so Milly was put with the immobile babies.  When I went to pick her up she saw me at the door and signed “please”.  That just melted my heart.

After church we were going to go grab breakfast with David and Oxana, but Milly was letting us know it was nap time for sure, so we suggested Sweet & Savory to them and they found it on their GPS.  I talked to David later and he said the food was good but they had to wait forever for it.

After we got back from Wrightsville Beach (where the beginning of today’s story started) Milly and I both took naps, although we took them separately.  She’s not one to nap easily outside of a confined area, like a crib or a car seat.  I napped for a good long while, even after Amanda got Milly up to feed her.

Amanda and Milly played downstairs, including a game of catch (or “roll the ball”) in the hallway with the two new rubber balls Milly got for her birthday.  Amanda later told me that after today’s episode she was wanting to give Milly some extra-special attention.  I played with her a good bit once I finally got up, too.  Part of it, I’d say, was that Milly woke up and cried for about 45 minutes last night.  I finally changed her diaper and put her back down to sleep which seemed to do the job at first, although she did cry a few times here and there for a little while after that.  I was actually already awake before she started crying in the first place though.

Since tomorrow is Milly’s actual birthday, I’m hoping work is not at all busy.  I told Amanda I was planning on working as little as possible tomorrow so I could spend time with Milly and she got jealous.  She’s going to see if she can work a half-day tomorrow and take her full day later in the week so we can all go to the park or something as a family tomorrow.  That’ll be really nice.

Zach Dotsey
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The spread for Milly's first birthday party

Actually, most of the family members who came showed up a little early.  My crew arrived at about a quarter of, and I was shocked to see Aunt Robbie with them.  I remembered after talking to her that she had planned on being around a little before Milly’s party, but she was supposed to have gone back before today.  It was really great to see her.  Not that seeing Mom, Dad, Erin and Aunt Reggie (who all rode together) wasn’t great, but I totally didn’t expect Aunt Robbie.

Amanda’s dad, Phil, came early and helped go get some thing.  Adam and Renee came, and Michael and Jenn, the whole Frazelle quartet, Amanda’s grandparents and David and Oxana all came.  As far as friends go, we had the Warkentiens plus Nick’s sister’s boyfriend; Charles, Deanna and their girls from across the street; Bonnie (also from across the street) made an appearance, then we had the Nowaks, the Clarks and the Boscaljons.  I got a call from Seth saying that Gavin was being pretty fussy so they and Dana didn’t make it.  I think (I hope!) I listed everybody.

It was a pretty good crowd.  When my family got here Milly had just gotten up and was a little upset by all the commotion, so she went upstairs with the ladies and they put her hair in pigtails and got her dressed.  She wore a little pink tutu that Amanda had picked out special for the day and a shirt she decorated with puffy paint.

Milly's first birthday cupcake

After a little mingling we dove into the cupcakes, or at least Milly did.  Actually, she didn’t even dive in like we thought she would.  Amanda made a giant cupcake just for Milly and put lots of cream cheese icing on it, but she mostly just daintily picked at it with her thumb and forefinger for a while.  Eventually she started open-palming it.  Amanda put a speck of icing on Milly’s nose and Erin gave her two little pink dots on her cheeks.  She looked a little like a clown.

When she’d had enough cupcake  I went to rinse her off in the sink, but it was too difficult so we just ended up stripping her down to her diaper and she and Eli got in the pool.  I was amazed at how much moisture a diaper can soak up.

We never got around to the finger painting, but maybe we will next year.  Or something.  We did move on to the presents though, and I think Milly has already learned how awesome birthdays can be.  I’m not going to list everything she got and who she got them from because I’m terrible at remembering that sort of thing and I know some things will be left out, but she did get quite a bit- lots of new toys and clothes.  Andra, who wasn’t able to make it, even sent something via Mom and Dad.

Milly's first birthday presents

Milly wasn’t really that into opening the presents herself, but she did enjoy playing with them as we opened them, as did Eli, Kenzie and Kimber.  When we brought out the gift from my parents, which was in the largest box, she did take the opportunity to climb on it.  She got up on the box all by herself and sat on it.  I’m telling you, that child is a climbing fool.

Everyone trickled out after the gifts were all opened, with the exception of David and Oxana who were staying with us tonight.  David wanted to treat us to dinner, so we made arrangements to meet Adam and Renee at Elijah’s.  We went early so we wouldn’t have to worry about a crowd or Milly’s feeding schedule.  We sat outside where it wasn’t too hot, ate some good food, drank a few drinks, went for a short walk on the river after dinner and just had a really nice time hanging out with my cousin and his wife.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had real quality time with Dave.

David and Oxana rode in the back on the way to and from Elijah’s and fed Milly on the way there.  It was funny listening to them interact with her.  Milly had a good time at Elijah’s too.  She ate pretty much the whole time, whether it was pieces of a cornbread muffin, fruits or mashed potatoes.  She didn’t drink much of her bottle in her last feeding of the night later on.

Adam and Renee came over to our place after dinner and after David read Goodnight, Moon to Milly and we put her to bed, we all played a game of Puerto Rico.  It’s a five-player game so Adam and Renee were on a team together.  Amanda beat me by one point but Oxana, in her Puerto Rico debut, killed it while Adanee or Renadam came in fourth with David in last.  Poor guy kept getting screwed when it came time to ship goods.

Zach Dotsey

I had to pick up my paycheck today and Amanda was meeting her grandparents for lunch, so I tagged along for that.  Normally I go to lunch too, but as busy as I was I was planning on staying home to work until I realized it was payday.  I went and met up with Peggy and Earl and the Frazelle girls, but I didn’t stick around too long to chat and Peggy and Earl dropped Amanda back off at home a little before 5:00.  Milly had missed her afternoon nap but apparently had been good the whole time.  She was wiped out for her evening nap as a result.  Amanda had to rub her back to wake her up, whereas she’s usually awake as soon as you open the nursery door.

Speaking of Milly, Amanda put her hair up in pigtails today, and when she was sitting on the floor she looked like a little girl (as opposed to a baby).

I went to a small group leaders meeting at Port City Community Church this evening.  It was the first one Amanda or I have been to since just before Milly was born.  (They’re held the second Thursday of almost every month.)  I went because they were taking collections of stuff for Haitian orphans and we had some things to take.  It also happened to be a state of the church address, which is pretty interesting.  I slipped out before the Q&A so I could get back to help out at home.  Amanda was making cupcakes for Milly’s birthday party on Saturday and couldn’t easily do that while getting Milly ready for bed.

After Milly was down and Amanda finished making cupcakes we played Catan and both lost.  I think it’s the first time we’ve played online together where neither one of us won.  Not that we cheat or anything, but we are pretty good.  Okay, Amanda’s pretty good and I’m just decent.

Amanda and Milly are planning on going to Richlands to meet little Abigail Erreca, the new baby of Amanda’s old friend Sarah and her husband Mike.  I may or may not be going- depends on how I feel about work.  I mean, I’d end up working at her parents’ house the whole time except for when we’re meeting the Errecas for lunch, but still.

Zach Dotsey

We were originally going to be back at 9:30 because Stephanie has a test early tomorrow, but Hannah’s friends drove her all around town with a blindfold on in order to confuse her and they didn’t end up getting to Botega, where the party was, until close to the time we had to leave.  Stephanie said she was making a lot of progress in her studying over at our house and that she’d be fine with us getting in at 10, which was very cool of her.

Anyway, Hannah’s party had a great turnout.  Rio Bravo played a few songs and there was a photo booth.  Hannah was definitely surprised and very excited about it.  Amanda and I gave her a necklace that Amanda made (Amanda liked it so much she wanted to keep it) and a picture of Milly holding up a sign that reads “Happy birthday Hannah!  I luv you!”.  We got her to sit on the front porch yesterday holding the sign and I took a bunch of pictures for it, but we couldn’t choose which we liked the best so we put four of them together.  One has her looking into the camera, she’s making a funny face in the second, looks like she’s checking the sign herself in the third and in the fourth she’s holding it up in front of her as if she’s really presenting it to Hannah.  You can’t see any of her in the last one except her tiny fists at the top of the poster.

I was up at 6:00 today to go run cameras at church.  Nick, as he often does, picked me up and Amanda and Milly came to the 11:00 service so Amanda could sleep in we could ride home together.  They gave us long sleeved production shirts this morning, which helps us mobile camera operators blend into the stage background better.

I met Nick’s sister, Amber, who is staying with them for a while, and her boyfriend in between the morning services.  Michael and Jenn came this morning, too.

After we got home from church Amanda fixed bagels while I put Milly down for a nap.  She then went out for a bit and I took a nap myself.  There wasn’t much going on when I got up so I played Heavy Rain to get the happy ending (which I got) and replayed a few chapters to see what differences there were.  Amanda, I guess inspired by the necklace she made for Hannah yesterday, made one for herself for the party tonight.

We changed Milly’s schedule up a little today so we could put her to bed before Stephanie came over.  Really all we did was feed her a little earlier for her last two feedings, and we put her to bed probably around 7:45, whereas lately she’ll usually finish eating around 8 and be in bed around 8:15 or so.  I just hope it doesn’t throw her off for tomorrow, since I’ll have her all day myself.

Zach Dotsey

So I worked a bit yesterday hoping that it would help today not be as hectic, as work sometimes is when coming off a long weekend.  Well, it’s a good thing I did because I’d have been even busier today, but at the same time I can’t help but feel that I didn’t accomplish much, as frantically as I was going today.

Milly has gotten to the point where she just really likes to be held a lot, particularly, it seems, when I’m eating breakfast or working.  The upside to that is that she sleeps through long stretches of my workday, and Amanda’s usually around when she does get up.  Nice thing about everyone being off Monday was that I didn’t have to go through Amanda’s long day, but she will be working a full day Thursday.  Fortunately, I’ve got some helped lined up in the form of Kirsten.

Speaking of Kirsten, we didn’t want to make her rush away from her sister’s birthday dinner, so we told her not to worry about coming over to babysit Milly for small group tonight and Michael and Jenn came to help out instead.  All reports are that it went well, except for when Michael was putting Milly down to change her diaper.  He apparently thought she had better body control than she does and banged her head on the floor.  Hey, it happens.

Before small group we met up with everyone (except for Reece and Stephanie, who had some friends in town) at the Chick-Fil-A on Oleander for a free spicy chicken sandwich, a new menu item that we’d all signed up to try out.  Some liked it so much that they decided it would be their new regularly-ordered menu item.

After that we went over to Joel and Mia’s for the study, where the Johnsons joined us.  It’s the last time they’ll be around before a long trip to New York, plus this week’s discussion was on sex, and who would want to miss that?

We didn’t get a chance to do P90X today.  We decided that Tuesday is going to be our break day anyway, but we were one workout behind since we accidentally did an add-on workout last week thinking it was a main workout.

Zach Dotsey

At PC3 we finished up a series on idolatry with Mike Ashcraft talking about not getting aggravation mixed up with repentance.  At the beginning of the service Mike had all former and active duty members of the military in the congregation stand up in honor of Memorial Day (which is tomorrow) and the applause for them went on and on.  It was rather touching.  We also had communion at the end of the service, which is always pretty special.

After we got home we put Milly to bed and did the P90X yoga workout, which was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  Amanda got a bit bored with it, but I liked it overall.

Not long after we finished that Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, came to stay with us.  She and Amanda went out to do some running around and I decided after a bit that I felt like watching a movie.  There are several we’ve had for a long time that we have yet to watch, and since it was just me and Milly (who had gotten up just as I had decided to watch something) I thought I’d watch something Amanda wouldn’t want to watch, so I put in House of Flying Daggers.  There was a scene at the beginning where one of the main characters was dancing to some Chinese music, and Milly was pretty attentive to that.  She ended up sitting in my lap watching the movie and snacking on some Cheerios like someone would popcorn at a movie theater.

I enjoyed the movie.  It wasn’t much of what I thought it would be, and I was really hoping to see the final battle between the House of Flying Daggers and the government soldiers, but I enjoyed it overall.  Amanda and Karen got back before it was over, so I had to pause it and rewind it at times, and since it was subtitled I couldn’t look away during dialogue.

We had plans to meet Michael and Jenn at El Cerro Grande, but Barry called me and said the surf looked fun.  Amanda and Karen both told me to go surfing if I wanted to go surfing, so I went surfing.  Let me tell you, I had a great time.  At first Barry and I took out smallish boards, but we weren’t (or I should say, I wasn’t) catching much with those so we went back in and got bigger boards.  From then on it was great.  I caught three particularly good waves.  I rode them all a good long way and on one I had to look down at the board because it felt so smooth, like I was just gliding.  What made the waves so fun was that you’d catch it and get a nice drop, then it just kept pushing and pushing.  The power stayed behind it until it eventually mushed out.  The last wave I caught I started out on a left then switched back to the right.  I was able to really read the water and kept steering the board so that I just kept getting some push behind it and rode it literally to the shore.  Much fun.

Barry gave me some Of Montreal CDs, since he got me tickets to a show of theirs for Wednesday.  He’d mentioned that when we went to see the Arctic Monkey concert, but I’d forgotten about it.  Anyway, he gave me some CDs to check out so I’ll know what I’m going to go listen to.

Before I left Hannah and some of her friends arrived at the house.  It turns out that not only was the mission trip to Guatemala Hannah was going on delayed because of a volcano, but now there’s a tropical storm.

Michael and Jenn were at the house when I got there.  Amanda and I put Milly to bed then Amanda wanted to play some Puerto Rico but Michael and Jenn wanted to leave and go watch Survivor and Karen said she was too tired.  Poor Amanda, she’s been wanting to play Puerto Rico for a while now.

So now she and Karen are sitting in the living room watching Mega Piranha on Sci-Fi.  It’s terrible, of course.  Aside from everything else you could say about it, it’s really got some of the worst CG I think I’ve ever seen, and there’s really no excuse for that these days.

Zach Dotsey

Joking, of course, but really she did just fine.  We had a fun time seeing a bunch of friends and lots of babies, and Milly really enjoyed having a giant cupcake.

In order to accommodate the 11:00 party, we shifted Milly’s schedule a little.  She woke up at 8:00 as usual (actually she woke me up at 8:00 when I heard her making some noise) but she was back to sleep soon after she finished eating.  For one, she was a little fussy, but more importantly we wanted to make sure she got plenty of sleep since she’d be at a party an hour and a half earlier than she usually gets up from her nap.

Oh, I mowed first thing this morning, by the way.  I always listen to my iPhone when I mow, but today the left ear bud wasn’t working so I tossed it out.  I thought that might possibly happen because the last couple times I wound up the headphones in the back of my iPhone case the front of the ear bud came off when I pulled the headphones back off.  I’ve had that thing for a number of years now, so I guess it was time.  I got the headphones from Amanda’s iPod, which hadn’t even been opened yet (the headphones, not the iPod) and used those.  The down side is that there’s no built-in answering/pause button or microphone on it, but it does have a volume control.

Anyway, after we got back from the party we put Milly to bed and did our daily P90X workout, which was arms and shoulders today.  It wasn’t all that bad, really, though I’d like to get myself some weights for it.  We’ve only got one set of five-pound weights and some stretchable bands.  Amanda used the weights and I used the band, which did fine, but I think I’d be more comfortable with the weights.

There is, for the record, no place on my body that is not sore with the exception of my forearms, calves, hands and feet.  And face, I guess.

We got Milly up at 4:00 and headed over to the Frazelles’ for dinner.  Barry and I went surfing first, though as sore as I still was (and am), I didn’t know if I’d be able to take my board out.  Fortunately the waves were of a decent size and I took out Terry (one of Barry’s boards), which is much smaller and lighter than my own board.  It took me a while to get out because the waves were coming pretty consistently, and I never really caught a good one.  I would like to blame all of that on the fact that my body was so tired, but surfing (and paddling) uses such different muscles that the soreness had absolutely no affect on it.  No, I’m just out of surfing shape is all, and Terry’s a harder board to catch waves on for someone who is used to bigger boards.  Still, I’m glad I went out.

Barry and I went in after about 45 minutes.  Anna made some really great burgers and tots with her chocolate chocolate cake for dessert.  Two of those three items are not in the P90X diet, and one is in only sparingly.  Barry said that since I’d surfed it was all okay though.

We hung out there for a bit and let Milly play a little after her last feeding of the night.  Hannah was there because her flight to Guatemala was postponed due to a volcanic eruption near Guatemala City, which is where they were supposed to land.  It was funny to see Kirsten and Hannah help Amanda put Milly’s pajamas on because Kirsten is now such a pro at taking care of her and Hannah hasn’t really had to deal with changing her that much, if at all, really.  I think she might have once before.  Anyway, it just amused me that the younger sister knew more about changing a baby’s clothes than her older sibling.

Milly’s gotten really good at signing “please”, which is to run your open hand in a circle on your chest.  She’s still not totally comfortable with “more” and will usually sign “please” for “more” now, which is understandable since both are used in similar situations.  It’s so ridiculously freakin’ cute though.

After we got home and put the Millster to bed Amanda watched on episode of Friday Night Lights before going to bed herself.  Her stomach was bothering her.  Anna had said that hers was too, and her guess was that it was the tater tots.

Actor Dennis Hopper died today, falling in his battle to prostate cancer.  It really is odd how celebrities seem to die in bunches.

Zach Dotsey