After we put Milly to bed last night we watched Supernatural.  Amanda asked if I wanted to go ahead and watch Persons Unknown, but I was about beat and knew I’d fall asleep.  I did nod off, and at whatever point she went to bed she took care of me.  She let me stay on the couch instead of bugging me about going upstairs, put my phone (which was sitting in front of me on the couch) somewhere that it wouldn’t fall and covered me (and I think Bruce) up with a blanket.

Harvey woke me up by tramping down the stairs around 2:00 or 2:30.  I let him and Bruce out then took care of the same business they were taking care of before we all went back upstairs to bed.

As we do every Sunday, Amanda got up and showered, I got up and showered, then we tag teamed getting Milly ready and headed off to church.  We saw the Nowaks in the Grow Zone line, which is great because Sarah just had surgery on Friday and that meant she was feeling better.  Amanda said that she had told her she was feeling much better than she had just the day before.

After church we went home, where I put Milly to bed while Amanda went back out to get bagels.  Sunday morning bagels with ham, egg and cheese seem to be becoming a bit of a tradition.

We thought about going out to the beach, but Milly wasn’t napping well and was cranky (plus we were feeling lazy, but we’ll say it was mainly the former).  Milly would act tired and we’d put her down then she’d either scream the whole time or she’d sleep for a short while before waking up and making her displeasure known.

We had a nice evening with her though.  As much as she was in need of a nap, it wasn’t hard to make her laugh when we played with her.  Holding our hands, she walked down the driveway and wanted to play in the sand in front of our mailbox (years of runoff from the yards in the neighborhood).  We didn’t think that the best idea, so I took her to the new sandbox in the backyard, but she didn’t stay there very long and got in a chair on the patio.

By this time Milly was pretty filthy (fortunately I’d thought to take off her dress, so she was just running around in a diaper), so Amanda went inside to draw a bath for her.  Milly wanted to follow her in though, so I bought Amanda some time by letting Milly climb up the stairs.  We’ve been doing that a bit lately, staying close behind her all the while, of course.

Milly enjoyed her bath like she always does.  We played in the nursery after that for a little while.  There’s a cardboard box that used to hold some diapers, I think, that Milly has taken to playing with.  Amanda first did it a couple nights ago I think.  Milly sits in the box then you can peek at her or stick your fingers through the handle holes or push her around on the floor.  She enjoys it.

Milly ate after that and went down to bed just fine.  Amanda and I watched a bit of TV before Amanda went to bed.  Right now I’m watching I Survived.  I can’t decide if I shouldn’t watch it because of the absolutely horrific things that happen to people or it’s good to watch to make you think about what you’d do if you were ever put in a life-threatening situation.  Either way, once you start watching one of those it’s hard to stop.  I just pray that no one I know is ever faced with situations like the ones they show.

Zach Dotsey

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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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

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

Michael met us at church and came over after for lunch and Photoshop lessons.  He’s interested in learning more design and possibly designing websites.  His computer wasn’t working well with it though, so, long story short, we ended up getting him a new computer.  It’s a Sony, and you can’t really go wrong with Sony.  And when I say we ended up getting him a computer, I mean I went with him to help pick one out and put it on my Best Buy card, but his dad will be giving me the money for it in the near future.

So he got Photoshop on his new computer and I spent most of the rest of the afternoon giving him tips on web design, like how to lay out a page and such.

Milly was walking with the rider-walker transforming thing Amanda bought her a few days ago.  So cute!

Amanda and I watched pre-Lost finale show, with interviews from the cast and such, then watched the Lost finale.  I liked it, Amanda didn’t.  The last scene explained that the flash-sideways were actually a sort of Limbo or Purgatory, which all the people in it had set up so they could meet up and move on together in the afterlife.  I thought it was very nicely done, but Amanda wanted more answers about what the island was and such.  I thought explaining everything would have actually watered it down, and the end was a great, beautifully-done ending for such a character-driven show.  I also really liked that Hurley became the new Jacob after Jack and that Ben was his #2.  The fact that they mention it almost in passing at the end of the show somehow rounded things out even more.

Amanda riding with Cyra tomorrow so I can use the car to go pick up my paycheck.  We really should get the battery replaced in the Olds.

Zach Dotsey

It turned out that the Nowaks were going out there too, which I found out from Sarah while we were both picking up our babies from Grow Zone.  Milly was standing at the gate when I got there, and Lauren was right next to her.  Seeing them together makes it easy for me to picture them growing up as friends.

Anyway, Amanda, Milly and I stopped by Target after church to get a few things, grabbed some breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts and went on out to Wrightsville Beach.  The Boscaljons were only a minute behind us.  When we all got out there after talking to Barry and Hannah for a few minutes, Amanda, Milly and I walked on down to the other side of Crystal Pier to say hi to the Nowaks.  We saw Henry first, but I don’t think he recognized us in bathing suits because he didn’t say hi back to us when we greeted him, and that kid normally loves me.

We hung out with the Nowaks for a bit.  Milly sat next to Lauren and intercepted the craisens Mile was feeding her.  She loved those things, but then again she loves most food.

After we got back to Lars and Kaitlyn, I went back to get my board and a top from Barry.  I have my own top, of course, but I was expecting to have to wear my full wetsuit.  The water was pretty daggone cold everywhere below my navel when I first got in, but it didn’t take long to get used to.

I had a great time surfing with Lars.  We used to be out there all the time together, at least once or twice a week.  He hadn’t been surfing since, was it September or October that he said?  But he did fine.  Surfing is like riding a bike in that you don’t forget how to do it, but unlike riding a bike your paddling endurance goes to crap if unused.  At any rate, we both caught plenty of waves.  It was small out, but it was pretty steady and there were a few waves of decent size that would come along now and then.  It was a lot of fun, and it was good to catch up with such a good friend.

Amanda made some salad for dinner.  She makes the best salad, and it really hit the spot after being out on the hot beach.  I think between our late lunch and dinner I ended up eating three bowls of it.  We spent the rest of the night relaxing, catching up on things on the DVR.

Zach Dotsey