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

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

After small group tonight Amanda and I came home to watch Lost.  Even though it was on past Amanda’s bedtime, she stayed up to watch it.  So here is the rundown of some of my initial thoughts.

• Juliette’s message to Sawyer (“It worked”) seems to obviously mean that the bomb worked, but how did she know?
• The bomb did work, because we’re now seeing the reality where the plane didn’t crash.
• But we’re also seeing a continuation of the reality where the plane did crash, meaning reality split.
• Desmond and Jack’s dad’s body disappeared from the plane.  What’s that mean?
• Sawyer is going to try to rip off Hurley.
• More Others?  Other Others?
• The spring water was dirty.  Was the because Jacob had been killed?
• Sayid was definitely dead, so I think he’s now Jacob.  Maybe the spring water will clear up next episode.

All in all it was a good episode, and I’m glad the show is back.  Time for some answers, although I’ve heard that some people will be upset with the finale so I’m guessing not everything will be answered.

Milly woke up two or three times last night.  We changed her feeding schedule on Sunday and she seems to have adapted well enough to it.  Maybe the problem is that I’m used to getting her up from naps at feeding time and she slept too much yesterday.  I made sure to get her up at normal times today.

Amanda had lunch with her grandparents (who later came by the house) and at least Anna and Kirsten from the Frazelle crew today after work.  Kirsten was disappointed that Milly wasn’t with her, but was looking forward to babysitting tonight.  It’s been a few weeks since Kirsten has watched Milly and she’s changed a good bit in that time.  After we got home from small group Kirsten said that Milly had been great.

Small group went well tonight.  We went through the chapter pretty fast and got off topic a bit more than usual even, but it was fun.  We had it over at the Kays’ house and got to see little Felix.  He hung out with us all pretty much the whole time, even if he was sleeping through most of it.

Zach Dotsey

Neither Amanda nor I slept all that well last night.  We’d wake up just about any time Milly made a noise.  I’m sure she does it all the time, but it’s different being in the same room with her.  On top of that, it seemed like the dogs kept wanting to come and go in and out of the room.

Amanda and I went with Karen to the home of Peggy and Earl Lemons (Amanda’s grandparents) for the country breakfast they serve every Saturday.  We got to see their new car.  Their Taurus was giving them some trouble so they bought an Impala.  We put Milly down for a nap in Peggy and Earl’s room right before we ate and afterwards I went to check on her.  I decided to lie down with her and she turned and snuggled up on me.  It was so sweet.  The time in between was spent eating and debating etiquette.

We got back to the Mercer house around noon and gave Milly her lunch.  Amanda and Karen went back out to do some shopping.  After I put Milly down for a nap (she didn’t have a particularly long one at her great-grandparents’ house) Michael, Jenn and I played Puerto Rico.  I beat Michael by a point.  He would have beat me but he misunderstood the implications of one of his picks.  That was my first win at that game.

We played a little MarioKart and Amanda played some when she got home too, feeding Milly in between.  Peggy and Earl came over a little later to have dinner and celebrate Michael’s birthday, which is Monday.  We also watched NC State suck it up against Maryland, which I figured would happen since the Pack beat Duke a few days ago.  Texas, who started the week undefeated but lost to Kansas State earlier, lost to UConn.

Anyway, we had a great dinner of steak, potatoes, salad, apple sauce, green beans and more.  In attendance were Amanda and I, plus Milly after we’d mostly finished eating, Karen and Phil, Peggy and Earl and Jenn.  Plus Michael, of course, as it was his birthday we were celebrating.

9:00 came around and we turned on the Duke-Clemson game.  Now, Clemson humiliated Duke last year at Littlejohn Coliseum and held Duke to 47 points, which was the lowest score Duke had in a long, long time.  Clemson’s been mostly playing pretty well lately, and Duke’s been sucking it up on the road though they beat Clemson soundly a few weeks ago.  A loss would put a lot of doubt on the Blue Devils, but a win would show that Duke can win in an opponent’s arena, and against tough competition at that.

The game was tied at a horrendously low 23 at the half.  Duke ended up winning 60-47 though.  (Remember that number, 47?)  Nolan Smith had a great game and Lance Thomas actually outscored Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer.  The second half was all Duke.

Michael is sitting across from me now, playing with his new iPod Touch.  He had a problem updating iTunes, which he needed to do to register his Touch and ended up just formatting his computer to get it to work.  Well, it works now and he’s looking at games to download for it.

Zach Dotsey

Milly continues to pull herself around all over the place.  Over the past day or two she’s also gotten better at feeding herself her puffs.  They’re little fast-dissolving, bland with a hint of flavor cereal-sized cracker things.  Amanda calls them crackers, I call them puffs.  They’re kinda puffy.  Anyway, over the past couple days she’s gotten to where she can usually grab one between her thumb and forefinger and put it in her mouth.  If she can’t quite get it to go in that way she’ll palm her face and sometimes that will get it in.  Of course, she just about as often drops it on the floor, which Bruce and Harvey don’t much mind.

I also noticed in the last couple days that Milly has made more complex noises now and then.  Changes in volume and pitch, I think.

I made the mistake yesterday of saying something about not being too busy at work, so of course I worked until about 9:00 tonight.  I did have a meeting that went much longer than I expected which pushed me back a bit, but at least it was profitable.

Last night Kansas State beat up-to-then undefeated #1 Texas.  I only watched the last few minutes of the game and they both played sloppy.  The Wildcats kept trying to let Texas back into the game, but the Longhorns declined time and again, and so now, should they win out the rest of the week, another team of Wildcats, that final undefeated team from Kentucky, will be #1.

I fell asleep on the couch, woke up around 3:00, turned off the TV and the lamp and pulled the covers back up over myself and Bruce, who was cuddling with me.  I woke up again when Amanda’s alarm went off upstairs and I went to bed then.  Amanda told me she’d rolled over to give me a kiss then realized that what she thought was me was just my pillow.

Mia and Joel headed to the hospital today to get Mia induced.  I texted Joel this evening and asked if he was having fun yet.  He said nothing was really happening yet.

Mike called me to tell me that Henry had a temperature (101 or 102, can’t remember which he said) and they were afraid Lauren might be sick too (or maybe just teething) but that one of them, he or Sarah, would try to make it to small group.  I told him to not worry about it and tend to the family.

I texted our other couple that nobody else was going to be able to make small group tonight.

At least I got to use the time to get some work done.

Amanda’s grandparents came by after an appointment of one kind or another for Earl.  I was away at my meeting for most the time they were here.  Earl has been wanting to come by since forever to build a little trim into the space between our counters and the stove, so he took care of most of that today.

Amanda ordered the board game Puerto Rico from Amazon.com last week or so and it came today.  She called me while I was out and informed me that she was afraid to open it because while the cover and the description on the back were in English, the picture of the game and pieces on the back had everything written in what she correctly guessed was German.  The return policy was that if something was opened you couldn’t return it, so Amanda called Amazon to ask them about it.  They told her to go ahead and open it and everything turned out fine.  That is, Amanda won’t be forced to learn German afterall.

Zach Dotsey

Yeah, I’m still not caught up, but I did make a lot of progress today I think.  Made some sales, set some things up, did some stuff.  Of course there is still a lot to do.

I did take a break for lunch today.  Amanda’s grandpa, Earl Lemons, had to have a tooth pulled today so, as always happens when he and Peggy are in town, we met them for lunch at the mall.  I was planning on getting Milly ready early but phone calls prevented that and we got to the mall right at 1:00.  Anna, Kirsten, Michael and Jenn were all already there and pretty much done eating already.

We got back home later and I worked until about 6:30.  Amanda picked up a bit around the house while Milly took a couple of really short naps.  She also made some dinner for Joel and Mia Kay for tomorrow night.  Mia’s been on bedrest with her pregnancy.

Kirsten got here to babysit Milly, who was sleeping when we left, and we left for small group at 7:00.  Everyone was there for the first time in months tonight, which was really good.  Kirsten told us when we walked in the door that she had the opportunity to change a poopy diaper tonight, but that Milly was good.

We’re planning on going to see Avatar on Saturday with the Frazelles.  Hopefully that will work out.

Zach Dotsey

Milly was up and babbling to herself at about 7:30 this morning, so she not only went to bed a little late, but she woke up early too.  By 9:00, which I remember because I got my automated reminder to send out a newsletter that goes out every Friday morning, we were passing out and opening presents.  Santa was good to all.  I got a few games, a Wii, a Wii Fit Plus, the entire run of Arrested Development and clothes.  Amanda got a 64GB iPod Touch, which I later got all set up, registered and authorized on the laptop and showed her how to use it.  For Milly’s first Christmas she got some clothes, a ball with music and lights that rolls itself around and those stackable rings that everyone had as a baby, although they’re now star shaped and light up with music.  One really cute thing she got was a glove with different animals on each finger and a small Old MacDonald Had a Farm book on the palm.

Milly didn’t make it through the whole gift-giving process.  She got a bit cranky and went to take a nap after opening her presents.  Well, she didn’t quite open all her presents on her own.  She usually got distracted by the feel of the wrapping paper and Amanda or I mostly took care of opening them for her.

Milly was up for our late breakfast, which was pancakes and bacon.  A little after that I decided to take a nap upstairs.  I was pretty tired because Michael and I had played Street Fighter on the PS3 until about 3:00 in the morning or so.  Anyway, I took Milly up with me and Amanda told me later that she checked in a couple times and Milly wasn’t asleep either time.  She was good, but I guess she got tired of hanging out with Sleeping Dad after a bit because she started fussing until I got up and went downstairs with her.

I set up the Wii and played Wii Play, a game that came with an extra remote.  It’s a bunch of minigames that are ultimately designed to orient someone with the remote, but there were a few games on it that were pretty fun.

After a bit we headed to Peggy and Earl’s.  It rained a lot while we were there, giving some roads a bit of minor flooding and the like.  Milly’s lack of sleep caught up to her while we were there and Amanda and I tried to soothe her and get her to go to sleep, but she just kept crying hard.  Eventually we decided to let her cry it out, but Kirsten hated hearing her upset and went into the room she was in and a few minutes later she had stopped crying.  Milly had to eat just a bit later, so we didn’t bother trying to put her back down until we got back to the Mercer house.

Back at the house we decided to play the Seinfeld-themed Monopoly game got.  It came down to Karen and Amanda.  Amanda ended up with more property before she conceded defeat, but Karen had a buttload of money and had a monopoly on the orange properties early on.

We’ll be heading to the Rouge tomorrow after doing the extended family thing in Cary.  Someone who is already at my parents’ house, quote possibly Adam, will be meeting us to take the dogs to my parents’ house so we don’t have to head all the way to Rougemont then to Cary then back to Rougemont.  I’m very appreciative of that.

I talked to Baba tonight.  She receive the photo book we got her and seems to really like it.  She said she’s been showing it off to everybody.

Zach Dotsey