Peggy and Earl (the aforementioned great-grandparents) were in town for a dental checkup so we ate lunch with them.  I checked my email when we had finished eating and saw that there wasn’t much going on at work at the time, so Earl and I took Milly to the little playground area inside the mall while the ladies, which included Amanda’s aunt, Anna, went to The Loft, though they later joined the rest of us.

We lost Amanda’s grandma for a few minutes.  Earl and Anna went to the parking lot so he could give her some veggies or something and Amanda, Milly and I stayed so the baby could climb on things for a few more minutes.  Peggy, we thought, was following Earl and Anna.  That turned out not to be the case.

After a few minutes Amanda and I decided we’d go and that we’d bump into her grandparents on the way out to say goodbye to them, but we only bumped into one of them: Earl apparently didn’t realize his wife was following him.  We split up, with me and Milly going back to the playground and Amanda and Earl heading off towards the food court.  Milly and I were the ones to find her.  Apparently she had just needed to go to the bathroom.

After Karen got here, she and Amanda went out for a bit.  They (and by “they” I think I mean Karen) bought some paint for the stairs.  It’s a project they’ve discussed a few times before.  They also brought some Jackson’s Bar-B-Que home for dinner.  I had just gotten Milly up from a nap a minute before they walked in the door and Michael joined us a few minutes later.  We all ate dinner together, and it was Milly’s first taste of BBQ.

Speaking of Milly food firsts, when we ate at the mall she also had her first whipped cream, her first milkshake and her first soda (Sierra Mist, which she drank from a straw).

Zach Dotsey

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

My dad had gone to Lexington this weekend for an eighth grade reunion or something like that.  I talked to him (and Baba) right before he left to come back to North Carolina.  I also got calls from Mom, Erin and Adam.

This has been a bit of a mixed day for me.  Church was good.  They didn’t have the Cruisers room at Grow Zone, which is for the babies who can crawl but aren’t walking yet.  Last week they had us put Milly with the little babies, but this week she got to hang out with the walking kids.  I told her that while I was hoping she’d start walking today for me, she shouldn’t start walking in there.  And she didn’t.

On the way home Milly was very fussy.  It was a little past her nap time and Dr. Hill said she might feel bad a few days after her shots.  We decided to stop by Panera for some breakfast before going home, but that was a mistake because she started crying and would not stop for anything.  And of course it took forever to get the food, we were behind slow people coming home and we hit a bunch of lights.  It put me and Amanda both in a bit of a mood, but we got over it.

Michael came over to ride with us to Amanda’s grandparents’ house in Beulaville.  We got Milly up after about an hour’s nap and drove up there.  Wasn’t nearly as bad as the ride home, though Milly did get a little fussy towards the end of the hour-long trip.  The Frazelles, sans Hannah who was coming back from helping at a youth camp, were there before us and Amanda’s parents got there just a little after.

We hung out, ate lunch, hung out some more.  Peggy and Earl just recently bought a new TV and Michael helped set their remote up.  He and Amanda had to explain/convince them to use the satellite’s controller instead of the new TV controller, since the satellite’s remote can’t control everything.  Michael ended up talking his grandpa to swap TVs with him.  Apparently they’ve got the same one except that Earl’s can hook up to the internet, and he said he’s never going to get internet.

I started feeling a bit bad there, or maybe on the way there.  My skin was a little sensitive and tingly and my head started feeling a little swimmy.  Since I didn’t feel good, Amanda drove on the way back even though she drove there too.  Milly and I snoozed on the way home.

Milly hadn’t eaten much today, so we let her have a bottle tonight.  She didn’t finish that either though, so her not eating much might not be because of having switched to sippy cups yesterday.  She had a giant explosive poo that filled up her whole diaper when I got her up at 7:30.  She was pretty playful after eating what she did eat, but she also went right to bed when we put her down.

Amanda and I wound down watching some TV.  We watched the first two episodes of a miniseries called Persons Unknown, which is about a bunch of people who were kidnapped and are being held captive in a small town from which they are not able to escape.  It’s intriguing thus far.

Zach Dotsey

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

As well, happy Mother’s Day to my wife, who, thanks to our nearly eleven month old Milly, celebrated her first Mother’s Day today.  And of course, happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my grandma, my mother-in-law, my grandmother-in-law and all the other mothers out there.  I talked to all those ladies today, though I didn’t get to talk to my mom for long because she was working and her phone was nearly dead.  Baba was pretty chatty when I talked to her, which is a little rare.  Crap, I just remembered that I didn’t call her back to hear Milly.

So we started the day off by going to church, although we were a little late leaving the house because I couldn’t find my shoes.  It turned out that Karen thought my Rainbows were hers and they were in the guest room, which isn’t a place I’d have at all thought to look.  We were the furthest back in the Grow Zone line that we’d ever been because we’re usually very early.  It’s all good though, because the little boy in front of us was very entertaining.  He told his mom that later on he was going to beat his dad at MarioKart and his dad was going to beat her.  A few minutes later he wanted to show Karen his spider bite, so he turned around and started to pull down the back of his pants before his parents stopped him.

The service was really good, continuing a series about idols in our life.  Early on in the service though, there was, of course, a shout out to the moms at the service that everyone enjoyed.  You can see it here starting at about the 2:30 mark.

Amanda’s dad, who had just gotten back from a fishing trip yesterday, was planning on joining us at church, but sleeping in a real bed for the first time in many days kept him in bed longer than he planned so he met us for breakfast at Atlanta Bread after church.  After that he rode home with me and Milly while Amanda and Karen went to Costco.

We all spent some time getting ready for people to come over to celebrate Amanda’s first Mother’s Day and 30th birthday as well as Phil’s 60th birthday.  I even made some homemade mac & cheese, which Amanda commended me on.  (The taste, that is.  She commended me on the taste, not the fact that I did it.)  I just didn’t want her to have to make it herself on her birthday.

We had a nice turnout.  In addition to everyone else I’ve already mentioned, Adam, Michael, Peggy and Earl, the Frazelles and Amy and Eli (being a Sunday, Nick was working at the church) all came over.  We ended up with three cakes, too.  Amanda had picked up a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake from Costco, I got a cream cheese one from Lowe’s and Peggy and Earl brought one as well.  Amanda justified it saying that one would be for her birthday, one for her dad’s birthday and one for Mother’s Day.

We all had a nice time and ate outside.  Milly ended up staying up until everyone finished trickling out the door, so she was up a little later than usual.

We were pretty exhausted by the time the house was clear, but we went ahead and watched last night’s Saturday Night Live, hosted by Betty White and guest starring a number of past female cast members.  It was an excellent episode.  We watched The Soup too, even though it was past 10:00, Amanda’s normal bedtime, when we finished SNL.  She reasoned that it was her birthday so she could stay up a little later.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda took a shower while I fed Milly then Dad came upstairs while I bathed Milly.  She always enjoys bath time.  After that we all finished getting ready and went out to breakfast at Atlanta Bread before heading over to Port City Community Church, where we met up with Amanda’s grandparents and parents and Anna and Barry.

Our table for the baby dedication was front and center in the auditorium.  Lauren Danaher, who was in charge of the event, told me that when they realized they’d put a table right in front of the flat screen TV that sits on the floor to give lyrics and other info to people on stage during services, they were worried that whoever was at that table might accidentally bump it or knock it over.  She told me that Tim told her to just put us there.  I don’t know if he was joking because if it got broken they’d know who to come to, or if he just knew that I’d know to watch out for it.  Either way, it was a non-issue.

The dedication service itself was really nice.  Beforehand, Amanda and I were to listen to a few sermons on children and family and answer some questions.  We actually wrote our answers down (which we did separately) and used that as our guideline for answering those same questions that were given for discussion at the tables with the people we sat with.  Milly spent the whole time crawling around on the table and chewing on pens, watches, phones or whatever else she could get her hands on.

Milly was absolutely adorable this morning, by the way.  Amanda had gotten her a white dress with thin shoulder straps and a flower embossed on the bottom left.  She was such a pretty baby, and so well-behaved.

After we got home people started arriving for the cookout.  I think this covers everyone who was there:

Mom, Dad, Karen, Phil, Peggy, Earl, Erin, Adam, Michael, Jenn, Jeff, Barry, Anna, Hannah, Kirsten, Tim, Jenny, Mia, Joel, Felix, Mike, Sarah, Henry, Lauren, Amy, Nick, Eli and  Alysse.  And of course Amanda, Milly and I, though Milly missed the first hour of her shindig due to napping.  She was great the whole time she was up though, especially considering how much she was passed around.  Jeff, my cousin, seemed really excited to meet her.  It was good to see him- it had been a while.

We ate lots of hamburgers and hot dogs and macaroni & cheese and beans and green beans and cupcakes and chips.  I think just about everyone went home with leftovers and we’ve still got plenty ourselves.  We actually have more left over than we thought we would and have some unopened things that we’re going to see if we can return to Costco.

By a little after 4:00 I think most people had taken off.  I was really happy to see everyone who was able to make it.  Milly went down for a nap at about 4:15 and by then Amanda had already picked up most anything that needing picking up and cleaning.  Once the house was clear it already felt odd to be left along by ourselves.  We ended up watching a few things on TV, including the 200th episode of South Park.  It was a really fun episode in which they brought back every celebrity who had ever been on the show.  I enjoyed seeing them and thinking back to the episodes they were on and how they were lampooned.  They went all the way back to the first season and made all kinds of references to past episodes.  It was a really good twist, I thought, on the old formula of a clip show.

While Milly was good all day, she was also a little off schedule and was getting cranky shortly after 7:00, so we ended up feeding her a few minutes early.  Amanda read to her for the first time since she lost her voice when she was sick then we put her down to sleep.  After that Amanda gave me an overdue haircut, and just as we were finishing that I got a call from Nick asking if we wanted to play MarioKart, which we did.  We played four players, with Alysse taking the final slot.  (Amy was off shooting a wedding.)  We played that until a little after 10, when Amanda decided it was her bedtime.  I did better this time around.  Though Nick, Amanda and I all won sets of four races, I was the only one who was able to get four first place finishes in one set.  Hey, after the whooping I got a few days ago, I need to toot my own horn.

Zach Dotsey

In addition to that, Pierre, Amanda’s grandmother’s sister’s husband, got confirmation today that he has a form of cancer.  Pierre and Joanne opened their house to me before the rest of the family had even met me, and I’ve always liked Pierre.  He’s quiet but funny and is always into the latest gadgets, which reminds me a little of Pup Pup, my mom’s dad.  I really hope he’s able to beat this thing.  I hate cancer.

Please keep them in your prayers.

Milly decided to do the “wake up and cry unless someone stays in the room with me” thing again last night.  I was still up and Amanda was trying to fall asleep, though she was coughing a lot.  After my second unsuccessful attempt to get Milly to stay down Amanda decided to go ahead on down to the guestroom.  I put Milly down a third time just before I went to bed myself and told Amanda that I was going to try to sleep upstairs because she was coughing so much, but that if Milly didn’t quiet down soon I’d join her.  Lucky for me, Milly did quiet down shortly after I got in bed, so I got to avoid both the cries and the coughs.

Amanda told me later that she saw every hour on the clock.  She was beat when she got home and went to lie on the couch as soon as she got in, and there she stayed pretty much until she went to bed.  She did say that she spent a little time on the floor in the nursery.

I had a meeting this afternoon that went pretty well and I’ve got another one tomorrow morning.  There have been a lot of sales leads lately, that’s for sure.  In the last two days I’ve sent out proposals for three sites and will be working on another one tomorrow, scheduled two meetings and followed up on one more lead.  It’s pretty fun when things are hopping like that, so long as there’s breathing room once the actual work starts.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda texted me in between services to let me know that Cobb had peed in Harvey’s crate for some reason and that she had lost her voice.  At least Milly was happy and talkative and behaving well for her.

On the way back to the house I called my parents.  My mom was at home and recovering from having her wisdom teeth taken out.  My dad beat me to saying something about it, but I was going to greet him with “Christos vostress” (spelling questionable there), which is Slovak for “Christ is risen.”  It’s something you’d say to Pap, his dad, who died last year.  I need to make sure to remember the response, because that part I don’t have down yet.

At the house, Amanda, Milly, Amy and Eli were all ready to go.  Amy and Eli were going to Beulaville to have Easter with Amanda’s family because Nick was going to be working all day (and their extended families are in Michigan).  I called Baba (my grandma) on the way there.  I meant to give my siblings a call too.

We were the first of the family to get to Amanda’s grandparents’ house.  Amanda’s parents and brother (with Jenn, his girlfriend) showed up just a little bit later.  We ate a late lunch and then went to the park across the street from their house, which, I realized, was the first time Milly had been to a park.  We were on the swing for a bit, went down a slide and had her and Eli on a see-saw-type bouncy thing.  I let Milly sit on that on her own for a bit, even though it was a couple feet above the ground.  She was a bit tired and didn’t seem too enthused or entertained by anything we did, but she did bounce a bit on the see-saw thing.  I also marked the date and Milly’s and Eli’s names inside a little clubhouse thing they had there.  It was all written on already anyway, but I tried to put it in an out of the way place, mainly so it wouldn’t be covered up and so I can show it to Milly when she gets older.

The Frazelles, who had been at Barry’s parents’ house, came by.  They showed up while I was napping, actually.  Everyone played with Milly (who got a bathing suit, a book and a toy cellphone from her Nana) and Eli.  Amanda, Amy, Hannah, Kirsten and I played a game of Wits & Wagers.  I crushed it, thanks in large part to a question about when Pete Rose got in trouble.  Everyone else guessed in the ’60s and ’70s, and since I knew it was when I was a kid, I just put 1980.  I knew it was later than that, but I also knew it was in the ’80s, and since you can’t win by going over I played it safe and bet everything I had on it.  Won me the game.

The answer, by the way, was 1989.

Anyway, we got back home a little after 7:00.  Amanda still had no voice when we put Milly to bed.  She (Milly) has gotten to where she likes to stand up in her crib before we even leave the room, so now I feel like we have to scurry on out of there as soon as possible.  She didn’t fuss though.  She made some noise when it was closing in on 9:00, but it didn’t last long at all.  Amanda and I watched a Law & Order: SVU then she went to bed.

Duke plays in their first national championship game since 2001 tomorrow.  All sings point to them winning it pretty handily, but of course anything can happen.  Like everyone else, I’ve got a soft spot for Butler since they’ve never been to even the Final Four before and their coach is only a year older than I am, but all that ended when Duke beat West Virginia yesterday.  I hope Duke destroys them.  It’s nothing personal though.

On a related note, let’s dispel the notion that Butler is a Cinderella team.  They were ranked in the top 10 most, if not all, season long.

Zach Dotsey

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