Zach Dotsey

I woke up around 7:00 this morning.  Milly wasn’t fussing, but she was awake and I didn’t know what time it was, so I got on up.  Milly and I talked to Uncle Roy for a bit, and when I heard my parents I took Milly to see them.  Since Mom got in late last night she didn’t get to see Milly.  She didn’t get to see anyone, come to think of it.  I think I ended up going to sleep about 15 minutes before she and my dad got back to the house.

As I noticed last night, there was snow on the ground, probably a couple inches.  Amanda and I took Milly out to check it out, but she wasn’t really into it.  I got a few pictures and a little bit of video, but nothing monumental.

We mostly just hung around for a good part of the day.  Milly had her first taste of eggs, which she didn’t seem to mind too much.  I tried to install a printer on Uncle Roy’s laptop and drew and colored a picture of one of Jackson’s toys in Photoshop.  I’d shown him a little bit about how to use it yesterday, which he seemed to enjoy.  I wish they’d come out with a new MarioPaint, because the basics I learned playing with that were the basis for a lot of what I taught myself with Photoshop.

Duke hosted Maryland today.  Not only was it Coach K’s 1oooth game, and not only was it his birthday, but it was also a game to determine the #1 spot in the ACC.  The Terps were second but if they won they’d take Duke’s #1 spot.

The game started and Duke rebounded a Maryland attempt then Jon Scheyer made a three.  Then the power went out.  It came back on, but the satellite was taking forever to sync back up.  Then the power went out again.  Not only did it interrupt my game, but both laptops that were in use (mine, with Amanda on it, and Uncle Roy on his) died.  Dad and Josh were doing some bathroom work (they ended up pretty much completely stripping out the bathroom at the top of the stairs) and had to cut the power for some reason while they were draining the water.  Or something like that.

Once the power came back on the satellite took forever to reboot again, so I watched some of the game online until the TV was ready.

It was a great game.  Duke won by 21 and Brian Zoubek had his best game ever with 16 points and 17 rebounds!  Dude was a beast today.

In other basketball news, Carolina beat NC State in a game to determine who would reside in the cellar of the ACC.  Carolina, sadly, was able to stop their losing streak.  I watched UK beat Tennessee just a little bit ago.  It was tight until the end of the game when I guess the Wildcats decided they were tired of trading buckets.

We played some MarioKart for a bit then Amanda, Milly and I left just before 5:00.  The trip was pretty uneventful aside from the fact that I drove (even though I drove up as well, and we usually trade off duties) and Milly cried most of the last 15 miles or so of the trip.  She seemed to just be tired of being in the car.  She was also distracted while eating and didn’t go to bed too easily.

Amanda and I watched The Office and 30 Rock before she went to bed, then I watched an episode of Smallville.  The next one features the Justice Society.  I’d have gone ahead and watched it, but it’s a two hour one I think, and I remembered that Kentucky and Tennessee were playing.

The Revills, by the way, got two new dogs today.  They were just going to get one but they decided they liked two of them.  Lucy and Maxine are their names.  As you may recall, they recently lost two dogs.

Zach Dotsey

We used the GPS that my parents gave us for Christmas for the first time today.  We weren’t going far, in fact we were just going to a baby shower for Elliot and Melissa that was being held in a neighborhood not far from us, but it’s easy to get turned around in the neighborhoods between Gordon and Market with all the little winding roads and cul de sacs and whatnot.  In fact, the place we were going is so new it wasn’t on Google Maps, Mapquest or the GPS itself, and the maps on that were updated very recently.

The baby shower was nice and we got to catch up with a number of friends and meet some new people.  One of them, a lady from Raleigh, watched after Milly for us for a while.  We relieved her at one point but she asked if she could hold her again a little later.  Milly spent most of her time with her trying to eat her necklace.  Milly was passed around quite a bit and didn’t ever seem to mind.  She’s very sociable.

There was one girl, I think she was four years old and named Tyler, who was very intrigued by Milly.  We let her hold her a couple times, one of those being on a couch.  They seemed to be back far enough on the couch to not worry too much about them, but Milly leaned forward and Tyler didn’t have hold her tight enough and Milly fell headfirst off the couch.  Luckily I was right there and I caught her by pressing her against the couch with my leg.  She cried a good bit, but it was from being scared.

After we got home and put Milly down for a nap (she hadn’t had one except on the short ride to the baby shower) we watched Duke take on Boston College.  I was a little worried because BC is a middle of the pack ACC team that Duke beat by 20 points earlier in the season, but they’d just had a great game at home against Georgia Tech and Carolina is coming up on Wednesday, so I thought it might be a trap game for them.  Well, they got pretty far ahead but only ended up winning by three.  Despite that, I was happy for the win.  Next up, the Tar Heels.

There was a lot of good basketball on today.  Lots of close games.

I talked to several family members today.  I caught up with Aunt Robbie this morning and Uncle Roy this evening then Mom and Dad.  Dad had gone up to Rochester this weekend because Mom’s back was bothering her and she didn’t think she’d be comfortable riding on a plane.  They went out and about, saw It’s Complicated and it just sounded like they had a nice time together.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda woke up this morning to see Milly staring at her from crib.  She wasn’t sure if Milly could actually see that far, but she was looking in our direction from between the slats of the crib.  And she woke up at 8:00, instead of earlier than usual, which is a first for this trip.  It might be a first for being away from home.

Uncle Roy came in last night and hadn’t gotten a chance to see Milly, but he did get to this morning.

Mom made a breakfast of eggs, biscuits and bacon.  It was yummers.

Elmo, one of my parents’ dogs, was found injured this morning.  Amanda called Banfield, who said that they could look at her but if her leg was broken or anything like that they’d end up passing her off to the emergency vet, so Dad, Josh and I carried her out to the car and Mom took her to the vet.  The shame of it is that my mom had gotten a later flight to Rochester for today to be around the family more, and she ended up leaving us for a chunk of time and not being able to see anybody off.

Erin called when we were almost back home and told me that Elmo’s knee had been blown out, and that it was likely just from running around.  I think surgery was mentioned, but the best option seems to be to just let it heal.

Amanda, Milly and I left after Milly’s lunchtime feeding.  After loading up the car just about to capacity we took off back to Wilmington.  Aside from Erin, who was taking Mom back to the airport later, we were the last to leave.  I wish we got to see my parents more.  I’ve got to say, everybody did a good job of splitting time with the babies.  I can’t wait for Addie and Milly to get to the age where they can really play and interact.

The drive home seemed to go by pretty fast.  Amanda and I chatted a lot, but honestly I couldn’t really tell you what we talked about now.  It was just… pleasant.  Milly continued her record of traveling well.

After we got home and unloaded the car I went back out to pick up MarioKart for the Wii, but it was sold out at Best Buy, where I have a gift card (thanks, Dain!).  I decided to go ahead and look at GameStop across the street.  They didn’t have it either, but I considered buying a few used games because they had them on a buy two get one free special.  I didn’t end up getting anything though- I’ve got enough games to play.

After I got home and we got Milly to bed Amanda and I played a good bit of Wii Fit.  Hopefully we’ll keep up with it and it will do us both some good.  After Amanda went to bed I played a bit of Wario Land Shake it!, which is a fun little side-scroller.

Tomorrow marks the return to work.  I’ve already got plenty to do, from the number of emails that I’ve read over the past couple days.  I thought about going ahead and getting started on some of it, but I decided I owe myself a little time.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda and I packed up and left Richlands for Rougemont a little after 10.  Actually, we were heading to Cary before the Rouge for Amanda’s extended family’s annual day after Christmas get-together, but we did make a stop near the RDU airport to meet up with my sister, Erin, to drop off Bruce and Harvey so she could take them to our parents’ house.  We wouldn’t really have any place to keep them for the couple hours we’d be at Ralph and Susan’s (Amanda’s great-uncle and -aunt) and Erin was nice enough to drive pretty far out of her way to do us this favor.

This was the first time a number of people had met Milly and of course she was a hit.  She did really well, too, being passed around and held so much.  She didn’t get fussy until almost 3:00, which was the time we were planning on leaving anyway.  We got to the Rouge at about 4:00, just in time to feed her.  I called my friend, Jason Revill, on the way and talked to him about him and his parents stopping by, but he was sick and his parents were in Burlington I believe.  He’ll meet Milly one of these days.

My baby sister arrived with her family not too long after we got to my parents’ house.  Amanda and I gave Jackson his birthday present, a pack of Legos that came with instructions to make two different jets or a boat.  Jackson and I worked on that with a small break when I put Milly down for a nap.

We opened presents a little bit after that.  Aunt Reggie came with a guy she’s seeing.  I can’t recall his name at the moment.  Richy maybe?  Milly was up before we finished opening presents so she got to do some of that.  She still wouldn’t rip open the wrapping paper by herself, but she would grip it and I’d pull the box so it would sort of tear.  Jackson didn’t mind helping her open her presents.  He was really sweet with her, picking her up and playing with her and all.  He even told me that she’s a really pretty baby.

Renee, Adam’s former fiancee, was there.  I guess she’d driven from Charlotte to Wilmington then to Rougemont with him.  It was nice to see her.

Later on, after the presents had all been opened (we got a GPS and money, as well as a juicer in the Chinese Christmas/White Christmas/whatever part) we played a few games of Wits & Wagers and Scattergories.  I almost won the last game of the former and I did win the latter.

Zach Dotsey

We got up this morning and were treated to a Cracker Barrel breakfast by Karen.  After that we all went to Best Buy and looked at some things.  I’ve been asked a lot what I want for Christmas this year and I haven’t been able to come up with anything that anybody could reasonably afford, but while we were there I mentioned to Amanda that it would be fun to have a Wii.  Don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.  I know I’ve already got a PS3 and an Xbox 360, but for group fun and games that aren’t real seriously in depth, a Wii would be fun.  I’d want to have four controllers and nunchucks with it so everyone could play.

We got home and shortly thereafter Amanda and her mother abandoned Milly and me to go shopping for the next six hours. I talked to both Mom and Dad separately today.  Dad was finalizing Christmas plans, so we’re going to the Rouge the day after Christmas.  He said that he and Mom would buy all the presents, that we wouldn’t have to worry about buying any for everyone else, but I think we might at least get something small for everyone.  Mom asked me to get in touch with Adam to help her our with something.  She said she was sick and her flight was canceled, so she stayed in Rochester this weekend.

I called Adam, but I have yet to hear back from him.

After Milly’s mom and Nana left, she and I watched Kentucky whoop up on Indiana and dozed a bit.  I was planning on doing some yard work today, but it was difficult given that I was watching the baby and it was cold outside.  That is, had it been warmer I could have brought her outside with me while I worked.  As it was, I waited until she was tired and I was able to put her down for a bit.  I for one half of the front yard raked into one large pile and got started on the other half of the front yard, but Milly woke up before I could finish.

Amanda, whose phone had been off previously, called to let me know that she and her mom were on the way back to the house and wanted to know if I wanted any food.  I told her I’d call her if I did, so I did call her back a few minutes later, but she didn’t hear it.  Karen ended up going back out and picking up some Subway for me and her, which I told her she didn’t have to do.

This evening we all spent watching the History Channel.  There was a show, part interview and part reenactment, of the Manson Family murders.  There’s a thing on The Beatles right now.  It’s a pretty cool documentary in that it doesn’t have any kind of narrator or anything, it’s just showing clips and still photos to recorded interviews and music.  It reminds me of the way a Kennedy documentary I saw a month or so ago was done.

I teased Amanda that she was watching the History Channel.  And to think if I hadn’t been interested in an episode of Modern Marvels that came on before the Manson show we’d have missed out.

Zach Dotsey

After getting Milly up, fed and dressed, then taking showers ourselves, Amanda and I went to Sam’s to get some more Enfamil then scooted over to Old Navy, where they had a 50% off sale on outerwear today.  Amanda picked a couple things out for Milly, but the lines were ridiculously long so we ended up just leaving, which is probably just as well.

After that we headed over to Wrightsville Beach to see the Frazelles and take a walk on the beach.  I ended up helping Barry back some files up on his Mac because he was going to reinstall the operating system, which is a few years old.  It needed it, too.  It probably took more than five minutes for that thing to reboot.

We took our walk with Barry and Anna, but Barry didn’t get too far because their dog, Scout, got tired really soon after we got out there.  Anna mentioned that he probably wouldn’t be brought out on the beach much anymore for walks.

Milly got to taste a couple new things today.  Barry had a chocolate-dipped granola bar still in the wrapper that Milly was enjoying playing with, so I actually let her lick the chocolate off of one.  She really liked it and had chocolate all over her mouth and running, mixed with drool, down her face.  Later on I let her try a granola bar without chocolate and a BBQ potato chip, which she also enjoyed licking.  I didn’t think her reaction to that would have been so positive.

So the tally so far is BBQ chips, chocolate, granola bars, pizza sauce and chicken salad mayo sauce = yummy, apple sauce = icky face.  My girl’s going to like junk food.

When we got home Amanda and I (mostly I, but Amanda seemed to look forward to it despite not liking football) watched Duke play at Carolina.  It was Duke’s most favored chance to beat Carolina in a really long time.  The end of the first half saw the score tied at six all, all points scored on field goals.  Carolina turned it up in the fourth quarter though and ended up winning 19-6, which was disappointing.  Duke’s offense just couldn’t do much.

Amanda went and got us some chips and some sandwich supplies, but one of the bags of chips was nasty and stale, though it was still sealed when we got it and the date on it was fine.  I took it back at halftime and checked the new bag before I even got out of the store.

Amanda folded a bunch of clothes tonight.  We got into laundry mode for the day because we had some clean clothes sitting on the guest bed that Cobb decided to pee on.  I blame ourselves because the litter hadn’t been cleaned in a bit.  Still, it’s frustrating.  Fortunately we don’t think the cat pee went through to the mattress.

I tried something new when I gave Milly her bath tonight, and that was to just pour the cup full of water that I use to rinse her right down her head, not worrying about directing it away from her face.  It didn’t seem to bother her at all, which bodes well for her living at the beach.  More importantly, it made all her hair go down in front of her face, like bangs.  She has some hair that comes down past her eyebrows, but what I want to get at is that when I did that and then she opened her eyes, I think I could see her as she’ll look as a little girl.  I mentioned a similar vision in regards to Eli Warkentien a while back, but now I can see it with Milly, which is pretty cool.

I talked to my mom for about a half hour tonight.  I think the commute to Rochester during the week is tough on her, but it sounds like she’s pleased with a lot of stuff going on at home.  At the end of our conversation, talking about Milly, Mom agreed that she’s a very pretty baby, but she also said that she’s very endearing with her little personality.  In my best Robert Barone: “Everybody loves Milly.”

Zach Dotsey
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Today was my mom’s last day at home before starting her new job in Rochester, New York.  She’s going to be making some pretty decent money up there and will be home on the weekends.

My dad invited everyone to go to church with him, but he didn’t have any takers.  I felt kind of bad about that, but Amanda and I were already planning on going this evening anyway.

Not too much to tell about this morning.  We packed up, showered and all that stuff.  Aside from Erin we were the last to take off.  We left right after feeding Milly and got home at exactly 3:10.  We ran in to the house where I changed Milly’s diaper and Amanda changed her shirt.  We were back in the car at exactly 3:20 and arrived at Port City Community Church at 3:30.  Milly wasn’t happy about these events.  She had been fussy the last few miles on I-40 and really did not appreciate being put back in the car so soon.

The church service was great and it was a lot of fun.  It was PC3’s ten year birthday and featured a look back and a look ahead.  Lots of music and videos plus a special guest sermon from Pastor Jackson, who came here from Kenya with his wife for the occasion.  At the end they had people hold up signs, sort of a before and after thing.  It was touching by itself, but a friend of ours whose story we know well was up there, and that, to me was even more moving.

It was Amanda’s week for Grow Zoning Milly, and Matt Davis went in just ahead of her, so Melissa Davis and I walked to the Grow Zone exit to wait on spouses and daughters.  Matt went on ahead so he could say something to Pastor Jackson once he got out, but Melissa stuck around a minute to see Milly.  She said she’d seen how cute she was from Facebook stalking, but this was the first time she’d gotten to see her in person.

We also ran into Blake and Stephanie Konny, Mike (Lars) and Kaitlyn Boscaljon and Kristen Barriner.  This was our first time attending and evening service, and I guess evening services are where everyone we know hangs out, but we really like going in the mornings and having a full day ahead of us.

Zach Dotsey