The title refers not to my dog Harvey’s tail, but what appeared to have been, not long before this tale, the tail of a squirrel, which he, Harvey, coughed up in my recently cleaned and vacuumed office this afternoon.
Harvey came in from being outside and coughed up what looked to be a little bit of pine straw before heading to the back of the house. He likes to sit in the guest room or office, so I didn’t really think anything of it. Not long after that though, I walked back there and saw another something that looked like it was maybe a bigger, thicker bit of pine straw. Upon giving it a little more attention, I noticed that while it was kind of brushy, it wasn’t long brushy but rather one long main piece with a bunch of little brushies coming off of it. Little brushies like fur.
My suspicions raised, I got the brush and dustpan to scoop it up and look a little closer. Sure enough, it was furry and there even seemed to be a bone attached to the end of it, along with something that looked like strong. Some kind of sinew, I’m thinking.
So yeah, I don’t know if Harvey actually killed a squirrel this time or if he found one dead or what. I didn’t see any blood on him, so that leads me to think he hasn’t murdered yet. Anyway, I just tossed the tail out front so he wouldn’t get it back. I looked in the backyard to see if I could find the source of the squirrel tail, but I didn’t see anything.
Shortly after that I was feeding Milly a yogurt dinner (she’s started trying to sign yogurt, by the way, as well as Mommy and Daddy today, and drink) and she reached out and knocked the yogurt cup over. It spilled on my shirt and shorts (both of which I’d just put on a little while before), the chair I was sitting in, my left ankle and the floor. Bruce came over to lick it up and a good bit of it dripped off the chair onto the side of his head. I was hoping Harvey would see that and clean him up, but no such luck. Milly and Bruce both got baths shortly after that. Milly thought it was hilarious that Bruce was in the bathtub while she was.
All of this was just before small group, which we had at our house tonight. While we were sitting around Mike Nowak was making Donald Duck-like noises at Milly and for some reason she did the thing where her face melts and she starts crying. She was crying so bad that while I was holding her she was taking little huffs. It was so cute but pitiful. I don’t know what the deal was though; she’s always liked Mike just fine before. The only person she’s had that kind of reaction with before was Kevin Millard. Maybe it has something to do with dads of girls her age. I have no idea.
Small group was good. The ladies got the living room and us fellas got the office. It was the final week in a series from Port City Community Church called Man School. Amanda told me that the girls never got to the questions, but they had a real good discussion about raising kids. Us guys got through the questions, but we did sidetrack ourselves with some interesting theological discussions.
Backing up to the beginning of the day, I decided to try to see how Milly would do with a banana for breakfast today. I peeled a little bit of it and gave her the whole thing and she eventually ate the entire banana. It was enough to fill her up for breakfast apparently, though she snacked on some Cheerios for a bit afterwards.
She also said the word banana, or something close to it. It was a B sound usually followed by the sound she makes sticking her tongue in and out of her mouth, so it sort of came out as, “Buh-lebba-lebba.”
Amanda and Milly went to the mall for lunch with Amanda’s grandparents. The Frazelle girls were all there too, but I don’t remember if Amanda said Michael was or not. Amanda said Hannah and Kirsten were letting Milly walk around and following her, and she said she could see Milly stop in front of Abercrombie and start dancing. Amanda picked a cute outfit up for Milly at Old Navy before they went to the mall.
Amanda and I had a pretty good talk about some things in our relationship tonight. Nothing bad, just discussing our feelings on some things. It really was a good talk.
Zach Dotsey