Milly did perfectly fine in the bathroom last night. I woke up a little bit before the alarm I had set in part because Erin’s friend Cece’s dog had a very peculiar bark.
Dad asked us all yesterday if we’d go to church with him and Mom in the morning. Me and my siblings all said yes and with the exception of Adam we were all playing Quelf until about 2 AM. Everyone else thought someone would get them up, so it ended up just being me, Amanda and Andra at church.
Today was the first day for a new priest at Saint Matthew. He was Vietnamese, but he’d been here a good long while and spoke slowly enough to be understood. He told his story about how he came to America along with his background. I was very impressed with it and think he’d be a wonderful person just to talk to. He also had a good humor about him.
Milly was a lot better during Mass than I expected her to be. She wandered a little bit between me, Amanda, Dad and Mom, but the only time she was loud was when a song would finish and she’d shout “Yay!” That drew a lot of smiles.
After the service I stopped by Mum Mum and Pup Pup’s graves. Mom got a little emotional. I started to talk to Milly about my grandparents, but I felt silly since she wasn’t listening and didn’t really care anyway. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say right then anyway.
We spent a good chunk of the day in the pool. Kelly (formerly Runkle) Watson, Joe’s sister and one of Erin’s oldest friends, came by with her two adorable kids. Jackson took right to them.
Amanda and I showed Josh how to play Dominion. He and Andra have the game but have never yet played it. He did really well for his first time playing. The final scores were 36, 36, 31. I thought for sure I was going to lose, but somehow I tied Amanda, and since I’d had one less go than she had, I won the tie-breaker. I honestly thought I was going to lose, but I happened to have bought just enough Duchies.
After that, various ones of us played Rayman’s Raving Rabids 2, which was a fun party game.
Milly kept wanting to go upstairs to the bunk bed for some reason. She even managed to climb the steps and get up there on her own once, that sneaky little thing. She never went down the stairs by herself, but she did go down most of the way with me beside her. She never really liked going down the stairs on her own before, but I think watching Addison do it emboldened her.
Speaking of Milly and Addison, they’ve been playing great together. All weekend though, Milly has been calling Addison Graelyn, and Addison has been calling Milly Mia. Jackson’s been great with Milly too, but he always has been. He’s such a good cousin. The girls played with Aunt Reggie a good bit when she came out today too.
Later in the evening, I sat outside and chatted with Dad for a while. Milly and Addie, unbeknownst to me, were being given a bath at the time in my parents’ tub, which has jacuzzi jets on it. They turned them on for a minute, but they scared Milly.
Milly went to bed a little after that. Andra said something about her staying up for the fireworks, but it didn’t even start getting dark until around 9:00 and Milly would very likely have been afraid of them anyway. She’s not a big fan of loud, sudden noises.
I think everyone thinks we’re a little too stringent with putting Milly down to bed. Someone at some point joked that they’d put Milly down at 8:01 if they watched her. We’re really not that strict on it. A lot of times she ends up going to bed at 8:30 and sometimes later. We just like having her on a known schedule because it makes life easier for her and for us.
Anyway, like I said, it got dark around 9:00. Josh, Jackson and I set up the fireworks. Hmm, since today is the third and tomorrow is actually July 4th, I’ll give the honor of discussing the fireworks display to our Independence Day write-up. After the fireworks though, all of us grown-ups were out on the porch. I was very tired and started nodding off in my chair before I headed up to bed.
Zach Dotsey