We went pretty much first thing over to the Masons’ house today.  We’ve known them for a while, but we’d never gotten around to going over there.  Not only was it the first time we went to their house, but it was also the first time we met their new baby, Brynn.

Of course, I didn’t get to stay there long initially because we were there for a chicks-only baby shower for Amy.  The dads among us who were there, being me, Nick and Gregory, took off with a slew of two-year-olds.

I’ll say that Eli was greeted like a prince when he walked in the door.  Callie had been talking about him all morning apparently, and Milly is always happy to see him too.  I imagined him walking in expecting to find one girlfriend then finding out that both of his girlfriends were hanging out together and what trouble he should be in.

Milly and I rode with Nick and Eli in their new Forerunner, which was a nice ride, and we met up with Greg and Callie at Mayfaire.  Walking to Barnes & Noble, Milly and Callie held hands.  They’ve only been together a few times before, but they’re both (well, I can speak for Milly at least) more interactive with kids their own age now than they were before.  Milly was trying to show Callie how to skip, although skipping to Milly is picking her legs up high when she walks.  It almost pushed Callie off the sidewalk.

After we stayed at Barnes & Noble for a while we went to Brilliant Sky to let the kids play with even more toys, then we went to Coldstone where each dad got ice cream and shared it with his kid.

When we got back to the Masons’ the baby shower tapered off and it got down to us and the Warkentiens.  Gregory had texted me before we’d left our house and said something about a pool, so we had brought bathing suits not knowing if they had a regular pool or wanted to go to one or what.  It turned out that they had a giant kiddie pool in the backyard.  Greg and I got in with Callie and Milly.  It was very cold at first, but after I put my head under it felt great.  The pool was a really good size too.  The kids could stand but it was too deep for them to pick something up from the floor, for example.  I liked it because it wasn’t so deep that we had to worry about the kids, but I could also sit down and be mostly submerged.

Nick and Amy forgot Eli’s swimsuit so Nick left to get that.  Eli, meanwhile, got in the pool naked until Allison brought him some pink panties.  Eli, party guy.

Milly took a nap after we got home, but it took her a while.  We put her down but she made it apparent that she wasn’t tired so we got her up and then put her down again later.

Do you remember a while back when Matt Davis came over to shoot some footage for a baby video we’d randomly won from Lifestage Films?  We finally got our video, which Amy edited herself.  The cool thing about it being a while before we got it back was how different Milly was, not to mention hearing myself and Amanda talk about things she was doing at the time.  There’s some absolutely wonderful footage in the video, and we’re very happy to have it.

Milly loved it, of course.  She kept asking to watch Mimi Story.

Amanda decided she wanted burgers on the condition that I go to the grocery store, and so I did.  It had cooled off and was very nice outside, but the flies became unbearable so I finished my food inside.

I decided to go ahead and mow the lawn this evening.  It was just getting really bad.  I think this was the first time I’ve mowed my own lawn in the evening instead of in the morning.  The sad thing about mowing the yard is that it grows so patchy in our front yard that it almost looked better when it was high and unruly, just because it looked like it covered more.

Milly had a bath or shower yesterday and another shower today.  Yesterday Amanda introduced her to a “towel dress” and today she requested it.  She thinks it’s so fun, but she’s so small and wrapped up so tight that she has to take tiny steps.  And of course it falls off of her pretty quickly.

When we put Milly to bed we played Hold Still for her.  For the last “Wiggle wiggle wiggle” part she had her forehead against mine and we wiggle wiggle wiggled our faces.  Then I played her Goodbye and she went to bed after saying her best prayers to date.

After she was in bed Amanda and I watched Paranormal Activity on Netflix.  It was pretty freaky.  The dude in it was an idiot though.  Amanda decided she’d watch Glee so she could watch something lighter and distract herself from Paranormal Activity.

Zach Dotsey