At our church, when a kid acts up or is in some way uncontrollable in one of the children’s ministries, a number goes up on the screen to let the parent know they need to come get their kid.  The numbers are randomly assigned each week.  Usually when a number pops up we’ll glance at our sticker just because we don’t ever remember to look at Milly’s number beforehand, or that’s what I do anyway.

You know where this is going, but you don’t know the whole thing.

We’re maybe two songs into the service when a number flashes on the screen.  Since it’s Amanda’s week to get Milly she’s got the sticker and it’s on the bottom right corner of her shirt, while I’m on her left.  I glance casually towards it, but I can’t see it from where I am and I figure Milly never does anything to get in trouble anyway, so what are the chances?

Then Amanda looks at me and says it’s Milly’s number.  I was definitely surprised.  She left to go check on our girl while I wondered what she could have done.  Did she fight with a kid over a toy?  Didn’t seem likely; she’s pretty good about sharing.  Did she get hurt or throw up or something?  What if Milly was upset and wanted me?  Or what if we had to leave, and Amanda had to bring a screaming Milly into the church to get me?  I thought about getting Amanda’s purse and meeting her at the exit to Grow Zone.

Amanda wasn’t gone too long.  She told me that another little girl bit Milly.  They took the girl away and then she came back and bit her again!  Larry, one of the Grow Zone security guys that I talk to every week because we’re both Duke fans, said the other little girl must have been a Carolina fan.

Amanda was told Milly’s skin wasn’t broken and the other girl had been taken from the room.  Amanda said she saw another mom leaving with a girl about Milly’s size and figured that was her.  She was also told that Milly got over it pretty quickly, so when they asked Amanda if she wanted to go see Milly she said no, that it would probably cause more trouble since everything was fine.

After the service I stayed in the auditorium and talked to Anna and Barry and their friends Heidi and Tim.  (More like listened to Anna and Heidi talk about shoes, but it’s all good.)  I told them about Milly’s day so far and both of them said that some kids are just biters and they usually grow out of it before kindergarten.

Amanda appeared with Milly, who seemed in good spirits, and told me that even though the other girl had been taken out of the room, they’d let her back in and she had gone right up to Milly and bit her AGAIN!

Amanda was a bit perturbed then.  She talked to a few of the Grow Zone people about it.  Lauren, the head of Grow Zone, hadn’t known the girl was let back in I think.  Amanda just didn’t understand why a) they let her back in and b) they didn’t make sure to keep the girl away from Milly, since she obviously had an affinity for our girl’s flesh.

Milly had a bite mark on her right arm that looked like ringworm and another mark on her back near her left shoulder.  Amanda saw something that could have been another one on her right pinky finger, but I saw one somewhere else, though I can’t remember where it was now.

All that said, Milly was in a fine mood and we went on to Atlanta Bread and Barnes & Noble then headed on home.  The only thing of note is that Milly was very impatient to get outside of Atlanta Bread, so I took her outside and waited for Amanda to finish her food then she came out to take her to Barnes & Noble while I went back in to finish my food.

We tried to put Milly down for a nap back at home, but she was out of her bed the entire time.  I’m not digging this no-nap thing.  She was very upset when we first took her up and playing Monster’s Inc. on the iPad helped calm her, so we let her hang onto that, which was of course a mistake.  I went up after a while to take it from her since we could hear her playing with the fish pond app on the baby monitor.  When I got up there she had turned on YouTube and was watching a Winnie the Pooh video.

She was still active after that so we finally gave up and packed up to go to the beach, stopping to get Milly some frozen yogurt at The Fuzzy Peach in honor of National Ice Cream Day, though I’d be willing to bet there’s a National Frozen Yogurt Day too.  We let Milly get her own bowl for the first time.

We also stopped by Ulta at Mayfaire because Amanda had a gift certificate for some free nail polish or some such.  While she ran in to get that I called Baba since I haven’t talked to her in a bit.  Uncle Steve was over there and answered the phone.  I tried to get Milly to talk to him and she did say hi, but that was about it.  She did babble at Baba a bit.

When we got to Anna and Barry’s we hung out inside for a few minutes then we all headed to the beach.  Hannah was coming back in town from helping out at the Fuse summer camp, so Amanda, Anna and Kirsten played with Milly in some tidal pools while Barry and I surfed.

The surf didn’t start out very fun.  It was all rough and choppy and just broke weird.  I came in and played with Milly for a bit.  She wanted to sit on Terry, the surfboard I was using, then she wanted to sit on it in the water.  I took it out enough that I could straddle the board and keep my feet on the ground and sat Milly in front of me.  It was pretty calm in the shallows where we were, but one small wave came by and washed over the board and she was done.  She usually doesn’t mind the waves.

I went back out shortly after that and had a much better time.  After one wave I caught I realized how automatic I felt getting it and turning in light of the fact that I was riding Terry, a smaller and much thinner and lighter board than my own board, Blue.  It was empowering to realize that I felt so at ease on Terry that I didn’t even really think about it.

When Barry and I got back up to the house we discovered that Milly was painting toenails on the porch.  That kept her occupied for a good long while.  She painted Kirsten’s, I think Amanda’s, Barry’s and mine.  She only put a dab on most of our toes.  Of course, she put it on herself too.  No matter how well she had a toenail covered she kept putting more and more on.  Her feet ended up looking like Smurf feet.  There was a few spills on the porch, but they were quickly cleaned up.

We had a dinner of salad, chicken, cranberry sauce and corn on the cob, which Anna had fixed just so she could watch her eat it.  Unfortunately, Milly wasn’t feeling the corn on the cob tonight.  She devoured her dessert though: a Nutty Buddy.  Jay Rivenbark, Barry’s friend, joined us.

Milly, not having napped at all, was getting a little cranky so we took her on home.  She fell asleep on the way, which is an oddity.  She was passed out when I carried her inside and she went down in her bed just fine.

Karen chad called Amanda a little earlier and had decided to come, but she wanted to make sure she waited until Milly was asleep to make sure she didn’t distract her.  She’ll be keeping Milly busy tomorrow.

Zach Dotsey