After church Milly was wanting a muffin, so we re-instituted  doing that after a one week hiatus, complete with the follow-up walk to Barnes & Noble.  Milly was great the entire time and even went down for her nap easily when we got home.  Amanda and I watched a few shows while Milly was down, though I don’t think she slept as long as she usually does.

Milly wanted me to sit in the back with her from church to Mayfaire, and at one point I had my face right in hers.  She looked at my noise and said, “Is it ants?”  She was talking about my freckles.

After she got up and we finished watching Fringe we headed over to Anna and Barry’s.  I checked the surf report and it looked like the waves had some size to them, but the wind was honking.

Milly was making fussy sounds as we were waiting for Amanda to come out to the car, so I made them too.  Then she told me to cry and, after I did, told me to stop, that it was okay.  She did the same for Amanda when she got in the car and she did the same for Barry later on at dinner.  She was patting him on the back when she did that for him.

On the way to Wirightsville Beach Milly was counting her fingers and sang (most of) the alphabet song.  Amanda asked when she started doing that so well, and I told her it was within the past week.  She was surprised.

We just hung out there for a while.  Milly played with Kirsten and her friend, Cody Stikeleather, for a while then colored with markers.  I think I briefly dozed on the floor with my hat over my face.

After a while we walked to Vito’s Pizza for dinner.  Milly wanted B to push her, then she wanted him to hold her hand, so I ended up pushing her the rest of the way.  We walked a little faster than Amanda and Anna.  Barry and I talked about all sorts of things, including self-employment.

Kirsten and Cody were going to meet us for dinner, but they’d gone to church and Kirsten decided to stay for a small group meeting so it was just the five of us.  We ate outside at a picnic table.  Milly was sitting on one side with B to her right and I asked if I could sit next to her, to which she replied “No.”  Then I asked if Mommy could sit next to her, to which she gave the same answer, so Anna and Barry both got to sit with Milly while she ate her pizza.  It was particularly fun when she dipped some in her cup of water and tried to shove it in B’s mouth.

We walked back under the same conditions, me pushing, Barry holding Milly’s hand.  Milly was in her Jeep stroller and thought it was new because she hadn’t seen it in so long.  It’s roomy and she was able to sort of stand up in it in a way that it didn’t upset the stroller and have me worry that she was about to fall out.  When we were just about all the way back she wanted to get out.  She pushed the stroller, then she held B’s hand, then she ran back to Anna and had her carry her.

Back at their house Barry and I had a beer then we all had sherbet.  We waited for Kirsten and Hannah to get back to the house before we left since Hannah hadn’t seen Milly yet.  Milly was a little wound up when we were putting her to bed, but she went down just fine.  She wanted me to lie down with her, as usual, but this time when Violet, a doll, finished her “two minutes of bedtime music” Milly indicated that it was time for me to get up.  She also switched from wanting one of the thin blankets she usually uses at night to a thicker one.  I figured she’d do that at some point, but it’s not like it’s cold tonight.

Amanda and I watched Saturday Night Live then she went to bed after having me help her change the sheets and turn the mattress.  We have a pillow top, so you can’t really flip it.  That part was actually my idea, because it’s been a really long time since we’ve done that.

Zach Dotsey
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