Since Milly’s been sick we decided to put off church this morning so as not to expose her to the kids in Grow Zone (including, presumably, whichever one gave her the cold).  We figured we’d wait until later to see how she was doing, and since Milly didn’t seem to he coughing after her non-nap, we went to the 4:00 service, where Jeff Winchester, giving the message in place of Mike Ashcraft, gave me a figurative slap in the face.  It was a really great message about marriage and fulfillment.  It was capped off by a video presentation by a pretty well-known couple from within the church.  It was very moving in its stark honesty.

I woke up early today, having fallen asleep a little earlier than usual.  I went downstairs then went back up a little while later when I heard Milly making a bunch of noise.  I could hear that she wasn’t near the door, so I just threw the door open.  A song on her zoo playset had just finished so when she saw me the first thing she said to me was, “Wanna dance?”  Then she said something about me wearing a dress.  I think it’s probably the first time she’s seen me wear a robe.  Anyway, we danced, and I realized that’s what all the stomping noise I’d heard was.  A few minutes later we went to go find Mommy, who was hiding under the covers, then we all hung out in the bed for a few minutes before heading on down to eat some breakfast.

It was kind of cold outside today, and in spite of that Milly wanted to go for a walk.  We indulged, but we weren’t outside for too long.  Milly wore her bright yellow vest, which actually fits her this year.  Amanda had Milly put her hands in her pockets, so she walked around like that for most of our little walk.  I don’t know what was so cute about her sticking her hands in her vest pockets, but it very much was.

I mentioned Milly’s non-nap.  I’m not sure five minutes went by where Milly wasn’t making some noise upstairs.  I dozed off on the love seat at some point, curled up with Carl the Caterpillar.  The name, in case you’re wondering, came from the fact that it’s a doll of the protagonist of the book The Hungry Caterpillar, written and illustrated by Eric Carle.

I had a really cute picture of Milly looking at three of her toy frogs that I was going to use, but I decided to use that for today’s picture I’d use the one Amanda took of me while I was out instead, even though it’s very grainy.  Why?  I don’t get too many pictures taken of me, and even though Amanda probably just posted it to Facebook to be funny, I somehow think it’s sweet.  It’s also somewhat indicative of our weekend.

Milly was playing with a closed but extended umbrella on the way to church.  She rubbed the back of my head with it and told me the umbrella was making my hair pretty, then she told me to thank the umbrella for making my hair pretty.  What a nice umbrella.

After church I took Milly over to Bonnie and Dave’s to see the Jack O’ Lanterns.  Bonnie got a kick out of Milly.  She knocked on the door and Bonnie answered and said, “Who is it?”  Milly’s answer was, “It’s you.”  Bonnie gave us some leftover apple croissant desserts before we left.  I warmed them up later, but Amanda’s not huge on apples and Milly wouldn’t try them, so I got to enjoy them all myself.

We had some dinner after we came back over to the house.  Milly had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a couple chicken tenders.  Amanda had an egg and cheese bagel.  I had an egg and cheese on toast plus a chicken finger or two that Milly didn’t eat.

After dinner Milly said she wanted to go upstairs, so we went upstairs and played for a bit then she went to bed.  She played with Amanda for a few minutes, then she played with me while Amanda put up some of her clean clothes.  I was sitting in her box and Milly had her red frog.  She kept knocking open a little window flap on the box and I’d immediately push it back out.  She thought this was hilarious and I thought she was hilarious, so we had a fun time.

Once Milly was down we watched the first episode of Once Upon a Time, which I mistakenly said a few days ago was premiering tonight.  The pilot was rerunning and a new episode came on after that, but we only watched the first one because by the time it was done on the DVR, it was time for The Walking Dead.  Man, I did not see what happened at the end of this episode coming.  I mean, I and nearly everyone else in the world predicted the result, but not how it happened.

Zach Dotsey