Milly and I went to the store this morning because we were out of milk.  She walked the whole way there until I made her get in the wagon during the part where we were leaving our neighborhood.  There was a caterpillar on the side of the road that she wanted to look at, but it wasn’t moving much so I told her it was tired and we could look at it again on the way back.

On the way back I was letting her walk the short distance between the store and the entrance to our neighborhood, but she kept stopping. Now, we were on the side of the road on a little dirt path, but the road is still a pretty busy one with fast cars, so I eventually plucked her up and set her down in the wagon so we could get a move on.

As promised, we stopped for the caterpillar, which started moving a bit more when I poked at it.  It rode back home with Milly and she spent most of the next hour carrying it around.  She put it on the ground, on the railing, on the mailbox, on Naveen (a toy frog that she saw through the window), in a bucket and so on.  It ended up in the little bug house Karen bought her a while back.  When Amanda got home she remarked that it was a pretty fat caterpillar and that it might be changing into a butterfly soon, so we loaded it up with azalea leaves and twigs.

I missed out on the last few mall lunch trips, so I decided to take a break from website stuff to go today.  As we were walking through the parking lot Milly saw a lady in a red dress come out of the mall and said, “It’s a princess!”  When we got to her group we stopped her and told her what Milly had said.  She told Milly that she had just made her day and asked if she could give her a hug.

Peggy and Earl pulled up right as we were getting to the entrance to the mall and Michael was inside waiting.  Milly was excited to see them all.

Amanda told me this evening that if I went to the store and picked up some meat and Hamburger Helper, she’d make it.  When I pulled up to the store I saw two young people, probably late teens or barely twenties, near the side of the store where we usually park.  It’s away from the main parking lot and not many people use it.  The guy looked like he picked up something really small, a pebble or acorn perhaps, and threw it at the girl and she recoiled.  The body language was bad.  I parked the car and turned off the radio and could hear the guy yelling at her, cussing and stuff.  I listened for a minute and decided to call the non-emergency dispatch.  I waited another minute to see if things were going to escalate, but eventually the guy sat down, so I figured there wasn’t much of a point in direct confrontation.  After I bought my stuff and was leaving I saw a cop car pull up.  The couple walked towards their bikes when they saw him pull up, but he called them over, and that’s the last I saw.

Now, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.  I don’t feel bad about doing something, because the guy was being very loud and aggressive.  If nothing else it was a public disturbance.  What I do feel bad about is not walking up and asking the girl if she was alright, or saying something to the guy.  Amanda pointed out that since our car was right there in a secluded place that it wasn’t a bad thing because if I made him angry, and people do get crazy, he could have taken our plate number and found out information about us, or he could have keyed the car or whatever else.  Still, I feel like I should have said something directly.

This evening Milly was watching a Yo Gabba Gabba episode where they all wore hats to pretend they were someone else, so Milly decided we should all wear hats.  She started out with my straw fedora and changed it up to my gray one.  They both look super cute on her.  Afterwards, when we were all sitting on the couch, she’d randomly take the hat off and say, “Yeehaw!”  Amanda and I had to follow her lead, of course.

Amanda and I are a little too hooked on Ticket to Ride.  Milly knew it was time to go upstairs and went up all on her own while Amanda and I finished a game.  After Milly went to bed we half watched an episode of House and mainly played another game of it.

Speaking of putting Milly to bed, a few nights ago she said she wanted another toy in her bed, so we gave her this pink stuffed penguin she’s had for a while.  I want to say my brother gave it to her at some point, but I can’t quite remember.  Anyway, we (or at least I) always called it Pinkguin, but when Amanda asked her what its name is, Milly called it Paci (because she wanted her paci at the time).  Tonight she had it again and, unprompted, called it Paci Penguin.  So I guess that’s its official name now.

Zach Dotsey
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