Up and to the Azalea Festival Parade, my first Azalea Festival despite living in Wilmington for seven years now. Parked at some random house selling parking for $7.00. Some were as much as $10.
Got breakfast at PCJ (Michael wasn’t there, working tonight) and met up with the Warkentiens. They just happened to be walking right towards us.
Watched the parade until the kids got bored. Not as crowded as I thought it would be, though we were towards the end of it. Milly and Eli took some time now and then to run around the empty lot behind us. Milly was grooving to music sometimes. First time she was sitting on a wall just shaking her head and upper body. I was impressed with her rhythm.
Went to a place behind Cotton Exchange where they had some blow up slides and bouncy houses free for kids. Hung out there for a while and never made it to anything else. Stopped to see Jenn when we went back towards the car. Her co-worker said she’d seen Milly before and said then that she hoped that’s what her kid would look like.
Made one more stop, at a fire truck where Milly got to go inside it and buckle into a seat before heading back to the car. After I strapped her in she said she wanted someone to drive.
Got home around 1:00. Milly and I both took naps until almost 4:30. I got up and mowed. Took me a while because we were out of gas for the mower, the grass (or weeds) had grown up pretty high and the mower blade, which is in pretty poor shape on the ends, got stuck in the (and ruined) the flap at the back of the mower. I stuck the grass collection bag on the back and finished up.
Took a shower then we all watched Tangled. Milly said she was Belle, I was Beast and Amanda was Tinkerbell. She danced for us at some parts.
When we took Milly upstairs I saw that the plastic sucker part of her purple paci had a hole in it from where she’d been chewing on it. I was going to hide it and throw it away, but Amanda said we should have Milly throw it away and explain why, which was a better idea. When we first handed it to her and explained that it was broken from her chewing on it and that she had to throw it away her face got so heartbreakingly sad for just a moment. Really, it almost brought tears to my eyes. But then she walked into the bathroom and said goodbye to the paci and thanked it for being there for her for so long, and that was it.
After Milly went to bed Amanda and I watched The Office and Fringe. I deigned to give Amanda a back rub. She’s got a lot of deep knots in her shoulders.
Zach Dotsey
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