The sleeping thing last night went okay. I went to bed a little after 1:00. Amanda came downstairs and said that Milly had woken up and asked why her daddy wasn’t in bed. I was about to turn off Assassin’s Creed anyway, so I went up and she immediately snuggled up to me. She was very sweet, but over the course of an hour she would ask or say something intermittently, so we eventually told her she had to go back to her own bed. To sweeten the deal we told her that Harvey could go with her.
When I finally got Harvey dislodged from the bed, he went downstairs to go outside and pee, then I guess he thought he was in trouble because he sulked on the stairs for a while. When he did finally come up I grabbed him and led him to Milly’s room, where he did settle down on a blanket. For about two minutes. We’d left Milly’s bedroom door open, knowing that Harvey would probably be trying to get out. Milly didn’t fuss about it though, and we left the door open. I went to bed trying not to think of her getting up in the dark and stumbling down the stairs. She did fine though. In fact, Amanda got up and took her shower then I got up and was getting in the shower by the time Milly emerged from her room.
The rest of the morning was pretty standard: church (Milly got moved up to the three-year-old room), Atlanta Bread, Barnes & Noble. Gregory Mason joined us at church (Allison was on keys all day) and he, Callie and Brynn joined us for the rest. Milly and Callie had a good time playing together, particularly with Groovy Dolls at Barnes & Noble. They took a number of them off the display and put them in or on their accessory beds, bean bag chairs (which Milly calls papasans) and horses.
Back home, Milly napped while Amanda and I went to work clearing away some brush and such. Amanda noted that a hydrangea in the back of the yard was very large and pretty, but it was obscured by a bush. Amanda decided to trim the rosebush while we were at it. After that we watched The Soup then I took a nap.
We went to the second birthday party of the weekend after that when we headed to Landfall for Gavin Holloman’s birthday. Gavin’s parents, Seth and Dana, moved to California about a year ago, but Seth was back for some business and his grandparents were throwing him a party, which was also a good excuse to get together with Seth. I caught up with him, but I spent a good bit of time talking shop with Brent, too.
Milly took a little while to warm up, but she was fine after a while. When everyone was outside for cake and snacks the table with all the kids looked like a middle school cafeteria. All the boys were bunch up at the far end and all the girls were on the closer end, with several empty seats in between. Later on the boys were all huddled together and I think holding hands under a tree, plotting, I believe, on how best to chase Richard (Seth’s dad). Milly ran over to the knot of boys and tried to get in on the hand holding, but at first they wouldn’t let her. They finally did though, and she expressed what she thought was a great idea to these boys who were, most of them, a year or two older than her: “Let’s play Ring Around the Rosie!” “NO!” was the almost disgusted and unilateral response. They broke and chased Richard, and Milly joined in on that.
It was a pretty great moment. Milly met sexism for the first time and was undaunted. Then when her idea was rejected as too girly, she played with the boys at their own game. All of us adults, sitting a little way away, had a pretty good laugh. A small part of me was sad that Milly met rejection after overcoming shyness witha bunch of strangers, but it was a very small, protective father part. I was just glad she was able to get in there and play with them.
After we left the Hollomans’ we went to Anna and Barry’s. Milly wanted to go to the little beach, so Barry had gone inside to get us some cups for our drinks while Milly and I played out on the driveway. I was blowing bubbles for her and she was chasing them down to pop them when she tripped and skinned her right knee pretty good. That poor knee is constantly healing from one scrape or another. Anyway, we cleaned it up and put a Bandaid on it then she, B and I went to the little beach, where she waded around in the water for a while.
When we got back, Jay Rivenbark and a friend we there. Anna said he heard Milly was going to be there tonight and had to come over to see her. Jay is an old friend of Anna and Barry’s, and he loves him some Milly.
We ate pizza, cookies and some ice cream that Kirsten brought home from work with her. We were there until a little after 8:00. We got home and put Milly down at about 8:45 then watched a few Modern Family episodes.
Amanda thinks she might be working on a cold, so she took some stuff to try to knock it out early or prevent it. With all the stuff going on for Milly’s birthday this coming week, it wouldn’t be a good time to be sick.
Zach Dotsey