Today was Milly’s first day back to school since before Christmas. She was pretty excited to go (despite sleeping in until after Amanda left for work, which is rare, as she usually gets up as soon as she hears the shower turn on). One of the boys in her class, Alex, had a birthday celebration and his grandfather brought cupcakes. I think I was the only adult standing in line to pick up their kid who took him up on one. What can I say? It’s hard to turn down a cupcake.
I was the first parent in line, which I’m pretty sure was a first. Probably had to do with the cold, drizzly weather.
Speaking of cold weather, winter is coming. Here in Wilmington it’s supposed to get down to 19°, but according to CNN it’s gotten to -40° with the windchill in places like Minneapolis. Frostbite can happen in a matter of minutes at that temperature. I don’t even want to think about that.
Milly was pretty good for me today. We got home and went over the things she brought home, chiefly a little booklet she put together about a quarter. She tries to read things from memory, but when she gets a word wrong I have her slow down and figure out what she’s gotten wrong.
Later in the afternoon she was a little less accommodating though. She brought her Princess Celestia My Little Pony in and asked me to put three hairbands it, which I was fine with doing, but then she wanted me to braid one portion of its hair, which I said I wasn’t going to do right then because I was in the middle of working.
She cried about that and argued with me about it to the point that I ended up carrying her upstairs to her room and told her, calmly, that she needed to take a rest. She was set against that and shoved me, so I scooped her up, popped her on the bottom and set her in the corner for a few minutes.
She was still arguing with me about taking a rest after that, but she didn’t shove me this time. She did, at one point, try to calm down and say it was okay if I didn’t braid Princess Celestia’s hair. She seemed not to get that that wasn’t the issue- the issue was her reaction, which showed me that she was tired. She did get in bed, and when I went to check on her she was out. She stayed that way for a little while.
Yes, that whole ordeal took longer than it would have taken me to braid her pony’s hair, but she needs to learn to accept no and to be patient. And she certainly needs to know she can’t use force against her parents.
She was fine after she woke up though. Played some Disney Infinity. I joined her in that after I finished working around 7:00. She was playing some world based on Arendelle as Elsa and let me join as Mr. Incredible. We shot each other with paintball guns and had a fun time running after each other in the game.
Amanda wasn’t feeling great today. On top of feeling down with the (we assume) thyroid problem, her ankle, which she sprained quite a while ago, was bothering her. She went to bed around 9:15 after finishing catching up on Sleepy Hollow (and seeing Ayden Hauenstein in it as Ichabod’s son!), but she came downstairs around 11 to ask me if I’d rub her back.
I did that a bit then came back down to finish watching the final BCS championship game (as it will change next year to the CFP, or College Football Playoff) between Florida State and Auburn. Auburn got up big in the first half but Florida State came back to take the lead. Then Auburn got a touchdown and went ahead, but the Seminoles scored another touchdown in about two minutes to go ahead for good. I was pulling for them just because the SEC has won the last bajillion college football championships and I was glad to see the ACC bring one home. (Note that that logic does not apply to UNC; that is, I’ll never pull for Carolina to win anything.)
Zach Dotsey