One of the first things Milly said after getting up this morning was “Play with Eli,” so we invited the Warkentiens over for our standard Friday breakfast of waffles, sausage and eggs.  The three of us walked to the grocery store, though Amanda made the mistake of asking Milly if she wanted to ride in the wagon or the stroller, and Milly picked the stroller.  I say it was a mistake because the wagon is much better suited for carrying stuff.  Not that we had a lot, but still.

Not too long after we got back Amy and Eli showed up.  Nick had some work to do this morning.  I worked until the food was ready then after we ate I went right back to it.  I heard Milly get a little fussy and Amanda put her down for a nap and Amy and Eli took off.  Amanda said that just when she thought Milly had gone to sleep she heard her run across the floor.

I got quite a bit of little stuff done today, which was good.  Amanda and Milly joined me when I went to go pick up my paycheck so I could drop them off at Barnes & Noble on the way, just to get them out of the house to do something.  Traffic wasn’t too bad though and I wasn’t gone very long.

It was really hot today.  I mean, it’s been really hot lately anyway, but I got so hot that I was feeling it a few minutes later just from walking to the house from the car.  The news had a cute little package today about people complaining about the summer heat and showed other people complaining back when it snowed towards the beginning of the year.

Amanda made some baked spaghetti for dinner tonight.  I didn’t realize it was her first time making it; it was really good.  We also had bread and asparagus.  I really like how she does her asparagus.  She adds olive oil, garlic, some salt and pepper to it in a pan then tosses in some Parmesan.

Milly is too skilled at using the iPad.  She knows where each of the games she likes are.  Her favorites right now are Angry Birds, where she always launches them in the wrong direction, and one she calls People, which is a a tower-building sim where you get people to move into a building, assign them jobs and stock up on supplies to make money and keep adding floors to the building.  She also knows how to activate Photobooth to see herself in thermal imaging, load movies from YouTube or ones that are already on the iPad, load the pond game where she can feed fish and play with dragonflies and more.

Before dinner I saw that Milly had loaded a PG-rated movie on Netflix and that it was a Disney movie.  After a minute I realized it was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  Amanda and I had thought about watching that for some time, so we decided to watch it all together after dinner.  We were letting Milly stay up late to watch it (See?  We’re not that strict!) but we knew we’d need to cut it off at a certain point.  Netflix, or the PlayStation 3, one or the other, obliged and decided to stop working for a while right before the big battle.  After we’d put Milly to bed it miraculously started working again.  Talk about good parental controls!

I learned a new trick or two for putting Milly down tonight.  As has been her custom of late, she wanted me to lay down with her on the floor when she went to sleep.  To get her in bed I told her I’d get in bed with her, which I did.  Then after a few minutes I told her I had to go to the potty and I’d be back for her in the morning.  We’ll see if that continues to work.

Back downstairs, Amanda and I finished the movie.  I wasn’t too into it, which is a shame because if you would think of a modern director who could do a pretty sweet Alice in Wonderland it would be Tim Burton.  Of course, it was a continuation from the original story instead of being the story itself.  And I know it was Wonderland, but I thought the use of CG was just too much.  I mean, did they really have to CG the horses people rode?

Zach Dotsey
.