I started off today with a rare Monday morning meeting, which I left for pretty much as soon a Karen walked in the door.  When I got back they were playing with Play-Doh.  A little later Milly told me to go away and to go to work.  It sounds harsh, so Amanda and I are telling her not to say things like that anymore, but I know all she really means by it is that she’s having fun with Nana (or whoever else she might be playing with at the time) and doesn’t want us to make her go do something else.  The reason I know she doesn’t mean anything by it is that she’ll give us hugs and kisses still.

Speaking of hugs and kisses, a lot of times I’ll pick Milly up in my arms and kiss her face and next and side of her stomach to tickle her.  Yesterday and today when I do that, as she’s laughing she’ll tell me to kiss her slowly.  I’ve asked her to show me what she means, but I think it’s just giving a single kiss instead of a whole bunch of them.  Tonight when she told me that I gave her one kiss then told her to go give me and then Mommy fast kisses.  It was funny watching her try to do that like I do it.

Karen and Milly went to Dunkin Donuts and Target to spend some time later and I got a lot done.  Well, a lot of busy work.  After Milly went down for a nap Karen unloaded some firewood Phil had loaded up for us.  I felt bad once I realized she had done all that.  She put it in a wheelbarrow and later on I moved it to the back and covered it up.

Amanda and I were both pretty beat tonight and didn’t put much effort into fixing food or keeping Milly occupied, as bad as that sounds.  I take that back; I did put some effort into my food since I made a grilled cheese sandwich.  I know that’s not much effort, but it is more than pouring a bowl of cereal.  And Milly did stay entertained.

Amanda wanted to watch The Grinch but couldn’t find the DVD.  She looked around on the TV and saw that a Rudolph movie was coming on, so we settled in to watch that as a family, but it was a cheap computer animated remake.  Actually, it wasn’t even a remake.  Sequel?  That probably gives it too much credit, even if it’s technically correct.  Anyway, Milly was at least mildly entertained by it, but at every commercial break she’d ask where the reindeer was.  I realized then that Milly was just now discovering commercials.  Everything else she watches is either on an On Demand channel, on Netflix or on disk.  The girl’s never really had to sit through commercials before.

There were a few things Milly said today that I was pretty impressed with.  I can’t think of them now, but I think it was the way she said things, or the completeness of them… I don’t know.  She just seems to take ability leaps every week or so.

She was pretty fun putting to bed tonight too.  Amanda was singing If You’re Happy and You Know It and kept changing the action.  Milly would partially sing along and really get into the action.  The second-to-last one Amanda did was “jump in your bed” which was followed, of course, by “lay down.”  Milly did lay down, but not because it was part of the song.  She saw through that one.

After she went to bed Amanda and I watched How I Met Your Mother, a little bit of Sing Off, where they brought people back not to compete, but to just sing and an episode of American Horror Story that we didn’t realize we’d missed until Amanda and Cyra were talking about the show.

I feel guilty watching TV right now.  I feel like I’ve got so much to do for Nextwave that I shouldn’t be doing anything else until I’m at a certain point.  I know there needs to be a balance, but the end of the year is looming.

Zach Dotsey