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October 5, 2003
October 5 ,2003
Maxx- 10 months www.babiesonline.com/babies/m/maxx
Kevin- 5 years www.babiesonline.com/babies/k/kfro
Me!
This how my day goes:
Wake up with Maxx anywhere from 3 a.m.- 7 a.m. if it’s the earlier I pray that he will nurse back to sleep, which he never does- did you know that even with 100+ cable channels there is NOTHING on in the middle of the night. I usually end up watching old Love Boat reruns. Then we play, eat breakfast and snooze on the sofa until my husband and Kevin get up, usually around 8-9 a.m. I try to get Kevin to eat something and then I head upstairs to get ready for the day. This means hair, make-up and getting dressed then I make all the beds, straighten all the rooms and maybe do some laundry. If it’s a school day I have to start getting Kevin ready, which means I sound like a broken record, “ Kevin- do this, Kevin- do that, Kevin- stop that!” Then I try to get Maxx down for a morning nap and then maybe clean something else while still trying to get Kevin ready for school. By this time it’s time to give Kevin lunch, after lunch either Tom or I take Kevin to school and then it’s back home to clean up all the mornings’ messes and give Maxx lunch. If Maxx didn’t take a morning nap then I put him down for an afternoon nap. Then it’s time for me to have lunch, check e-mail and catch up on all the diaries I read! After my lunch I try to clean some more and then it’s time for me to go get Kevin from school. After that we run errands and have dinner and start our bedtime routines. I bathe both kids turn on Animal Planet for Kevin to watch while I read to Maxx and nurse him to sleep, and then it’s time for Kevin to go to bed. We read and I spend the rest of the night trying to get him to stay in bed. After he’s in his room I clean up the kitchen and try to get the house straightened before my husband gets home. I might have a little time to read or watch a TV program I’ve taped. Then it starts all over…..
UUUUGGGHHHH! Does anyone else feel like they get nothing done? After all that my house still looks like a tornado hit it. If, on the off chance I do manage to get the whole thing cleaned as soon as the kids get up or my husband is home it looks like an explosion has gone off. I swear, if my husbands’ voice over company takes off and we have some extra income I’m getting a cleaning lady. My in-laws paid for a couple of cleanings after Maxx was born and let me tell you – it was HEAVEN!!!!! I actually felt like I got to spend time with my family. My stress level really went down. I always feel like if I could just get A,B, and C done then I could really keep on top of things and if I was on top of things more I would have more time to spend with my kids, work out, etc. I don’t mean to complain, believe me I KNOW how fortunate I am to be able to stay home with my kids; it’s what I’ve always wanted. I always imagined that if I stayed home I’d be able to keep things up more.
Speaking of messes, I need some advice. Kevin received SO MANY toys as gifts and they all have little pieces or have many parts. How do you keep them all organized. I know that if all the pieces are scattered all over the place he will less likely to play with them. Some of the sets that came with little guns and such and I just threw them away. I figured the stuff is just going to get lost or Maxx will just end up eating. By the way, Maxx doesn’t even like baby toys; he will only play with Kevin’s toys. His favorite is a remote control fire engine. I don’t see the attraction but Maxx LOVES it. Anyway I’d love to hear everyone’s ideas on how they organize their kid’s toys.
This past week I have been so sleep deprived. Maxx had a cold and for some reason wasn’t sleeping well, even with medication. I’d put him to sleep and within a couple hours he’d be up again. I tried letting him fuss for a bit but he would NOT go back to sleep. I tried nursing him but he would have sucked for hours if I would have let him. One of the nights I was up until 3:30 a.m with him and the rest of the night he slept with us and nursed the whole time. The next night I got him back to sleep several times but each time Kevin came in and woke him up. The last night I got him back to sleep but he woke up a soon as I put him down. Luckily my husband had just come home and I made him go get Maxx and give him a snack. I headed upstairs and took a long bubble bath. After that I was better prepared to deal with him. My husband was not thrilled but it wasn’t like Maxx cried the whole time he was fine once we put him in the high chair and gave him some Gerber fruit snacks; one of his all time favorite things. Thank God this only lasted a couple of nights! My boobs were SOOOOO sore!!!
This leads me to my next plea for advice. Sorry if this is TMI. My left side has been the favorite of both my kids and I have always produced the most milk from that side. In July I started having problems with Maxx nursing on that side, when he detaches from that side he sucks really hard and pulls away when he’s still attached. OUCH! Or, while he’s nursing he rolls himself toward me and tries to lie on his stomach while nursing, another OUCH! I’ve tried pulling him closer when he starts doing these things but it doesn’t seem to help much. The end result is either a clogged milk duct or a blister on the end of the nipple. Right now it looks like it has a crack in with a scab. I looked up some things on the La Leche website and all I could come up with is improper latch-on which sounds about right but how do I get him to stop this? I need some practical advice here. My left side hurts so much, it hurts even when clothing rubs against it and sometimes I have very strange pains which I can’t even describe. HELP!!!!
What else has Maxx been up to? He has become a real chatterbox, we can’t understand what he is saying but he is defiantly trying to say something! We still get mostly DADA and MAMAMA, mostly DADA. Maxx has also mastered “SO BIG”. He puts both his arms even when we don’t ask, “How big is Maxx?” He knows he’s doing something cute. This kid is also a bottomless pit. He will eat anything; I don’t think Maxx has met a food he doesn’t like. We let him try what we have unless it’s too spicy. He LOVES those Gerber fruit snacks. We try not to give him a lot but his face lights up every time he sees a package. Maxx is also a very good listener, every time we tell him no he gets his “sad face”. His little bottom lip comes out and he looks so sad it just breaks your heart. He does stop what he was doing and usually will remember not to do whatever it was you told him not to, at least for a while. I can tell he understands a lot of other things as well, if I tell him not to drop something or not to bite he immediately does those things and then looks at me to see what kind of reaction he’ll get.
I decided to go ahead and order a few of the 1st birthday farm items that were available. I couldn’t find anything else I liked as well. I ordered the invitations, thank you notes, and balloons to match. I’m going to have the invitation scanned at the bakery and have that put on the cake. Then I will get solid table cloths and streamers in colors to match. I’m going to use our little people farm for a table centerpiece. I think we’ll do a piñata for party favors and I found chocolate molds with farm animal shapes so I will make those in white and milk chocolate. We still haven’t decided on the food. We always do the chicken /brat thing so I’m hoping I can talk Tom into something different.
Kevin has been a real handful this week. His listening ears have been turned off at home. I haven’t gotten any bad reports from school but I don’t think things are going as well because when I ask him about school he doesn’t want to talk about it. I have also been trying to get him to walk into the school with me and out with me. Usually he runs in ahead of me and when I pick him up he‘s out the door in a flash leaving me to carry his coat and backpack. His teachers have noticed this and are trying to help; they told him if he doesn’t walk nice he will have to give his sticker for being good back. I just don’t know what to do with him at home, I feel like all I do is yell.
Yesterday while I was putting Maxx down for his nap Kevin climbed up on a chair and got our Chicago snow globe down. He brought it upstairs and put it on our bed and it fell off and hit our footboard and shattered into a million pieces. I can’t even begin to tell you how mad I was. Kevin knew it too. He immediately started wailing, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” I know it was an accident but he has been told he is not supposed to climb on things and he’s not have the snow globe unless he asks. Of course all the noise woke Maxx up, another reason for me to be furious! I had to clean up the mess first, not only was there glass everywhere but glitter and water!
We’ve made up a chore chart for Kevin and told him he will earn a dollar each week if he does what’s on it. So far most of it I’ve been able to get him to do. The listening to parents is the part he hasn’t, but most of the rest of it hasn’t been too bad. Maybe after he earns his first dollar and gets to spend it he’ll see the value of following the rules. We also have a bribe for being in school. We have an unopened toy on the top of our refrigerator and if he is good a certain amount of days in school he will earn that toy. Last time he earned a train. This also saves me from buying him a million things when we are at Target or Wal-Mart.
Oh, my detox. What detox? I haven’t been doing it of course! Around the time of the party there wasn’t room in the fridge for anything but party food and then after the party we hated to let all the leftovers go to waste, especially the cake! It also seemed like because I knew I was not supposed to be eating certain things it just made me eat worse than I normally do. I did manage to eat a little better this past week. In fact when I went from my hair appointment both the girl who does my hair and the pedicure girl said I looked really thin. My Mom also said I was looking thinner. I know I could have lost a few pounds but nothing drastic. So my thinking is “woo hoo, have a chocolate chip cookie!” My jeans where even fitting better so I was really bummed when I tried something else on and it fit worse than last year! I’m so confused! I have to go to the chiropractor this week and face the music. I canceled my last appointment because I was so embarrassed about not following his advice. I have to go this week though, my sacrum is crying out in pain and I’ve had a migraine for the past two days.
Well, I think I’ll stop here, I do have much more to say but I’ll save it for next time.
Jenni, Kevin, and Maxx
What we are reading:
Kevin- Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, and Fright Night Flight by Laura Krauss Melmed
Maxx- The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Clifford’s Furry Friends by Norman Bridwell
Jenni- From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
P.S Is anyone else addicted to books? I can’t stop buying them!
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