Jennifer's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 12/10/04 -------------------- 9/23/04 8/8/04 7/22/04 7/14/04 7/13/04 6/30/04 6/17/04 6/11/04 6/1/04 5/10/04 4/26/03 4/16/03 4/5/03 3/29/03 3/23/03 1/1/01 -------------------- Jennifer's Introduction

January 1, 2001

I've been horrible, I know, about keeping up this diary . . . I do want to write about the birthday parties we went to this summer, though, before we're fully into fall.

August 3rd was my cousin Cole's first birthday -- he was born last year 14 weeks premature. We went to Indiana the last week in July for the birthday party and had such a good time hanging out with my cousin Kim and her 3 kids. We all went together to Kim's brother Nathan's house (Nathan is Cole's dad) and got to hang out with a lot of the family. Jake and I drove up the 5 hours to Indiana and back by ourselves, and he was a perfect angel in the car (ok, that's because we have a little DVD player.) He played nicely with his cousins, although he kept a close eye on where I was and got mad occasionally when I played with Aaron, Kim's youngest child (who was 9 months old.) It was great to see Cole, who has caught up in every area of development. He doesn't seem to have any problems because of his preemie status, he's just a happy, sweet little kid. We plan to see our family in Indiana again at Thanksgiving.

Jake's best friend, Ryan (from church), turned 2 on July 11th. He had a backyard Nemo-themed party. We put the kids in swimsuits, the babies in swim diapers, and let them run wild. There was a slip-and-slide (which Jake wouldn't go near), a sprinkler (yeah, he wouldn't do that, either), and a big swimg set that had a baby pool at the bottom of the slide. Now THAT he loved. It was a beautiful July day and the kids all ran around having fun while the grown-ups watched and talked. I was the only one whose husband wasn't there, but Lou had worked the night before and was working later that day. Zoe from church was there, as was Sadie and her new sister, Celia. We came inside for lunch and cake, then Ryan opened his presents. Ryan's mom had made him the cutest Nemo cake and all the kids but Jake put on party hats. He always acts odd at birthday parties -- doesn't want to play with the other kids, won't wear the hat, won't even touch the cake . . . he's just a particular little kid, I guess. He does better when it's just me and him at home, or him and my mom. I try to make sure he has a lot of playdates and friends to hang out with so he can learn to interact with other kids and be nice. He IS getting better, it's just something we have to keep working on.

Zoe is the little girl from church that my mom baby-sits every day, along with Jake. She's pretty much family by now, she turned 1 on August 17th. She had a fun backyard party, too -- her mom put out all sorts of fun bubble toys, coloring books and playdough, and a little basketball hoop. There were 7 kids total, all from church, and 9 parents. Like Ryan's party, the grown-ups kind of hung out and talked and let all the kids play. I always end up being the person who is with the kids, playing with them, taking care of them, taking pictures of them (it's just assumed now that if I'm at a party, I'm the one taking pictures for everyone. I don't mind, I actually think it's sweet that everyone puts that much trust in my photography!) So I was pretty busy chasing the kids down and making sure I had at least a few good shots of each child, but I had SUCH a good time. I love the group of friends we have at church, and I love that Jake has all these great kids to play with. (Even if he plays reluctantly!)

Sadie turned 2 and had a party on August 21st, but we ended up not going because Jake was sick and being a bear, and as much trouble as I have with him at parties anyway, I didn't want to take a sick, tired Jake out to socialize! So we had a quiet night at home with just a little guilt for flaking out on the party.

Jake's party was a blast. We had 8 kids, including him, over to my mom's house for a . . .. big shocker . . . backyard party. Mom has such a great backyard, and who wants 8 little kids in the living room? I had invited a LOT of people, and thankfully only 1/2 of them came. I started realizing just how limited our space was, and even with 8 kids and 5 adults, it was almost too many. But I didn't want to leave anyone out! Sadie, Celia, Mia, Evie, Walden, and Ella (and their parents) from church all couldn't come for one reason or another. Oh, and the other Ella, Leslie's daughter, couldn't come either. They thought Disneyworld was more important than Jake's birthday. Whatever, Leslie. ha ha. So our attendees were Cara and her 3 kids: Liah, Dylan, and Jay, and then Priscilla and Elauna, Ryan and his sister Meghan and their mom Jennifer, and Zoe and Kristina. My dad was in Alaska visiting my older sister, Kathy had to work, and Lou was sleeping because he had to work all weekend. We're having a party the 25th for Lou's family (I didn't feel like dealing with all of them while I was trying to keep track of 8 kids -- and this way we can have a quiet, family dinner to celebrate Jake's birthday instead of having everyone together at once.)

The kids played outside in my mom's beautiful backyard and on her porch. They played bubbles, played on the swing set, and played with Jake's new basketball hoop (thanks, Kathy!) It was pretty hot so they all had red-cheeks and were getting over-heated. The whole time they were running in and out of the house to get snacks or deciding to play with the toys in the living room or whatever. Finally we decided we were all coming inside for the rest of the party because it was just too dang hot.

Trying to give the little kids cupcakes was quite the experience. They basically just made a huge mess, and I don't think any of them ate the cute little ducky sugar shapes I'd put on the top. Jake didn't want to have anything to do with the cupcakes. (How does my child not like cake? He wouldn't eat cake at his 1st birthday, either.) He opened his presents and was excited to get a blocks train from Cara, a church shirt and some books from Ryan, and a Leapfrog Alphabet caterpiller toy from Zoe. I don't think Jake was even aware that it was his birthday, just that there were a lot more people than usual hanging out at Nana's house. Both Cara and Priscilla told me that they thought all my friends were nice, and that's always good to hear. :o)

And the last birthday "party" of the season was my best friend, Priscilla, giving birth to Aowyn Joy on September 19th. I got to hold her when she was 9 hours old, and I fell in love with her instantly. I also was there when her big sister, Elauna, met her for the first time and it was so sweet. I got some great pictures and I can't wait to watch their relationship blossom. 18 months old is young to become a big sister, but I know that Elauna will be great. And I'm so happy that now Jake has TWO little girls to grow up with and learn to love and be their friend.

Happy thoughts to all of you! I hope you'll stop by my TTM board and say "hi," especially if we haven't talked in a while!

Jen

Jake's webpage:
http://www.mypages.iparenting.com/webs/strangejen4/index.html