Jennifer's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 7/6/03 -------------------- 6/23/03 6/13/03 6/8/03 5/12/03 5/1/03 4/26/03 4/20/03 4/10/03 3/25/03 3/18/03 3/3/03 2/25/03 2/13/03 2/8/03 1/31/03 1/21/03 1/12/03 1/5/03 12/30/02 12/23/02 12/16/02 12/9/02 11/21/02 11/5/02 10/27/02 10/13/02 10/6/02 9/30/02 9/23/02 9/18/02 9/1/02 8/26/02 8/23/02 -------------------- Jennifer's Introduction

December 9, 2002

December 9, 2002
Collin is 17 months old.


**Feed a cold,starve a fever or is it feed a fever,starve a cold?**

I would have written an entry last week but the flu came and knocked me on my butt. I haven’t been sick with the flu for at least 7 or 8 years and this time it really snuck up on me. Monday at 3:00am I awoke to that sick to your stomach feeling. By 7:00am I was hugging the toilet bowl and praying that I could stop tossing my cookies long enough to catch my breath. It really was bad. I kept thinking that it might have just been something I ate but when the body aches set in; I knew a virus had got me! I cried when Mark went to work because I just wanted him to stay home and take care of me – or at least take care of Collin. Every time I’d run into the bathroom for more porcelain praying, Collin would panic and stand by the door screeching “mamma?”, “mamma?”, “MAMMMMMAAAAAAAAA?”. I broke down and at 10:00am I was on the phone begging Mark to come home. Monday’s at his job are very busy and very stressful and his boss has been a real b*&#@ lately so neither of us wanted him to have to come home. He did and I was so grateful. He brought me Sprite and soup and he fed Collin lunch and took him out for the entire afternoon so I could moan, groan, throw up and sleep in peace. Thankfully this nasty episode only last a few days and by day three I was pretty much back to myself, with day four being normal again. Also thankfully, neither Mark nor Collin caught whatever it was that I had. I was hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that they wouldn’t get it.


**Collin’s 1st haircut!**

I forgot to mention in my last entry (bad mommy I know!) that on November 16th, Collin had his very first haircut! Mark had to go in for his own cut so we took Collin with and had our hairdresser tidy up his hair. Mark sat down and Collin sat on his lap, but even doing that he wasn’t a happy camper AT ALL. He was watching our hairdresser in the mirror come at him with those scissors and the trimmer and he started freaking out. I felt bad for him because I can only imagine how scary he must have been. Collin has not only been deep into stranger anxiety but he now really hates going to the doctor or going any place where someone is wearing a smock or uniform. I got a couple of cute pictures (now posted on his website) and got a few snips of hair for his baby book. He did great and he looks so GQ. Sappy me almost cried when she snipped his hair. **sniff, sniff** My baby really is growing up. Sigh!


**Thanksgiving Blessings**

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Dinner was at my MIL’s and I did all the cooking and setting up this year. For some weird reason my MIL thinks things like candied apple rings and minced meat pie are Thanksgiving dishes so I planned ahead this year and asked if I could do the cooking. She gladly handed the duty over to me (admitting that she’s not the greatest cook) so I had fun planning out and preparing the food. I even got crafty and made up special nametags to set up on the table and made a nice centerpiece. We had the traditional dishes and pies and we had everything turned out great. Everyone had a great time and no one had an attitude. The only thing that bothered me (if I had to make a complaint) was my grumpy and very cynical BIL making the comment of “I can’t think of ANYTHING more unappetizing that listening to Christmas music while we eat Thanksgiving dinner!” as I flipped on the radio to air some nice Christmas carols. Even his wife snarled at him for making that comment. Other than that the food was yummy and the company was good. Collin had a great time digging his hands into all that food and he ate enough pickles and dip to last a lifetime. He would take a sweet pickle and dip it into the dill dip and then lick off the dip. He would do this about 5 times, take a bite of the pickle then go back to dipping and licking. Mark and I personally thought it was pretty gross, but if he thought it was tasty, then by God it was! I wasn’t able to stop him from enjoying a nice dill dipped sweet pickle! He had some kickin’ breath that day! We are definitely blessed. We have a beautiful and healthy child, each other, a nice house, a nice car, Mark has a good job that enables me to stay at home with Collin and provides us with nice things and food for the table. We have our own health, our happiness, and our joy. I definitely spent the day reflecting and thanking God for the gifts he’s given us.


**Bedtime troubles**

Bedtime has now become somewhat of a battle. Not because Collin won’t go to sleep but because he’s now tall enough to reach over and turn on his light. He’ll lean over his crib and flip his light on, off, on, off, on, off. Then he’ll just leave it on and we usually have to sneak in later to shut it off. Collin has also started stripping down his bed. He’s learned how to rip off the sheets and throw them out of the crib. He’ll then take his comforter and throw it out and then take his crib bumper and jack it all up. Then he’ll cry for me to come in. When I do he looks down at his crib, gives me the cutest look, points to his exposed mattress and then lift up his arms as to say, “hey! What happened? I can’t expect to sleep like this!” I’ve tried everything and no matter what I do, he still strips his sheets off. I’ve even tried letting him sleep in his crib like that but he only falls asleep for a short time, then wakes up and cries because he’s laying on a hard plastic COLD mattress with nothing to cozy up or cover up with. I took the bumper pads out hoping that maybe he’d leave his sheets on. Nope! Anyone have any ideas? I must admit that it’s the cutest thing to see him so “shocked” that his sheets are on the floor and how he points to them but it gets tiring having to go into his room to not only turn off the light but to remake his bed two or three times before he falls asleep for good. I’m sure it’s probably a phase and he’ll grow out of it soon.


**The love of books**

Collin has always enjoyed his books and loved having us read to him but now he’s REALLY into them. It’s a nightly ritual now that he’ll bring over at least 10-15 different books and want to crawl up on our laps to have us read to him. Some of his favorites right now are, “Barney’s Hats”, “Little Blessings ABC’s”, any of his Touch and Feel books, his dinosaur book, “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb”, and “The Hungry Little Caterpillar.” Many times Collin will just be sitting among a pile of books occupying himself and “reading” them on his own. He’ll open up the book, turn the pages, point to pictures and make up words and sentences. We are really glad that he has interest in books. Both Mark and I are avid readers and it’s not uncommon for us to be toting our own book around the house (sometimes Mark reads two at once).


**Getting excited for Christmas**

Well, we are all anxiously awaiting Christmas this year. Our shopping has been done since before Thanksgiving (we had 24 people on our list!!!! Yikes), the tree is up and looking beautiful, the decorating has been done, the presents are all wrapped and under the tree and we are excited! Collin has been very good with the tree and only tries to grab any ornaments off when I’m on the phone (even then he’s very gentle when touching them). He hasn’t even tried to unwrap any gifts yet. He likes to rearrange the gifts but he’s never tried to open them. I know he wants to because I’ve wrapped his gifts in Bob The Builder Christmas paper and he LOVES Bob! He keeps pointing to them and exclaiming, “BOB!” I have to tell him not to touch and that he can open up the package on Christmas. I don’t think he understands that there are presents inside the boxes but he just wants that Bob paper! Once Collin tried to tear a ribbon off a gift and he caught himself and immediately said, “NO! Noooooooooooooo!” It was so adorable! A few weeks ago he finally started saying No but it’s not gotten to that bossy yell yet. He says it like he’s saying Coco only “No Noooooo” making sure to draw out the last ‘O’. Very cute! And speaking of Bob The Builder – Collin is now the proud owner of a pair of Bob slippers. I made the mistake of taking Collin down the slipper isle a few days ago at Wal-Mart. He saw the slippers and started freaking out yelling, “BOB” and trying with all his might to throw himself out of the cart to get Bob. He did need some slippers so we dug around until we found his size. When we got home I put them on his feet and he about fell over because on the toe of each slipper is a huge Bob head. Collin loves his slippers and walks around (more like trips around) in them and smiles. I think I even managed to get a few cute pictures of him showing them off. I hope to have those developed soon! Collin loves anything to do with Bob The Builder, Blue’s Clues, or Barney.


**Santa visit and website address**

We took Collin to the mall to see Santa yesterday and I really think he liked him. You wouldn’t know that from the picture that we got but I think the only reason he went into a melt down phase was because he saw that I was leaving him (stepping away so they could snap the picture) and didn’t like that. As soon as I stepped back he was fine and wanting to look at Santa again. He didn’t really want to be next to him but he did like him. The picture is cute, in a sad way but it will be cute to put in his baby book. I’ve included that pic on his website too. I’ve also finally gotten his Spider-man Halloween pics up too. Take a peak if you want! The address is: http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/n/nebraskacollin


**Time to myself**

Last weekend I had some “me” time! I met one of my best girlfriends at a massage place and we got a neck, back, and shoulder massage. Then we went Christmas shopping and grabbed a bite to eat. Later we went back to her place and watched a chick flick and drank coffee. It was very nice and relaxing but the next day my back felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it! Ouch! Never mind the relaxing massage! I think the girl was more interested in working out the kinks in my back rather than making me relax! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I’m just thankful that I used a gift certificate up instead of using my own money! Next time I’ll be going to more of a spa type place. Besides the S & M massage, the night was great and it felt good to be Jennifer instead of Mommy, although I wear the Mommy badge with great honors!


Have a wonderful week!
Until next time…
Hugs, Jennifer & Collin