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Donna's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 5/19/07 -------------------- 4/21/07 3/11/07 2/9/07 1/9/07, Entry 2 12/22/06 12/11/06 11/28/06 11/20/06 11/15/06 11/10/06 11/1/06 10/24/06 10/17/06 10/11/06 10/3/06 9/25/06 9/17/06 9/11/06 9/6/06 8/27/06 8/20/06 8/13/06 8/6/06 7/30/06 7/23/06 7/16/06 7/9/06 7/4/06 6/25/06 6/19/06 6/11/06 6/4/06 -------------------- Donna's Introduction

01/09/2007 – Happy New Year!

January 9, 2007

Well, here I am late with another entry.  I'm hoping I will be able to keep up now.  I'll be trying something new with this entry and using headings, since there are so many highlights to cover.  I hope you all had nice holidays and I'm looking forward to keeping this diary more up to date.

Christmas
Justin was really excited about Christmas this year.  Last year he knew how to open gifts, but this year he was excited weeks in advance and looking forward to it.  We also did an advent calendar this year and watched movies and listened to music and read books, so I think that really added to the anticipation.  Personally, I am not that into the Santa Claus part of Christmas.  However, I know the kids enjoy it, and they learn about it so young, between preschool and the commercialization in the stores.  I really wanted him to learn about the reason we celebrate Christmas and he is beginning to understand that.  Hopefully, he will not be too confused when he gets older and starts wondering where Santa fits in. 

Anyway, we all had a wonderful Christmas and went to two parties, one on Christmas Eve and one the day before that.  He ended up getting quite a few gifts, between what we had bought and what friends and family got him.  The Christmas Eve service at our church was beautiful too.  We were able to stay for the kid's choir, then during the service Justin started talking too loud, so we had to sit in the lobby.  There is a screen in there so we could still see and hear the service and not miss anything.

Aquarium
On one of my days off, we went to the aquarium.  Justin had fun spending time with his cousin and seeing the animals, but he missed his nap and got tired and cranky toward the end.  We stopped for lunch before going in the aquarium and then went in the souvenir shop afterward.  Justin got scolded by the shopkeeper for running into a room in the back of the store and trying to use the bathroom.  We felt this was a bit over the top and that the door should have been locked if it was private, since small children come in the store and don't know any better.  After that we stopped for ice cream and then went home.

Library
I finally had time to take Justin on his first trip to the library.  This was something I had really wanted to do and share with him.  He loved playing with all the toys in the children's section, and we picked out a book to take home.  I'm not sure when we will be able to go again.  The times we can go are very limited.  I work five days a week, and with his behavior in the evening, it is generally not a good idea to go out then.  On the weekends, I have errands on Saturday morning, then lunch and nap time, and then it is usually too late to go, and Sunday they are closed.  Maybe after he is not napping anymore, we can go on Saturdays.

New Year's
We did not go out for New Year's or even stay up until midnight.  I spent the evening in Justin's room trying to get him to go to sleep like every other night.  I hadn't even thought about resolutions until New Year's Eve and usually I have them all planned out.  They are pretty much always healthy eating, exercise, and housecleaning.  This year I still need to do those things, but have decided not to make them my main focus.  So here are the resolutions/goals for 2007:

1.  Try to apply Love and Logic techniques with Justin instead of yelling.
2.  Read Bible everyday and be on time for church and work.
3.  Slowly move closer to my health and cleaning goals.

Work
I was off work for ten days during Christmas week.  Justin's school was closed, so I had saved vacation days for that.  It was really nice to be able to spend all that time with him and not have to rush out the door every morning and I think he enjoyed it too.  I've also found that while I need a break from work every once in a while, I really do enjoy the routine, and that made me feel better about being a working mom.  While I was gone, we had an accounting system upgrade done, and when I got back we had to close out the month and year, plus my normal work and reports.  So last Tuesday I returned to work and I've been trying to catch up ever since.

Birthday Parties
This past Saturday, we had two birthday parties to attend in one day.  One was a girl from Justin's class who was having her third birthday at the same place where we had Justin's.  The other one was later that day, and was his cousin who had his fourth birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  Let me just say that after grocery shopping, Walmart, and returning a library book in the morning, then a party, nap for Justin, and another party, I was completely exhausted that day!  They were both fun though, and of course I got lots of pictures for all the events of the past couple of weeks.  Below is a picture from Christmas morning when Justin was opening presents.

Thanks for reading!
Donna and Justin

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