Paste Special from Excel to Word

I am pasting a small worksheet from Excel to Word. To better preserve formatting I am using "Paste Special" command in Word, and choosing option "Paste As: Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object". I am not linking the worksheet to the Word Document. When I first attempted, column was too narrow to accommodate date in the sheet. I double clicked in the sheet to adjust column width. Unbeknownst to me (at the time), when Excel opened the embedded sheet, it changed the date value, subtracting 1,462 days (4 years, 1 day) from each date. In further experimentation, in which I increase the width before pasting, I observe that the date pastes fine, but when I double click on the object, the date value is decreased by the 1,462 days. Also, the formatting on the column header (blue, bold text) does not engage until object is double clicked. Both changes take place upon the double click. When you then click out of the object, the changes remain. If you copy the changed dates & paste them back into the original sheet, they maintain the diminished value.

I am working in Excel, Office 2000 (version 9.0.2720). OS is NT, Build 1381, Service Pack 6.

Thanks.