So my kids are STILL sick. Apparently the antibiotics they were taking didn't work. We're on another round and if this doesn't kick it then they will have to be injected with antibiotics. It would be super if they were better by the time we left for Thanksgiving!

Thankfully Josh is at least showing a little improvement. He still has a fever but he's being a lot nicer and has more energy to run and play. I think he must have came up and told me he loved me at least 4 times yesterday which is miraculous after the week we had. Mind you I found out he had been sneaking bites of cookies I had made for a bake sale and he may have been trying to cover for that, but I'll take what I can get!

Josh had his Thanksgiving feast today at school. They dressed up as indians, he was super cute. I almost didn't take him to school today since he still wasn't feeling well, but I'm glad he made it. Even if I did have to carry him through the food line.

Jack has officially lost his last bit of babyishness to him. I looked at him the other day and was struck by what a little man he looked like. He's loosing his baby potbelly and really slimming out, which makes him look like a toddler. He's still in the phase of wanting to scream for everything he wants but he knows how to say "please" now and we're trying to make him ask for whatever it is he wants instead of just screaming. We're getting there.

So that's our life right now. Trying to get ready for our trip, half excited, half anxious. Our kids don't do so well traveling. They don't sleep as well in new places and want to be in on all the action. Their eating is also usually pretty off and they run on a pretty constant sugar high. Sometimes it makes it more difficult for Chris and I to enjoy the holiday since we are so busy running interference. Hopefully this trip will go smoother. At the very least the drive should be, I think the extra space in our new car will really help the 10 hour drive the be less claustrophobic feeling.

I'm so grateful for our car. I fit 200 cupcakes in it last night, 75 brownies and 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies. And I still had room for 4 people. Maybe a smoother ride will help start the trip on a better note. Here's hoping.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

*edit* I went into the other room to check on Josh and he had chocolate on his face. He gets in BIG trouble for getting into things on the counter without asking (since I have a cupcake business and he once drank over half a bottle of Tylenol). I ask him to open his mouth and you could see the cookie in his teeth and smell it on his breath. The problem is, I have NO IDEA where he got this cookie. Nothing on the counters has been touched or moved, it's a mystery cookie that is untraceable. Chris said maybe we shouldn't punish him because of the sheer amazingness of his feat. We think he may have a place he hides things in or something. The kid is so stinking smart. DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M DEALING WITH?!

It's been a L.O.N.G. week.

Not only have the boys (all 3 of them) been sick for almost a full week, but we have hit some interesting phases with the boys as well.

Jack has been screaming virtually non stop. He's getting a couple of teeth in, as well as being at the awkward stage where he knows he can just yell to get what he wants, but he also knows enough words to be able to ask for it. This results in him screaming and me constantly getting onto him to "ask!".

He also really likes to yell my name a lot. He calls me "ma" most of the time. Chris always laughs at it because he thinks Jack sounds like a New Yorker when he says it.

Josh has hit a(nother) phase of very poor listening. Amidst his inability to listen there have also been some infuriating behavior thrown in the midst of it. The first one was that he just decided to randomly pee on the carpet. I still can't wrap my mind around why or how... there are some things I just don't understand. The second was that he decided to take a sharpie to our couch. Mind you the sharpie was in my purse (which he knows he's not supposed to get into) and he drew on the couch (of which he KNOWS we only color on paper). Thankfully some BRILLIANT person invented microfiber of which we were intuitive enough to buy. A little bit of rubbing alcohol took it right out. For the record I have removed chocolate, olive oil, tomato sauce, pen, sharpie, snot, and only God knows what else from our couches all except the sharpie with nothing more than water.

I've had people on a regular basis tell me that I'm going to miss this phase when my kids are teenagers and they can talk back. Meanwhile I'm thinking they're crazy because if they knew Josh they would know how much talking back I get. My only hope is that the consistent discipline we do know will make life when they are teenagers a little easier.

There have been too many times this past week where I have questioned my mommy skills and if I'm a complete failure. Parenting is not an easy business, at least not with my children. For whatever reason it seems as though God has entrusted us with more challenging children than other people seem to have. I try to trust that means he's given me the capability to come out the other side a sane person, with well behaved kids. This week has required a lot of trust and faith.

So you know how in that last post, I talked about Jack being a daredevil and it becoming problematic? Yeah, that turned out to be true.

So Friday he fell out of the shopping cart. He kept standing up in the front and he can get out of the buckles, so I put him in the back, because at the lowest part it was up to his chest, and I thought for sure it wasn't mathematically possible for him to fall out, plus he was mainly sitting and playing with a toy. I was wrong. I guess he leaned over the end while I looked away for 30 seconds and flipped out onto his back, getting a nice little chunk out of the top of his head.

Then, yesterday, I had the back door cracked open because I had been cooking and it had gotten smokey in the house. I guess he had gotten outside, which wouldn't be a big deal (we have a fence) except when he went to come back in he tripped over the mat and hit his forehead on the ledge of the door that's covered in metal.

The doctor told us to go straight to Scottish Rite (the kids hospital here, and a 45 minute drive NOT in rush hour traffic). I asked them if I could have a doc check it out to make sure it needed stitches, since I knew it was borderline. They would, as long as I was there by 5. It was 4:30, my kids had no clothes on and I was watching a baby girl who was still napping and the doctors office is every bit of a 20 minute drive not in rush hour traffic. Long story short, by the grace of God we made it there and he didn't have to have stitches.

At this rate I'm going to have DCFS called on me! I'm seriously considering bubble wrap...