THE meanest mom that EVER lived on the face of the WHOLE earth......

That would be me!!! Max (age 3) thinks so. For many, many, reasons. Some of these reasons: I won't let him carry drinks all over the house and spill them everywhere. When I let him pick what he wants for lunch or breakfast (I let them pick if I'm in the mood for that since they HAVE to eat whatever I put in front of them at dinner time and usually they want something different than what I want and Matthew is allergic to some things that Max can eat) and then he sees something someone else has and thinks that looks better I won't make that for him too and that is very, very mean!!! I won't let him run all over WalMart like a crazy boy. I make him pick up stuff he knocks off of the shelves. I used to stock shelves at Albertson's and I find that to be very annoying and so rude!!! I make him wash his hands with sanitizer when he touches every inch of the counter and bench in the pharmacy every time we ever go in that area. Germaphobe mommy doesn't go for that!!! I won't let him throw balls in the house. I could go on and on. Well, his latest reason for thinking I'm the meanest mom is that I make him get dressed. Yes, I know. I make you want to call DCFS right?! He would go naked all day every day of the year if I would let him. I let him get by with wearing less during the summer for sure because it's warm and stuff but when it's winter I just can't take it! Last winter he wanted to wear shorts every single day. With snow boots of course. And a short sleeve shirt but NO COAT!!! I fought with him every single time we left the house about wearing his coat! UGHH!!! I NEVER let him wear the shorts and boots out of the house but he wore them constantly at home. This year I packed up all of his shorts to save the fight. Well, now he refuses to get dressed at all. If I can convince him to wear clothes it isn't very long before he starts his slow strip. Each time I see him he has one less item of clothing on until he's right back to nothing but underwear...if we're lucky!! I've been really trying to put my foot down the past few days because hello, THE KID HAS SWINE FLU!!!! I keep telling him he's never going to get better if his body can't stay warm because he's running around naked all the time. He even took a super long nap the other day because I told him to get clothes on or go to bed and he chose the latter and fell asleep for like 3 hours. Maybe I should just go with it and have naptime back in my life! That would be AWESOME!!! Anyhoo, we fought for like 10 minutes this morning while I forced clothes on him and told him that he gets a time out if he takes them off. He's probably buck naked already. He has refused to wear his coat to this point but it's stinking cold out today and I'm sure it's just going to stay that way from this point on until June! So, I'm bracing myself for the argument we'll have the next time he leaves the house. I'm just glad my kids ride the bus and Matty isn't in 4 days a week preschool this year. We absolutely without a doubt left the house at least 4 times a day last year not including errands. At least there won't be quite so many arguments!!! OY VEY!!!!

Swine flu update: Zack has been back to school this week. Matthew went to school today for the first time. Some Dr.s say they are fine to go back to school 24 hours after their fever stops but others say they should stay home for 1 week after first symptoms start. Well, I'm a little concerned about his asthma in this cold since it's already flared up but he's there and hopefully ok. Max is doing a bit better. He ran a fever all the way through yesterday but so far so good today. The wierd thing with this flu is they'll not have a fever for like 10 hours straight and then it's back. It lingers forever! Gracie is still really stuffy and has a runny nose but didn't have a fever during the night. Hopefully it's not back today. I'm so worried about RSV so hopefully she gets all better quick and doesn't have anymore problems. Brian has it too and is still really achy. It kind of turns into a cold at the end with a yucky nose and cough I've noticed with all of them. The fever seems to take about 4 to 6 days to really run it's course and finally leave for good so hopefully Gracie will be fine by Friday.