thanksgiving holiday

i am never, ever going to have kids. for a week that extended over my thanksgiving holiday and birthday i watched my sister's three kids while she and her husband went on a cruise to the caribbean. so brad and i stayed at her house from friday to the next saturday while watching their seven-year-old, two-year-old and three-month old. watching rachel (the three-month-old) was no problem at all; she cried only when she was hungry or needed to be changed or when she wanted to be held. all the other times she was either sleeping. the two-year-old was a bit more of a problem. he would generally listen to me, but if i talked to him in a stern voice he would turn to me with a frown on his face, point and say "don't!" he loved to wake me up early in the morning by coming in the room and yelling "wake up!" of course he would always address me directly and never brad. my favorite was when i called him "sweetheart" he would say "i'm not sweetheart, you're sweetheart." so cute. the oldest was the hardest because he would not listen to anything we would tell him. we would tell him not to go downstairs and he would promptly begin his descent into the basement. we would tell him to not touch a cake and not a second later he would reach for the cake. brad told him at mcdonalds not to kick a ball and then he kicked it--right into another kid's face. it was so frusterating because there was nothing we could do to get him to listen and obey. maybe it is just a phase he is going through. i hope it is just a phase he is going through.
so that was my holiday break. let's just say that coming back to school was relaxing after that week. don't get me wrong though, i would do it again in a second for the same reason i said yes in the first place: family obligation. now my sister owes me big time.