Survivor

When Joseph was a baby, Chad and I looked at each other in a haze of new baby exhaustion and said, "This is Survivor - Joseph Island."

It really felt like that. Each day brought a combination of challenges, tests of endurance and, once, when we hadn't gone grocery shopping in almost a month and both forgot to order pizza, near starvation.

After a few months, we came out of the haze and began to venture into the world beyond Joseph Island. It was like coming out of a cave, eyes blinking at the bright sunlight, minds clearing in the fresh air.

We haven't really felt that complete sense of isolation this time around. Maybe it's because we knew what we were getting in to and came into this episode more prepared. Maybe it's because with a three-year-old, you're never really isolated. All I know for sure is, ever since both kids have gotten sick, we've been booted back to Survivor Mode.

Our days have, for the most part, consisted of sleeping, eating and monitoring the kiddos. It's a 24-hour cycle. I'm just as likely to be sleeping at noon as I am at midnight.

The only thing I'm truly bummed about is the fact that there isn't a million dollar prize at the end of the season. Although I have a sneaky suspicion that raising happy, healthy, well-adjusted, non-serial killer children is worth more than a million dollars.