My four-year-old is beginning to talk like I talk. At dinner with friends the other night, she referred to their pet as a "damn dog." She must have been tired; when she yells at our neurotic Aussie mix, she remembers the correct wording is "damn DIRTY dog."

i'm so glad that "there is nothing to play with" is the stupidest thing you've ever heard. I am currently being saddled with "you say NO to everything" and "when you say no, it cracks my heart in half." she's 7. crap.

A woman cold is very different from a man cold, JON.

Totally off topic, but I saw your HGTV promo for the first time last night and got totally excited, because I am both a Dooce nerd and an HGTV nerd, and the two of you coming together is like a unicorn pooping rainbows. CAN'T. WAIT.

Actually, Jon, you're doing it wrong.

We are battling a demon illness here, too. I am terribly whiny when I’m sick. My husband is excruciatingly annoying. And we got together and made the most angry, depressed, mopey, crying sick person I’ve ever encountered. I’ve been in tears three times since this cold landed in our house on Saturday. Not out of sympathy for my sweet toddler, but because her rage and sobbing outbursts have pushed me over the edge.

HA - I love how he comes in here to respond; too funny! Sorry, Jon - you lose. Men, in general, are big babies. They can walk around with their arm cut off and look at you and say "what?" but give 'em a little ole skin scratch, and you'd think the world was coming to an end.

Hopin' you all feel better very soon!

And Heather? It's your blog - you post Mario's picture as often as you like. Those little chubby cheeks! It's a good thing I'm not anywhere close to her; otherwise, those cheeks would be bruised from all the pinching :o)

Good luck keeping the cold from migrating to the other people of your household! You may be the only mom in the world, however, who is amused by her sick baby! Everyone else I know likes the cuddles that come with sickness, but is less than amused by the histrionics.

Achoo! I hope everyone starts feeling better soon!

I know it sounds weird, but you can put Vicks on her feet and then put on some socks. It will quiet a cough right away. With babies, it's one of the only things you can do since they can't take cough medicine. I hope the baby gets better soon and I totally agree about taking a sick baby over a sick husband. Mine turns into a whiny, obnoxious baby. Only not cute and cuddly.

yeah, my husband wrinkles that little place between his eyebrows and moans like a delicately fainting princess. oh, the horrors of a headache, or a cold. oooohhhh. (try some labor pains, pal!)

still, there's a simplicity to a baby's illness because it's all primal need, relatively uncolored by drama and other emotions. there's still time for Marlo to find her inner Delicate Blossom where illness is concerned...

oh my holy crap. my day is never the same until i can log on to my trusty laptop, Chuck (yeah, i named him after the Nerd Herd character because i akin myself to being an actual Word Nerd - same enough diff, right?) and read whatever you have written next.

i think (as i do with every post of yours) that i'll actually start to begin to understand the meaning of physically rolling around on the floor, laughing so hard that i have to grab my tummy in hopes to contain the joy and trap it in a jar for a future moment of need.

jeepers. long comment short - thank you.

i needed that today (and every day to come)

Keep looking at Marlo's picture that you put up before this post.....trust me all your misery will melt away...I'm doing the same here :)

11-mo old lio's got that cough, too, as do i, while our leta-equivalent was "sick" today at school and suddenly all kinds of energetic and into pokemon videos and riding her bike when she was sprung at frEEkin 10am.

given that i have that cough and you do too i hope you'll take this advice seriously: wine helps.

not whine. w-i-n-e.

Infant sideshow - HA!