I have a mantra that I like to adhere to anytime I happen to get sick. If I'm going to be miserable, then you are going to be miserable. I will go out of my way to be snippy, mean, and do whatever it takes to bring you down with me. I will not once complain about being sick; I just make sure everybody's miserable.

Of all the personality traits to inherit, Alexis has this one. And now the student is becoming the teacher. I truly admire the lengths she went through last night to make sure that nobody, and I mean nobody, missed out on her misery.

Alexis started to get a runny nose last evening and it turned into full-fledged congestion around 10:00. I know that it was around 10:00 because she woke up just enough to scream her little head off for five solid minutes. Then she went back to sleep. And then at 10:30, she went through the little routine again. And then at 11:00. And 11:30. And 12:00. Honest to goodness, every 30 minutes or so she woke up, screamed bloody murder, then went back to sleep. At some point I went and grabbed her and took her back to bed with me. You know, so that I could hear her better. There's no better way to get a great night's rest than to put a screaming child right up next to your ear.

I am absolutely going to employ this tactic the next time I fall ill. While I regret that our neighbor likely got drug into the fun (our windows were open all night and his are always open), Alexis managed to teach me a neat trick. If you scream a lot all night long, Daddy will cower on his own side of the bed with a pillow over his head and the dogs will leave to go sleep somewhere else. That is awesome.