After a dose of Tylenol and a short nap, I was able to haul my rear out of bed to have this conversation with Stephen:

Stephen (to himself): Damn, damn, damn.

Me (calmly, after overhearing him): What'd you say?

Stephen (looking a bit like a deer in the headlights): I was just saying damn. Not like, "Damn, you're stupid" or "Damn, dad did something bad". Just damn. I don't want to get in trouble! I wasn't saying it bad!!

Me (trying not to fall out of my chair laughing and keep myself from crying because it hurts to laugh this hard): Okay. I appreciate that you weren't meaning anything bad, but it's still not an okay word for 5 year olds to say.


I have no idea where that came from.

I'm afraid the conversation won't come across on the blog nearly as funny as I found. But I suppose you just have to know Stephen. For the record, he might have heard the word damn uttered a few times in our house, but never "Damn you're stupid" or "Damn, dad did something bad". Really, it's just damn. And honestly, "stupid" is more of a dirty word in our house than "damn".