My youngest child is driving me nuts!

He's 10 years old and I love him dearly! He's been sick lately and has spent several days home with me. We're watching American Idol together just like we did last night. Some lady tried to emulate Janis Jopline and now he's singing "Oh Lord Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz". No - he doesn't come close to being in tune. I think I could cry.

In the past three days, he's

• Had hour long discussions with the dog about when to bare his teeth and when not to. The dog has fallen asleep on him
• Nitpicked with me on whether the weather outside was in the 30's or 40's because 30's mean snow and 40's doesn't.
• Asked me ten million questions and then told me my answer was wrong no matter what I said. Including why soda is not nutritious (per me) or has redeeming qualities (per him)
• Dragged the cat around like a child and told me over and over again how the cat likes him best because he feeds the cat.
• Dug into his 10 year old mushy brain for every question he's ever wanted to ask me and posed them in questions such as "Do you remember 7 years ago we were standing on the side of the road and that red car passed us and you said, 'that's cool?' - What were you talking about?"
• Randomly pops out comments when we're alone and the TV is off. They are along the lines of "I thought it was supposed to go left" or "Hey - there was no plate there" leaving me to wonder just what in the world he's talking about.

My parental patience is about at its limit as my child is bored stiff and driving me absolutely crazy! I'm so glad his fever broke because I'm ready to break him - ha ha - just kidding. Actually - I was thinking of duct tape or super glue for the his mouth or pitching a tent in the backyard for me. I decided the tent gave me more options.