All quiet on the western front - nearly.

It's funny how day-to-day events affect the smooth running of your lives.

For example, nothing very monumental has happened this week. I say "nothing much" because there is something which happened that I'd rather forget about but I'll come to that.

My point is this; Missy has been almost running around this week, never mind walking; tearing past, screaming with laughter as she goes. She seems to be growing up frighteningly quickly.

Similarly, J's vocabulary is getting better every day and he has had a very good behaviour week - this may have something to do with the new Thunderbirds behaviour chart we have introduced due to the somewhat rotten behaviour of last week however. More smiley faces than black crosses equals more treats.

It's all very Supernanny I know but hey, it works and when faced with a four year old about to lose his mind and freak out on you, you have to do something! By something I mean the choice of smiley faces (the "treat" route) or black crosses (the "not a hope in hells chance" of a treat route).

Which would you choose?

Anyway, like I said it works, so if you're struggling I highly recommend the introduction of one. We would try one for Annabel but I fear she would merely eat it.

Going back to the something that happened earlier; picture the scene.

Both children have had their baths, their teeth brushed, they're calming down nicely when Joseph, completely out of the blue and in mid conversation utters a serious expletive; remember, he's not quite 4 years old yet! I knew it would happen but not for another few years at least!!!

M and I freeze; we look at each other and I can tell we are both thinking the same thing; "let's ignore it". Sometimes it's more effective if we let something like that slip by unchallenged.

10 seconds later, he says the same thing again (obviously the ignoring trick ain't gonna work here!) so I whirl around and adopting my "stern" face and demand to know where he heard that word?

Smiling (smiling if you don't mind!!), he answers by giving the name of a nursery friend (who I admit neither of us think very much of anyway - not since he trashed our house at J's 3rd birthday party and kicked me when I told him off!!).

M and I both read him the riot act, explained what a naughty word it is and he's not to use it. He gets very upset at the prospect of no treats and apologises and tearfully climbs into bed for a story.

I climb in next to him - we read side by side you see - and, as I'm about to start, he says it again!

Of all the nerve .....

I climb out of bed, put the book on the side and say goodnight, that's it, last chance gone, game over.

Tears and shouts of protest all fall on deaf ears. He must have been pretty tired though because he went straight to sleep. Funny enough, the next morning, it was like he knew he was in trouble. He stayed in bed until nearly 7 o' clock, affording us a bit of a lie in - wonderful.

We haven't mentioned it since and there's been no repeat performance.

The Thunderbird chart was introduced the next day - if it had been in existence the day before I wouldn't have needed a smiley face stamp - just a large black permanent marker!