That's it. He's up for adoption.

Long-term readers of this rambling nonsense (or those sad enough to have read back in the archives) will know that the title comes courtesy of Second Born. He made his declaration after thoughtfully sizing me up as I was getting ready for work one day. He was 4 then and is pretty darn lucky he made it to 5.

First Born is less prone to cuttingly demoralising statements but he made an exception this morning. I was waxing lyrical on the subject of the joy of reading. I told both children that I loved seeing them reading, that watching them sitting in an airport departure lounge both absorbed in their chosen books made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

"No," said FB. "That's facial hair, Mum."

I retreated to the kitchen and made myself feel better by shouting at the television. I had a reason though - there was an article on the news (The news for Pete's sake! On the BBC!) about the Queen and the Commonwealth. The reporter said, and I quote, "the influence the Queen has had on the Commonwealth cannot be underestimated." Am I mistaken or did a BBC reporter just slag off the monarch on national TV? Or is it just another example of the sloppy use of English which is taking over even the BBC these days? I think I feel a letter to The Times coming on......

PS: Please don't point out the myriad grammatical and other errors which pepper this blog. I feel like being righteously indignant today and anyway, I don't work for the BBC!