Well today we are having to deal with a new little problem.  Seems that Mr. Mark has been saving up some new words to spring on his Momma when he is mad!  Now we are no stranger to some of these words, however Mark has figured out that using them when he is mad can get a reaction.  The first initial attempts at sounding out the words were ignored so as not to "reward" his efforts with a reaction.  I would simply substitute a similar sounding word like "frog" and just appear dumb and act like I did not understand his use of the word at that time.  It seems however that Mark has learned to use these bad words at times when he wants to express his anger at Mommy or any situation that is not to his liking.  The times of use are of course at the time of maximum embarrassment to Mommy and cannot be ignored as he is now very aware of the power that these words hold for him.  We have had some serious talks about how these are not nice words and that he is not to use them.  We have had some threats of time out, removal of toys and straight to bed if you do not stop.  Mommy and Daddy had to spend some time discussing our next approaches to beat the "potty mouth" efforts of our beloved boy.  Sheesh...who would have seen this on the horizon?  Seems a bit of the devil is in our little boy.  I guess we should have expected him to start to assert a bit of his own autonomy.  Tonight Daddy had a little talk with him about how disappointed we were that he was rude to Mommy.  He seems to get it and was sorry.  We will see how long his remorse lasts.  I did not see this coming.  Mark is quick to point out that any use of the words "cripes, stupid, friggen, shut-up or darn" are "bad words" and will say "Hey stop that.  That is a bad word!"  Funny how he seems to have lost the ability to self censor when it comes to him using THE "F" WORD....as in "I say to Mommy F#@#" and continues to repeat it several times to make sure I understand clearly what he means! Stay tuned for updates...any suggestions would be helpful!  Paint me one gobsmacked Momma! What else can I expect from a soon to be four year old?