So the last two weeks have been labelled “Stickergate” in our household and for very good reason.

For Christmas, we bought my three-year-old son a Fireman Sam activity set with lots of fun things to do to keep him occupied and engaged.

However, it’s been my 19-month-old daughter who’s taken to it in a big way.

She has developed so quickly in the last few months with regard to her speech development, understanding what we say to her and also copying everything her big brother does. She has no fear.

Yesterday she stood back in amazement watching my son jump off the trunk in his room. Next thing I know, she’s getting up there and giving herself a countdown to fly off it too.

Luckily I was at hand to step in.

Anyway, I digress. So these books have been a hit, mainly because they are full of stickers. My son has been a dab hand at extracting stickers for quite some time, so it was inevitable that it would be passed down to his sister.

We have had stickers all over the walls, floors and doors. There have been stickers covering the sofa, Michael’s beloved television and everywhere in the kitchen.

This morning Michael found a sticker on the bottom of his sock and I had one on the sleeve of my cardigan.

These blooming stickers are everywhere and the more you go round and unstick them, the more they keep coming back with a vengeance.

There is no point trying to hide the books as there would be mutiny in the ranks and Michael and I are on a health detox this week, so we would be too weak to fight it.

Instead, we are just waiting for the time all the stickers have been used up and our home life can return to normality.