I shouldn't be surprised (so I don't know why I am!) that one of my two-year-old son's first words was "fart"!

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Honestly, it is true. (Oh, if only there were a 'fart' smilie!) His others included: no way, go away and sorry!

But this extensive range of vocabulary and knowledge isn't limited to my younger son alone. Shopping the other day, my elder son (4) decided he wanted to buy his dad a pair of socks. Now, I'm always keen to encourage a sense of generosity, but hadn't bargained for the pair he wanted to buy...Yes, we came home with an illustrated pair warning of "explosive farts". And still my son couldn't understand why Daddy wouldn't wear his new socks to work the next day!

But as I said, I shouldn't be surprised. (He is male after all!) When buying the socks, he informed me that farts really were flammable (yes he knows what it means!?!)and you could set light to them. Now I ventured that though people often said this about farts, I didn't think it was true. Oh yes, it was, he replied, Daddy had told him!

And what did Daddy say when I mentioned all this to him? Was he shocked and horrified at the things our son had picked up? Not a bit of it! Yes, you really could set light to farts, he informed me, but it could be quite dangerous doing it, as he or one of his friends had once found out!

Of course, there's no hope for me surrounded by three boys (yes, that includes the supposedly grown up one!) Still, at least my elder son (4) is fairly sensible. Feeling rather cold on the way home that day, he suggested we put the fire on when we got home. But, he advised, if we did so, we would need to put a sign warning: "Caution: no farts!" Well, I couldn't really argue with that logic, could I?!