Reid farted at supper one night last week and a funny, at least in retrospect, standoff ensued.

Daddy: You need to say, “Excuse me.”
Reid: [nothing]
Daddy: You need to say, “Excuse me,” when you toot.
Reid: I didn’t toot.
Daddy: Yes, you did. Now say, “Excuse me.”
Reid: I didn’t toot. [There was something in her voice that gave me pause.]
Mama: You have to say, “Excuse me,” when you fart.
Reid: ’scuse me [with the smallest wisp of teenage sullen] and then, to Ken, “Girls fart.” [Oh yeah, that was a flash of teenage attitude yet to come.]

To make this exchange even more blog-worthy, it occurred during the week of World Toilet Day (November 19th, if you missed it). The [1] United Nations has declared 2008 the [2] International Year of Sanitation. The [3] World Toilet Organization has many scary/interesting facts, including that 2.6 billion people do not have access to “improved sanitation” and the excreta of approximately 5.7 billion people is discharged directly into the environment – on the land and to the receiving water bodies. And my greatest preoccupation is what to recommend my mother-in-law get Reid for Christmas.