Hello. I would have written something a little sooner, but we had some internet issues here at the apartment. There are some things to report, mostly about Odessa. So if you care about that stuff you are in luck, and if you don’t care about that stuff, then why exactly are you here? Have you seen what this website has been doing for the last two years?

A little while ago I quite suddenly got sick of changing diapers. It was quite a moment. For nearly 25 months I really had no problem changing them. But then, all of a sudden, I realized that it wasn’t something I enjoyed doing. So I decided that I’d potty train her. So, the Tuesday following that revelation we spent a couple hours and got that fairly well taken care of.

She’s not perfect yet, but I’m pretty satisfied. She no longer has any accidents with #1 around the apartment. When she needs to go she announces it quite proudly, runs off to the bathroom, drops her pants, does her business, pulls her pants up, pours the business into the big toilet, and comes to me so I can help her clean her hands. It’s a nice arrangement. She still needs work on #2, and sometimes away from the house she gets a bit distracted and requires reminders. I think she may have some accidents over Thanksgiving with all the people and attention focused on her.

Part of the potty training I gave her included trying to convince her that if she would keep her pants dry she was a “big girl” and that getting them wet was something that a “baby” would do. This proved to be a rather ineffective method however, as Odessa considers being called a baby to be the highest compliment. At the mere suggestion she was a baby she would squeal with delight and laughter.

Also, now when she is on a timeout, she starts to scream “Pee Pee!” over and over because she thinks that I will let her get up.

Her new favorite word is “salsa”. Why? I have no idea. She has a frog toy which encourages her to dance by saying “Let’s salsa!” when a button is pushed. She doesn’t dance though, she just says “salsa!” really loud whenever she hears the word. Eventually this will break down into giggling. She will repeat the word endlessly as if she were palilalic. Except only cheerful and happy.

Sometimes, if you find yourself outside her bedroom, you can hear her quietly murmuring “salsa” to herself.

That’s about all I have to say right now. Salsa.

Happy election day! It is always a party at our house when there is an election. Big time celebrities and newsmakers show up, like me. And sometimes Serena. We both voted last week, so no polling station experience for us this year. I have a policy of not voting for unopposed incumbents regardless of party because I think it is bad for representative democracies, so I got to write in some cool people like Odessa and her dolls. Brunhilde also got a vote.