I voted today! In the pouring rain, after dark, and with a toddler in tow. Ingrid voted with us last year, too, and I plan on taking her every year. Last year, one of the wardens was the guy that married us, and he held her while we voted. This year, he’s actually in an election, so he was only there on the ballot. (And I voted for him, of course.) This year, Ingrid sat on the little counter thing while I drew in the black lines, and she watched.

I remember going with my parents to vote, but in that little town, there’s on booth, like an outhouse in the corner of the town office, and the ballot box is made of plywood and has a little lock on it. I plan on taking Ingrid to vote every year, to see democracy in action, to see that your voice counts. I took Amy’s son, back in the Bush v Gore election (at the time, she wasn’t able to vote, and my polling place was conveniently at his school and she wanted him to see the process) and he actually drew the lines in for me. I look forward to doing that with Ingrid.

I didn’t sign all the petitions at the end, which I normally do, but for me the important part was to vote, and to do it in the rain with a toddler — when a lot of able-bodied people don’t bother — was as good as it was going to get tonight.

Today was also the first time for Ingrid to take a header off of our bed, which, considering we’ve been cosleeping for 17.5 months, is pretty remarkable. It wasn’t even at night! But this morning, as Dave was getting ready for bed, instead of toddling over to him, she inexplicably threw herself over the far side of our (unusually high) bed. I was at work. She cried for ten minutes, but recovered quickly — more quickly than Dave, even. I joked that the drop loosened up some stuck brain cells, because since then she’s perfected the art of kissing US (MELT) and learned how to say "grampy," which pleased my dad (on speakerphone) to no end.