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.

We’ve been doing swim class with Ingrid on Saturdays. Sometimes we both get in, sometimes it’s just Dave, and once, it was just me, but it’s a fun little gig and gets our asses in gear on Saturday morning. Basically, when I was a kid, growing up near water just evolved into knowing how to swim and liking lakes and whatever. Ingrid isn’t growing up like that, but I want her to be able to get her ass back on the dock should she happen to fall in. And, at least enjoy water some. Thus: baby swim class.

Today I sat on the bench while Dave did the pool part, and sat next to a mom, and we started talking, and OMG, it was so nice to Talk to a Mom. I mean, I work with mothers, but their kids are older than mine by a few years, and/or they are just different about stuff. This mom, we started talking about stupid things people say that come true (like, "it goes so fast!") and that led into her admitting that her kid still ends up in bed with them and how people giver her flak about it, which led ME into "Oh man, Ingrid wakes up with us every morning, and the way I see it, that’s the stuff I’m going to miss, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts." I think this woman was actually relieved to talk about it, and we did, and then that led to discussing childcare, and how she is looking at centers because her mom isn’t really able to continue caring for her, and lo and behold,  her first choice is our childcare, so I gave her the scoop on that. She’s a middle school guidance counselor, so we talked middle school for a bit, and honestly, I think both our husbands were annoyed that we weren’t clapping for every splash our daughters were making, but OMG SO WHAT. She was also preparing for her first night away, and I shared my story of my own conference and how it was actually pretty refreshing, etc, and meanwhile our kids were being dunked by their dads, and it was great. Just to talk to a mom, IRL, was so nice. THAT’s the stuff I miss when it comes to being a working parent, and why I’ve set up an entire category at my Local Parents’ Site just for "working parents." So much of what happens that’s fun for kids, happens during business hours, to give the SAHMs something to do, and dammit, working parents need those connections too! AT LEAST as much as the SAHMs; too often the WOHMs are cloistered away in their office and when they do run into these group activities, the SAHMs don’t really get the challenge of the WOHM life, and the WOHMs don’t get the camaraderie of the SAHM life. 

Anyway. It was good. Now I’m finally going to get off my ass and order some MOO cards so that in the future, I can hand one to a mom like that.

My Night Away was great. Freaking GREAT.

My rental car was a brand new Camry, all big and quiet and not littered with daycare report cards or empty water bottles. I drove to Freeport, zoomed through LLB and the outlet quickly, and then headed on to a little town south of Portland, where I met up with one of my internet friends at her house. She let me charge my phone (the outlets in the car weren’t working, argh) and play puzzles with her son and make googly eyes at her daughter, and then when I left, she sent me off with cookies and milk! Very cool. Go, Internet!

I then moseyed on down to Kittery, where I picked up a dozen things, and only bought one — the Hanna outlet was cool but their outlet prices were still too steep for my blood, and I got some overalls at OshKosh — some tan ones, and some red and white striped ones. Left there and went on to my hotel in Norwood, experiencing Traffic! Which always makes me kind of happy, in the way that billboards do — "We don’t have this in Maine, so I’m definitely not At Home!"  Checked in, got online and scribbled down some directions and headed to IKEA.

Oh, IKEA, how I adore you. I had a budget of $100, and most of that went to Ingrid, but still! I got her the LATT table and chairs set (really wanted Kritter, even though it was more expensive, so it’s probably good it was out of stock) and the MALA easel, a bead path and a hand puppet (hand puppet for the trip to Texas next month), a SPOKA nightlight, some kitchen stuff — graters and cheap knives — and then I headed back to my hotel.

By this time, it was after nine, I’d eaten a bagel when I first left home, and thank god for the cookies and milk, which kept me going til I rustled up a turkey club from the hotel bar. I’d packed all these one-time use packets of hair treatments and body scrubs and I’d found a pore strip in the medicine cabinet and packed that, so I spent the evening doing all those things that I never do at home (and then, of course, worrying that they were *so* old that they would make my hair fall out or something.) I slept well — giant bed, all to myself — even if I was right next to the elevator, and I was paranoid about my alarm not going off. (Which was a good thing to worry about, as it turned out — the clock time was set backwards, so when I went to bed at 10pm, it just said "10" and the alarm was clearly set for 7am, but when I woke up at 7 to no alarm, the LCD for the clock time now had a PM indicator. So, basically, I couldn’t have known the difference unless I’d been there before noon.)

My conference was good, the drive home great — so much loud singing-along to Ani DiFranco! — and when I got to my house, Dave had kept Ingrid up past bedtime, made a fort in the living room with our dining room chairs and a blanket, and were hiding out, waiting for me. So great. Highly recommended.

On another topic entirely:

So, my ILs do a name draw for christmas gifts. Kids get tagged on to their same-sex parent, so Ingrid and I come as a set, and my niece (good niece) drew our names. She’s wonderful, but she’s a 21 year old college student, and I really, really don’t want her to have to spend money she likely doesn’t have on us. (To add to that, her boyfriend drew a father/son pair.) Is it poor etiquette to contact her, either directly or through her mom, to suggest babysitting would be a great gift? She sits for her cousins’ kids frequently, and she adores Ingrid, and honestly, I don’t NEED anything — but babysitting would be huge. I’m just not sure how much this smacks of "Get me THIS PRESENT" or if she’d appreciate the consideration to her finances. Hrm.

Also, has anyone used Avon facial products? I had this almay kit of cleanser, toner, moisturizer, that made my face break out, so I bagged it. And I was reading reviews on makeupalley.com, and one that surfaced was Avon, the Pore-Fection line, which seemed about right (tho, no SPF, which as we enter the Sunless Season — as in, it’s dark when you leave the house and dark when you return) and there are several eBay sellers that sell the kits for about 20 bucks.  But, because I am a huge dork who loves reviews, I thought I’d ask. I feel like I’m in some middle land for my face, I still get huge blackheads, but I should probably start to consider Products for Aging. As it is now, I use nothing, except for an Aveeno facewash that I unearthed in my search for trial size spa products to take to Mass.  Thoughts?