Election Day...where do we run to?

Ok, so yesterday I tried to explain voting to Bridget. 

A: Bridget, do you want to go vote with me tomorrow?

B: Yes, but what I don't know what vote is.

A: Voting is when some people run for president, and we vote to pick which person we want to be president.

B: But where do they run to?

A: It's not a running race. Let me try this again. Voting is when we pick who we want to be the president of the United States.

B: Oh! Can I vote?

A: No, not until you're older. Who should mommy vote for? John McCain or Barack Obama?

B: Barack Obama.

A: (Just to make sure) Who should I vote for? Barack Obama or John McCain?

B: Barack

So fast forward to today. After breakfast, Shawn, Bridget and I went to Lapsit at the Library. Bridget's getting too big for lapsit, and has been refusing to participate in the songs for some time now. She still likes reading with Mom and Dad, and chasing and popping bubbles at the end of the program. But, it's probably time to move her up to Toddler Time, where they still read books, do finger plays, and end with an arts & crafts project.

After the library, we went to vote. Bridget was interested in what everyone was doing, and she walked back and forth between the two of us, wanting to see everything. At the end, she got to slide our ballots into the machine. She thought that was pretty neat. When we were leaving the polling place, she said, "Now where do we run to?" Again, in reference to "running for President". We both laughed and told her that nobody is running anywhere. We just picked the person we liked best for president.

Then it was home, and I took a nap while Bridget watched Finding Nemo in the basement with Shawn. After that, we had some lunch and went to Auntie Jo's house to visit Allison, Kaitlyn, Ann, Matthew and Auntie Tina. Allison and Ann went down for a nap, so Bridget and Kaitlyn played both inside and outside the entire time. Of course, they had fun. It was kinda nice for me too, because when they were outside, a neighbor was watching all the kids, so Tina and I got to chat inside, (and I got to rest!). 

When Ann and Allison woke up, Allison joined in the fun. Poor Ann wasn't feeling too well, and she just wanted to hug mommy. You could tell when the medicine kicked in because she would start climbing all the high chairs and step stools in the house. At one point she was on the top of a 2-step stool about to jump off the stool and onto the mini trampoline! Good thing Tina was standing right there to stop her, otherwise I might have gone into labor jumping from the recliner trying to catch her fall! She's a little dare devil, I tell you that! I've never seen someone as tiny as Ann climbing on so many different things: high chairs, step stools, couch arm, couch back, kitchen chairs...everything! 

Ann is also fun to talk to. She understands everything you say to her, and she'll respond with a yes or no accordingly. And when she wants to talk to you, she'll put together a string of jibberish, with the most serious face. For example, when I got to the house, I said, "Hi Annie! How are you?" and she said something like, "da ba grdodu adu" which I interpreted to mean, "I'm fine how are you?" So I said, "I'm fine thank you." And she said, "Yes." and turned around and walked away. Pretty funny!

So, we stayed to play WAY too long, and ended up leaving at 5 pm. Of course, Bridget fell asleep in the car on the way home. When we got home, she was crabby and saying that she was sick and her belly hurt. (Too much juice and swedish fish at Auntie's house?) So she was a big crab for the first half hour or so. But she calmed down after resting some more on the couch. Eventually she managed to eat a very nutritious dinner of goldfish crackers, whole wheat Club crackers, and very diluted lemonade. 

When she came completely around, both Shawn and I took our turns finding the pictures in her Hidden Pictures Playground magazine. 

Now that she's safely in bed, I think we'll just end our evening watching the election results come in.