Kiddo Blog, Election Edition

Sorry, folks--I can't help injecting a bit more political commentary into this blog on the eve of the election.

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Have you ever tried explaining voter intimidation to a three year old? Give it a go sometime. I stumbled through my version, but I'd love to hear yours.

Why would it be necessary? Only if your kid's preschool shares a building with a polling place and the preschool and the polling site have adjacent doors. And driving home, your spouse is commenting on the fact that none of the people at your kid's school can wear partisan clothing tomorrow, because they are within 150 feet of the entrance to a polling place all day. And your three year old pipes up from the backseat, "Why can't we wear clothes that say 'Obama' or 'McCain' to my school tomorrow?"

Then you say...

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A worthy milestone:

Later in the same drive home, the NPR 5 o'clock news hour on the radio, Tom begins to talk to me. Edith says fiercely, "SsssHHHH!! Daddy!!" I turn and see her leaning forward, intent.

"Are you listening to the story on the radio?" I ask.

She nods urgently.

"I'm so proud," Tom whispers.

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And finally, not election-related, but evidence that the same little brain that can't seem to process requests that she pick up her toys or stop jumping on the bed is nevertheless working away. I was singing her to sleep last night when she interrupted me with a question:

"Mom, how did God come [to be]?"

Enter philosophy of the Prime Mover.

"I was thinking another god made God," she suggested.

I asked how that god came to be.

"I don't know," she said with some frustration.

There's a lecture on campus Wednesday about what exactly banged in the Big Bang. Maybe Edith and I will attend.