If there's one thing to be smart about...

it's voting.

Now I admit, when I was 18 and stoked to vote for the first time, I picked all the females on the ballot and colored in their ovals painstakingly. Since then, I'm pleased to report that I've grown up a bit (although if worse comes to worse and I have absolutely no clue, I have to admit that I resort to the "girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider" approach). I did some research and was ready to vote with confidence.

Without getting into a political rant, because let's face it - it's November 2nd and we're all a BIT tired of that, I can't overstate the importance of making time in the day to hit the polls. And it's even more important to me to show my son how vital it is to vote. I was fortunate enough to have the day off from school today, so Houston and I hit our voting ward early.

Houston, all 19 months of him, is not a novice to voting. He's been traipsed into the claustrophobic booth with me, and juggled from hip to hip for as many elections as there have been. Although he's definitely becoming astutely aware of how bizarre the whole process is. After being removed from his car seat prematurely, with chocolate munchkin still in hand, he reached up for my hand with a chocolate-glaze smile, always a good sport for whatever adventure awaits. We walked down the long wheelchair ramp into the musty smelling church, and before we had even made it inside were interrupted by a creaky, "Who arrre youuuu voting for, little boyyyyy?"

That's when Houston dropped my hand, and smile, and looked urgently at me saying, "Up, up?"

From car to booth, back to car, there was no shortage of little old lady eager to ask Houston who he had voted for. Which to me is a) inappropriate to ask, and b) aggressive interaction with a toddler. We eventually made it into the booth (okay, now I know I'm no chunk, but seriously - does anyone consider that people may need more than 1 square foot of room to vote comfortably?), and juggled Houston over to my right hip so I could write freely with my left hand. He looked anxious, so I said, "Okay Hew... time for momma to color." To which I heard from the booth on my right, "Well that's a fun way to look at it. She told him she was going to color."

Okay old lady, as I tell my 7-year-old students, MYOB. And also, who else was in HER booth? Kinky.

We made our way out of the booth to deposit our ballots, only to be faced with (you guessed it) another old lady. Houston knew the routine at this point though, and hid behind my legs, gently pushing me out the door.

As I strapped him back into his car seat, he looked at me with those green eyes and asked, "All done?" I said, "Yes. All done!" He said, "Okayyyy! More munka?" Poor kid.... all that work for another chocolate munchkin.

Love that kid.

"Who are youuuu voting for, sonnnny?"