Baby Magic

Five Year Old Politico

Hannah has been soooo into the election. It started with her U.S. Presidents placemat at the breakfast table. She studies each portrait and asks so many questions that I just can't answer them all without looking things up myself.

Then it was in her reading. She gets the God's World Magazine for kids and they had a big election article that really captured her attention, together with an online exercise to learn about voting. She held her own elections about an issue important to her: whether cleaning your room should be a prerequisite to dessert.

On Tuesday, she got up early to go with Daddy at 6:45am to the polling place to see how we vote. She came back, sample ballot in hand (to keep forever) with a look of triumph and an "I voted!" sticker. Dad had cast his vote - for all the right people and causes. She further informed me that she will be able to vote in 2020. (Just a little bit off, but not by much.)

So when we turned on the T.V. on Tuesday night just in time to see McCain's concession, she almost cried.

She's a dyed-in-the-wool Republican already, with a few extra quirks.

• She thinks that we ought to elect a conservative and then make it so they stay in office for the rest of their life;
• She proposed that she and Daddy would go out after dinner on election night and FORCE the Republicans who had not already voted to do so; and
• She thinks we should have a recount for John McCain, just to make sure.

She's funny.

We also found a great book at the library called Vote! by Eileen Christelow. It covers everything from a history of voter rights (she was horrified that only white landowning men could vote at one time), voter registration, volunteering to help with a campaign, fundraising, going to vote, and... recounts. This book is well done for children, on a topic many might not find interesting.

The final word came yesterday when Peter and I were talking about F.D.R. and how many years he had been in office. We were batting around 11 or 12 years, and then tried to recall who his vice president had been who had stepped into his place. We couldn't remember, so we asked Hannah. She promptly responded "Harry S. Truman!" like 'who doesn't know that?' Then we came downstairs and looked at her placemat. She was right.

She's amazing...