Vote early and often

William got his first civics lesson yesterday. I took him with me to vote in the midterm election.

I voted in the primary back in June, but Mom was here, and she stayed with the baby while I dashed up the street to cast my ballot. This time, William accompanied me into the voting stall. I remember going with my own mother to vote, back when we were living in Hoover when I was a child. She always voted at our church, and I remember how she stood in line to have her name checked off on the list of voters. I remember being a little envious of the little oval white "I voted" sticker that she would receive, since that was the era in which I was so nuts about stickers that I had about three different jam-packed sticker books. But the message definitely came through: vote, and vote every time that you have the opportunity to do so. I plan to make sure that William learns the same lesson.

So William went to the seventh-day adventist church that is home to my polling station. For his patriotism yesterday, he got a "I voted electronically" sticker, which I promptly affixed to his overalls. He wore it proudly...until he tried to eat it and I had to take it away from him. Ah well. Still. I hope it's just the beginning of William's future as an American citizen taking an active role in shaping the future of his country.

Now, if we can just get him to learn the lesson that it's a good thing to sleep all night long, we'll be doing great. He was sleeping so well, usually going from around 8:30 or 9 until around 6 to...well, I can't even keep track of all the nighttime wakeups that he's had the last few nights. He settles down if he sees you standing over the crib, but then he wails when you walk away. Sometimes he is crying because he has spit out his binky, and then other times, he wails with the binky still in his mouth. I'm not sure what to do.

Last night, after we split about six different trips into the baby's room, David speculated that William's beginning to start teething. So I gave William a dose of grape-flavored Tylenol. He quieted down for maybe 45 minutes. That's it. Nothing seems to be working to convince William that a good night's sleep is good for everyone, himself included. We're discussing sleep-training, but we're wondering if we should give him another night or two to work things out, since we have been out of town so much lately---and that does tend to wreak havoc on his sleeping. All I know is that I really, really want a full night's sleep again, and much as I love my son, I really don't want to see--or hear!--this much of him at night.

Who knows. Maybe last night, he was keyed up about his first voting experience. But hopefully, we'll find a solution to this little problem. As everyone knows, I dont' function very well without enough sleep. It's not pretty.