This will be the very first Halloween that I am not taking my baby trick or treating. We've gone together every single year up until now.

This year Justin is High King Peter. We were watching the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together a few weekends ago, and he told me, "See mommy, that's why they call him hiking Peter, cause he goes hiking!" My little angle. When I dropped him off at school today, his classmates were Spiderman, the Hulk, every superhero imaginable. My little Justin chose King Peter. That speaks to his class and taste, at only four.

At every election since he was born, I've brought Justin will me to vote. I'm not sure if he remembers any elections previous to this one, but I brought him with me and Jacob this year for early voting. To keep him busy, I gave him a small piece of paper and told him to write down who he's voting for. He protested, "I'm too young to vote." I told him to go ahead and cast his ballot anyway. He wrote in barley legible writing, "OBAmA." The election is in 4 days. He knows that pink is for girls, swords are for boys, coffee is for grown-ups, but through out the entire campaign, it has never once occurred to Justin that Obama is half black, and the historical significance of that. In a way, I don't really want to bring it to his attention.

I'm really hopeful this time around. With the presidential choice so clear, if the county doesn't elect Obama, then there is something fundamentally wrong with our democratic system.