Every Wednesday we head over to one of our local branches and go to our special room right when the library opens. I never have to tell my boys to listen or pay attention or pull them away from rambunctious activities, they just naturally love sitting down to hear a story.
Erik is the worse. He gets completely engrossed in storytime and is oblivious to almost everything around him and barely notices if a friend walks in the door. When it is time for songs he jumps around with great enthusiasm and claps his hands loudly. He dreams of this place.
We have a little routine going right now. Once storytime ends we go out with all our friends and do the craft. Erik usually lasts about 2 seconds and Elliot sometimes a little longer. My boys are not very big fans of art. Then we wait for our friends to finish because my boys never want to leave without them and everyone holds hands as we head to the playground. After about an hour of playing we all head inside to pick our library books. Its our routine, us moms like it because anytime we deviate from this routine we notice it turns into chaos. Our kids actually calm themselves down when they are together, or maybe it is a different mom yelling at them that makes the difference.
Well today we just couldn't go. I tried to squeeze in Elliot's doctors appointment and the only slot available was right at storytime. Darn, I hate missing it when we aren't on vacation or sick because the boys love it so. We did head to those same friends house for a playdate so they got half their routine/fun. When we were there Erik saw his friend's library books and made the connection immediately that we didn't get any today, but returned our old ones. Oh well, it happens no big deal we moved on.
Then he woke up from his nap, is in a terrible mood and throwing the biggest tantrum. I finally figured it out to discover he is just really sad about not having library books and wants to go to the library. Now I don't give into tantrums, but can I deny a boy a book? Not this mom who encourages Erik's reading addiction at any opportunity.
I live about 1/4 miles from the library but it is all hills and almost 100 degrees today so we hopped in the car and headed over. I expected it to be dead and us be the only people, but it was buzzing with activity. I had no idea the library was such a popular place at 5 pm at night?!
The first thing Erik does it pull a bunch of random books off the shelf. He use to just read Bernstein Bears, but I got really sick of it and encouraged him to look for other books. It actually worked and now I just let him browse all he wants and pull down any book at that looks good to him. He usually sticks to one section, multiple books, but its about the process right?
I have to confess by letting Erik pick any book we do come home with some strange ones that I would rather read only once. Today since we had the extra time we sat down and skimmed and looked through a few of the books to make sure they are age appropriate. For some reason Erik loves books about Halloween and checks them out constantly.
Our libraries are nice because there are carts of books for the littlest ones like Elliot to shift through. Today he was stuck on a book that we have at home and it took a lot of convincing for me to put it back. I draw the line at checking out books we already have.
While Erik reads though his books, Elliot likes to play the puzzles.
Until Elliot found a Thomas book and wouldn't stop obsessing and insisting I look at it even when I had already looked at it. He was screaming about it in the library in a way I couldn't control, he was so excited. It wouldn't be my pick, but it was Thomas poems. We can have fun with that book.
Then one last quick look at our books to make sure they are the ones we really want to take home. We keep them for an entire week only to come back for more.
Our final picks to be taken home and read all week. One of the reasons why I love the library, we return them and I don't have to read the same books for longer than a couple days. Erik really likes the variety too.
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