Story Time at the Library

I took the girls to 'Story Time' at the public Library today. I am ashamed to say that in the more than 2 years we lived here, this is the first time I have stepped foot in the library. When we were kids, I practically lived at the library, devouring books and knowing the names of all the librarians. I was even given a job to help clean the library, but I digress, I am talking about 'Story Time'.

I wanted to do something different, to have the girls away from familiar surroundings and do something they've never done before. So, I looked up local events and saw that the library had story time every Wednesday morning at 11:00. Perfect! I made sure to tell Hubby the night before and again when I woke, that I was leaving to take the girls to the library. Hubby has a busy mind and tends to forget unless I remind him several times, and then he'll snap at me and say, I know, you told me already! Then when I am headed out the door, he'll ask where am I going. I made sure to tell the girls to get dressed after breakfast because we were going to the library and we needed to leave at 10:00. As any parent will tell you, it takes a bit longer to get ready for things with children than it was when you were a single individual, so I was trying to herd along the girlies so I could at least leave by 10:15. Middle told me she didn't want to get any shots at the library. Oh dear!

It takes about 20 minutes to get into town, driving up and down winding mountain roads, and then suddenly, you are in town. What made people see a mountain and decide that this was the perfect place to build a town? To carve out solid rock and make room for a house here and a store there. To bull doze part of a hill and put a Deaf school there. It makes for beautiful views but it stunts growth and there is no room for more, which come to think of it, makes it ideal for those small-town lovers.

We arrived at the library in good time, but the parking lot was packed, and by packed, I mean there were 15 cars in the parking lot and no room for any more. So I had to park across the street at the Rite Aid where there were signs every 20 feet warning, "Parking for Rite Aid Customers Only Violators Towed At Owners Expense". I felt obligated to drag three girlies into Rite Aid with me and buy a couple of drinks and then place them on the front seat with the receipt face up, clearly showing the Rite Aid logo, thereby proving I am a Rite Aid customer.

We jay-walk across the street and into the library and I can see, in the back where the children's book section is, other children are gathered. There were maybe 10 children altogether, mostly girls. Oldest was absolutely delighted to see all the books and happily went up and down each aisle grabbing random books to add to the growing pile in her arms. Middle was clinging to my leg and Youngest was giggling while running and playing peek-a-boo with me, disappearing behind the shelves.

Finally it was time to begin and there is a large wooden rocking chair sitting at the top of a large oval rug with a colorful border of the alphabet. I assumed the reader would be sitting in the rocking chair so I told two of my girlies to sit close to the chair so they could get good viewing of the pictures in the book. Youngest sat on my lap, flipping the pages of a picture book. A plump, casually dressed woman with over-done, highlighted hair grabs a kiddie chair and sits opposite of the rocker and starts to read. If you were looking at me, you would have seen my eyes roll around and if you were listening hard enough, a hiss escaped my lips. My girls flipped around and scooched closer to hear Miss Reader tell her tale.

I was sitting maybe 10 feet away and I couldn't hear her, so I don't know what was said. She read 2 books, of which my girls sat rapt and didn't move a muscle, while 2 rambunctious little boys ran around from one end of the room to the other, a curly-haired girl kept getting up to drink water out of a paper cone, and another girl rolled back and forth on the floor, her arms and feet bumping the other children. I was tempted to tell the mothers to take their kids and shoo! But my mouth behaved and I busied myself with Youngest. When the second story was over, Miss Reader stood and said she had a surprise, then she pulled out a brown paper bag puppet modeled after the bear in the second story. Apparently the bear was sleeping a lot and so when the bag was closed, the bear had eyelashes shut and he was asleep, but open the bag to expose 2 eyes and the bear was awake! Oldest looked back at me, with eyes that asked me if she could make a puppet, please please please! And I waved my arm, indicating her to go ahead and craft away!

Middle hung back, her eyes heavy with tears, her bottom lip quivering and I knew at once, there were too many people crowding around the table, mothers helping their children and the sound levels of voices talking and directing and laughter was too much for Middle to bear. I checked to be sure Oldest was doing fine, then I grabbed supplies for making another puppet and lead Middle to a table by herself and helped her make her own bear puppet. Her big smile when it was complete was enough to melt my heart.

Time to go and Oldest started stomping her feet and pointing at the books, "I don't want to go home. I want to buy some books!" I tried to explain, first gently, then sternly, that you have to borrow books from a library and that I just applied for a library card and they would send it in the mail and we could borrow books next time. "I don't want to go home. I want to buy some books!" Finally, I just dragged her pissy butt out of the library, across the street and much to my relief, my car, which was not towed away. All the way home, down winding roads, I had to endure kicks to the seat and when I looked in the rear view mirror to see what she wanted, all she had to say was, "I want to buy some books!" Argh!