Love for the library

The library in our new hometown is amazing. It is large, spacious, and beautifully designed. Its kids' section is full of book for the little ones, but it doesn't end there. It includes two train tables, a nook with puzzles, a dollhouse, and a screened in porch with a Lego set. And besides the books, the library also offers DVDs, CDs, and these story book kits. I find it all very impressing.

We enrolled the boys in the summer reading program, racking up points for reading, singing songs, and saying rhymes. After each segment, the kids got a sticker and sometimes a prize. At the end, they were invited to a pool party. All this in a suburb of less than 30,000.

The county we moved from in Oregon shut down its public library system for a time because of a lack of funding. It made national news. It later reopened for a very small number of hours a week. I am glad people in Wisconsin value their public libraries more.

We are now frequent visitors to the library. We go at least once a week for storytime, my evening book club, or just to get out of the house. Q has been repeatedly watching his rented DVDs about trains, fire engines, and garbage trucks. Most of the DVDs are highly educational and some even allow the kids to read along with the words on the bottom of the screen.

So we are library rats now. I have read some great books as part of the book club. Since I have been here, we read The Life of Pi, The Forest Lover, and The Devil in the White City. I am now reading Water for Elephants. They have all been excellent.

Despite our love for the library, we did have a little drama this week there. I was wrangling the kids from train table, to bookshelf, to Lego area when R disappeared. Now if Q gets separated from T or me, he panics and screams. R however, relishes the freedom and makes a break for it. And he is getting fast. I realized he was no longer wobbling along by my side and quickly began searching between the stacks. I couldn't find him near the toys, in the kids' section, or even in a quiet area of the adult section. I am ashamedly told the children's librarians that I was missing a child, and they helped me look. Those little buggers are hard to spot because they are so short!

Eventually, a librarian flagged me down and pointed to R happily toddling along. As I ran to catch up with him he sped up giggling all the way. Little stinker.

--MM