Adventures in Motherhood-- The Library
One day a innocent, young, and vivacious mother, decides that she would like a book from the library. Being the kind, sweet, and patient mother that she is, she brings the kids. When she got to the library, the kids quickly discover that the library has "Discovery Kits", these are magical, mysterious bags with labels like "Sea Creatures", "Dragons", "Dinosaurs", and etc. These "Discovery Kits", are in appealing large green bags that are zip-tied shut so you can't see exactly what you are getting until you get home and cut open the tie.
Upon getting home and cutting open the bag, we find (approx.) 10 books, puzzles, dvds, playsets with animal figurines, puppets, card games etc. Fun right? But the kit also comes this warning, "Do NOT lose one toy, book, game card, puzzle piece, or dryer lint from the bottom of the bag... if you do, the PENALTY WILL BE $175,000,000 DOLLARS!!! .... so quick as a wink, I gather all of the pieces that have been scattered from one end of the house to the other and put the mystery discovery kit out of the reach of the kids, but not until I have counted every game card, book, puzzle piece, and wad of dryer lint.... phew... but as I am checking the list again, I realize that the discovery kit is due in one week and if it is late the PENALTY WILL BE $175,000,000 DOLLARS!!! And since it practically took me a week to round up the pieces of the mysterious discovery kit, I realize that it is already time to start mentally prepping myself to get back to the library. I wake up at 6 AM (due to a singing dancing frog that has entered my room... but then that is another post)... and begin getting ready to go to the libary.
A rule at our house has always been that you can check out one book per year you are old with a cap at 5. It worked great when the twins were two and we had no other kids, but now that equates to 15 books for the kids and 30 books for myself. We search the house high and low, we have rounded up 44 books but can't find that darn Sea Snakes book... where could it be? It is now 10 AM and I am starting to panic, because the library is 20 minutes away, and if we don't get in the van in the next 15 minutes, then we are going to start cutting into Charlotte's nap time which is not pretty when you are at the library. Sunddenly, I have this weird memory of Zac reading me a book about Sea Snakes at 11 PM last night when I was 95% asleep (true story), so I know the Sea Snakes book has to be somewhere near Zac's side of the bed... BINGO, there it is behind the night stand! Now we can go. I get all the kids in the van, and then back out again to change a stinky diaper. We are back in again, when suddenly I realize, I can't find the library card. Out of the van again, we tear apart the living room, my bedroom, the kitchen, no luck... I call the library to ask how much a replacement card will cost.... $2. So it is worth not losing anymore time to pay my $2 and get in the van so that we don't miss nap time, and we don't bring back the $175,000,000 kit overdue. We head back out to the van, passing the fridge on the way, where I notice the libary card stuck with a magnet. Phew... just saved myself $2.
We get to the library and find that it is sign up day for the Summer reading time program, which means that the parking lot is filled to capacity and we have to park across the street and hike into the library with 4 kids, 45 books, one discovery kit. I personally get to carry 44 books (because the kids shredded their plastic grocery bags in the van), a wiggling toddler, and 3 coats, because the kids don't want to wear their coats, but need them in case it rains on the way back out.
When we get in, the kids want to sign up for the Summer Reading program, which means that they each get a candy bracelet (which they cannot eat in the library, yeah right) and some passports, where they are supposed to track their reading. Along with these library passports, we are currently already tracking reading for a school wide reading contest, and a second grade reading program. Now every time we read, we have to write down the title of the book on an ice cream cone, color a piece of wood on a random worksheet, and fill in the summer time passport.
The kids then fan out. Tanner heads to the Non-Fiction section, where he will find the longest books he can find with very technical and (uninteresting to me) words and paragraphs about cars, aircraft, trains, and anything else with wheels... and now that he is reading, if I read these books to him, he knows that I am skipping pages and making up words.
Ian also wants to learn about summfin' cause Tanner is (which means he wants a NF book), so we have to look up something on the card catalogue on the computer. But he insists on doing the computer work himself, so it is a very slow process of him typing in the letters, of words that he has made up because he doesn't really know what he wants to learn about.
While Ian is looking summfin' up on the computer, Charlotte is running down the aisles throwing books right and left. The librarians are glaring at me... but I feel like if they really didn't want toddlers taking books off the shelves, they would build a toddler holding cage.
Ashlyn has quickly picked her 5 books and heads for the computers, and since there are 5 computers and 50 kids at the library today, you can imagine the fun that is taking place over at the computer station.
Time to check out... and guess what, the library has this really fun self check-out machine and each of my kids is elbowing eachother and fighting over who will get to check out their books first... but we make it and we are almost out the door when...
OH WAIT... we forgot to get ANOTHER DISCOVERY KIT!!!
Sigh... does anyone want to come help me round up 200 magnets, 15 books, 2 dvds, and 1000 puzzle pieces, before next Thursday?
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