Things To Do This Summer #14: Go to the library

The kids love going to the library. That should be a great thing, right? Ha! Yeah right! With kids this age, it’s always a nightmare. Well, it was until this summer. In previous years, Blair always wanted to get on the computer, but didn’t know how to work it and required my help, which I couldn’t give because I was too busy chasing Sloane up and down the aisles reshelving the myriad of books that she had pulled out, all at the same time while trying to keep my eye on the kids and keep Reid’s noise level down. It was such a miserable time (for me) that I never looked forward to going. So when summertime rolled around this year, I avoided the library like the plague. However, I finally decided that I had to at least try to be a good mom and read with her kids over the summer. So guilt got the better of me and we decided to give it a try. I was very pleased to see that many of the challenges of last year had passed (that doesn’t mean they’re gone for good—we’ll be back there again next summer when Sloane and Elise are the ages that Blair and Sloane were last year—then the fun begins all over again), but for this year at least, it wasn’t too bad at all.

(…Well, unless you count the time Sloane peed through her clothes in the middle of the children’s section. What happened you ask? She seems to have a history of this! Well, she kept telling me she had to go to the bathroom, and thanks to the peeing-at-the-baseball-game experience, I knew I better take her to the bathroom before she let loose wherever she fancied. However, each time I tried to pull her away from the puzzles, she told me she didn’t have to go anymore. So I left her alone while I tended to Elise, who was loudly shrieking to get out of the stroller. But then I heard the strange sound of water running. I looked to see where it was coming from and there was Sloane peeing! Right there on the carpet! Thankfully, I think the librarian was too busy keeping a watchful eye on me feeding library-forbidden food and drink to the disruptive screaming baby to notice that my 3-year old was peeing. But with a 3-year old, you can’t just tell them to stop and expect them to stop mid-stream. They’re not capable of such fine skills. I quickly discovered that the only way I could get her to pause was to nudge her enough to distract her from the task at hand. So there I was—in a panicked, yet hushed, and trying very hard to be inconspicuous--whisper, “Stop! Stop peeing!” while I repeatedly poked her in the abdomen and frantically gathered up my things to rush her to the restroom, begging “Don’t pee, don’t pee, don’t pee” the whole way. Yes, fun times at the library, indeed.) 

During the less eventful visits, Blair and Reid liked playing the computer, so that occupied a good thirty minutes. I began to notice the common theme of Blair’s book choice was that they all had pink spines. So that’s how she deemed a book worthy of checking out. 

Sloane liked standing on the step stool and playing the puzzles. She seems to be over the fascination of pulling out handfuls of books every 10 seconds. And when I could no longer silence Elise with water and crackers while being strapped in the stroller, I’d let her crawl around. I did have to constantly chase her and keep her from banging on everyone’s keyboard, standing in chairs, and climbing on tables, but luckily, she usually wasn’t out of the stroller long enough to become too frustrating.

And when it was all said and done, the kids earned some great prizes through the library’s summer reading program, so it was worth the effort.