So I am slightly nervous about our second attempt at story time. Two weeks ago we went to our first story time at the library. I was excited to see if I could handle it all by myself. I thought it should be painless, the kids LOVE books, music, dancing and playing with other children. What could go wrong you ask? Well let me try to paint you a picture.
We talk a beautiful walk to the library. It takes about 20 minutes to get there but it is gorgeous outside! We enter the library and check in for story time all good so far. We gather our books and song sheet. Some other kids are sitting with their mom's around a carpet. I get the kids out of the stroller and Cate promptly runs to the middle of the rug and starts clapping with joy of all the new kids she sees. Meanwhile, Cooper clings to my leg unsure of all this new stuff. I finally wrangle Cate back to my side and show them the books we'll be reading. Cue fighting over the same book (one copy per family, yeah right!). Cooper then decides he's comfortable enough now to start exploring. I take off chasing him down as he starts to tip over the recycling containers in the hallway; Cate takes off in the opposite direction picking up others song sheets, and books. The librarian comes in to start. All the other children are now sitting nicely in their mother's lap doing the hand motions with the opening songs, while I am struggling to coordinate my two toddlers into some sort of order. After the screeching starts I decided that it wasn't worth ruining every one's story time, so I stopped trying to get them to sit down.
For the next 30 minutes the kids were off to the side in the large room toddling around not paying a bit of attention (except when the shakers came out). The shakers were a big hit and then I had to stop Cate from gathering them up from all of her friends. Eventually story time ended and they brought out large bins of toys for all the kids to play with. Well, Cate and Cooper promptly sat down and played nice and quietly with the toys. They shared with others and made some new friends. Made me kind of proud actually, maybe I am doing some things right?
Well then came pick up time and Cate nominated herself head of the cleaning crew. She went around to all the children grabbing the toys and put them back in the bins. I will say I hope her desire to always pick up stays with her throughout the teenage years. One boy was brave enough to take out a toy after Cate had put it in the bin and you should have seen the death glare she gave him. She promptly snatched it back and put it away again.
All in all not too painful, but several moms did stop to tell me that I did a good job and that they are glad they only have one at story time. I never regret that I have two, but they do provide some unique challenges.
So last week, we ended up not going to story time because it was cold and rainy (not good for walking) and the kids had picked up a small cold from "sharing toys" I'm sure. So a few days later, I am out shopping with them in another city and Cate starts screeching (as I have obviously gone over my allotted shopping time) and a lady stops me.
"Excuse me, "
"Yes?"
"Were you at story time last week?"
insert confused look on my face
"Story time in Apple Valley?"
"oh, yes we were."
"I thought so, I remember her!"
"Oh, yes sorry I know she's being loud. I'm on my way to the checkout."
"No she's fine. I just remembered her because she so spunky and has the bluest eyes."
Well okay then!
Oh lord, help me! We are attempting story time again tomorrow. I hope the more we go the better it will be but we'll see.
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