Story Time at the Library

Every (well as often as I could get out of the house) Thursday I would take the kids to the library for story time and to get books. Once school ended, Maizie had tennis on Thursday mornings and we couldn’t make it. Then when tennis ended I just didn’t want to get up and take them anywhere, but since school is starting in a few weeks I figured I’d get my ass out of the house and take them to the library today.

We get there and Maizie skips in and makes a beeline for the community bulletin board. I have no idea what she’s interested in, then I notice…tiny pencils. She stole a tiny pencil. Not worth the argument, keep the pencil. We head upstairs to the Children’s Library and it is PACKED. How come you people aren’t at the beach? If I didn’t have errands to do later, that’s where I’d be. The kids pick their books; Maizie and Teddy head straight for the Puppet Theater and Stella goes over to find a game for us to play and notices a Harry Potter scavenger hunt for a prize. Now Maizie had already found Harry, but at that point we had no idea it was part of a game, so we were already one ahead.

So I start to help Stella, then Maizie joins us with her hunt paper. Teddy comes over, I give him a paper and a quick explanation and he’s off; he comes running back yelling how he found Ron. Turns out they are pretty good at scavenger hunts, especially when they work together. They bring their papers to the librarian for the prize, the girls each choose a tattoo (this time Stella did not ask for it to be put on her neck) and Teddy planned ahead and chose a school bus eraser, since he’s going to school soon and “it will come in quite handy if he makes a mistake”.

It came time for the kids to go in for the story and it’s obvious that this is a new crop of parents, hovering parents. The kind of parents that when their kid whines they try to give them something else to play with instead of telling them that they’re in a library and they better knock it off and be quiet. Some of the kids can’t even get in because these hovering parents are blocking the door. Then once the door shuts, there’s a gaggle of them looking in the window.

The half hour ends and the parents rush the door. My kids know where I am so I don’t bother to get up. But poor Teddy had to go all the way around the circulation desk because the hoverounds wouldn’t let him through. We leave and get in the car and I notice that the dirty little thief stole another pencil, imagine if I ever took her miniature golfing?