Jonah Time: The Library

One of Jonah’s favorite things to do every week is go to the library for story time.  He excitedly says, “wi-bee, wi-bee!” when I ask him if he’d like to go.  It’s high on my list of favorite things to do with him because it takes just the right amount of energy from me (which is little to none), someone else does the reading/singing/dancing, and it’s free (well, sort of.  I like to think of our library fines as rather generous compensation). 

So by golly, we make sure to go every week.

We’ve gone so regularly now that he’s got his own little routine when we get there.  He runs ahead of me as soon as I set him down to slap the button which opens the doors.  It opens by the time I get there and we walk in together.  We walk down the long hallway, hang a left at the circulation desk, at which point he makes a beeline for the librarian’s desk in the children’s section where the librarian gives him a stamp (usually a teddy bear) on each hand, along with two tickets for story time (one for him and one for me).  He makes it his job to hang on to those two tickets until the appointed time.  And if we’re early, he’ll head straight to these giant wooden activity blocks.  Still clutching those two tickets.

These bead puzzles keep him plenty occupied for a long while which keeps him from scampering off and running amok in the library and keeps me from having to leave my dignity and usually my purse behind as I try to chase after him.  Little booger can be pretty fast.

So the remains of my dignity and unstolen purse thank you, bead puzzles.

I’m beginning to think a lot of thought has gone in to these strategically placed bead puzzles throughout the children’s section.  Must not be this library’s first rodeo with littles.

Still clutching his two tickets.

Yet another strategically placed wooden puzzle area.

Hooray, for now story time is upon us!  You’d think he’d be unwilling to part with his tickets after hanging on to them for so long, but no, this is not his first story time rodeo either.  So the librarian stands outside the door and holds a little basket out for each person to drop their ticket in before entering the little circular room.  Jonah drops both of our tickets in the basket and marches in to pick out where he wants us to sit.  Usually it’s up in the third row.  And much to my surprise (because the older three siblings mostly stayed parked next to me when they did story time), Jonah marches right down to join the librarian when she invites them down to sing and dance and move around.

Course, he does check back periodically to make sure I’m still where he left me.

Especially when they’re doing the “Tooty-ta” song.

And story time usually ends right about when it’s nap time, so we hustle on back home to get in his nap before it’s time to go collect his siblings from school.

But like I said, we go every week, so here we are again!

And this day, we went to the earlier story time so Jonah still had enough in him to look at a book before heading home (he didn’t the week before).

He’s a big Curious George fan (who he knows as Georgie).

Georgie, like bead puzzles, has the ability to keep him in one place for a good bit of time.  For this, I am thankful.

“What are you doing over there, Mommy?  You’re so weird.”

Whatever.  Back to Georgie.

See ya next week, wi-bee.  And thanks.