Story Book Children

What an adventure for an almost 5-year-old. His first trip to the library to get some books. I had planned to get him his own library card, but apparently, he's not allowed to have that until he can write his first and last name on the tiny space on the back of the card. When I asked the librarian why he needed to be able to do that, she said it was so he could identify himself. I asked him if he wanted to write his name, and he spelled it for me. So that was close.

I decided that I'd just use my own library card and we went to pick out a few books for him. He seemed only extremely overwhelmed by the amount of books that he could pick from. Wandering from section to section I asked him what kind of book he wanted, I pulled one out about trains, asked him if he wanted to look at it, and he just took it, sat at the little kid table and said, "Yup, I'll take this one." We meandered through for a bit and came out with a book about a frog that plays T-ball, a Curious George book, and one about a stroller adventure that he just grabbed and felt would do nicely.

When we got back up to check out the books, I found that I still had a late charge on my card from 2003. Pre birth of my son. There were a few others on there from '05, and the total damage was $20. I said fine and offered my debit card to take care of the offense. But apparently, the library doesn't have the technology to support that. So I had to take T out of the library without his books, explaining that we'd be right back to get them because Daddy forgot something that the library needs. We found a local B of A and I paid a $3 fee to get out my $20. Drove back to the library and started up on the checkout process again.

Now since I haven't used my card in over 2 years, they needed to reactivate it and confirm my address and other information. The address they had for me was my parents old address, where I haven't lived for a long time. I informed the nice lady librarian that this information wasn't current, and she asked for my ID. Which was cool. So I handed her that and she asked if that was my current information, and it's not. It had the address from our condo that we haven't lived in since mid '05ish. She asked if I had anything on me with my current address, and since I didn't she wasn't supposed to let me check out the books. But since I had a little boy with me who was very patiently waiting to show his new books to his Papa (my dad) she let me leave with the information stating that I still lived at my parents house.

T was thrilled to get these new books and understands the process of borrowing and returning. Of course, the knowledge that when he takes them back, he gets to take different ones home again helps a lot. So he had my dad read him all four books, and my dad realized that Curious George books are very long. And it's true, they are. They're like 3 stories in one. And it appeared that T noticed that they were long as well, because he had his mommy read him that one last night and it took her about 10 minutes to get through it. Though that may be because he's trying to learn to read and it can take a while if he's really trying to get the words right.

So visit and support your local library! It's good for your economy if you can remember to take the books back on time. I have a hard time with that. Maybe that's why I love Netflix so much.