Library story time

In case you didn't know it, I am a slave to my 16-month old son Jacob. His will is my command. He rules me with an iron pacifier.

One way to keep him placated is to take him to the library, where a toddler section has fun toys and books to play with. The library also has the advantage of having lots of room to run around in and no stairs to climb up or fall down. The other major advantage at the library is story time. One of the librarians comes in a presents about half an hour's worth of stories, sing-a-longs and games to keep the most tyrannical toddler preoccupied. Today was Toddler Tales and Tunes at the East Columbia Branch!

Jacob and I arrived at the library about 15 minutes early. We returned some books and a toy (yes, this library even loans toys!) and as we headed to the toddler section, I noticed that Jacob's shoe was missing. He wears these slipper-boot hybrids that don't tie, so they've slipped off more than once. So we walked back out to the car and found his right shoe. By the time we got back in, we were only 12 minutes early. Still some time to play in the toddler room before the start of story time.

In the toddler room, we ran into Miss Ellie, one of the librarians from the Savage Branch of the library who hosts the story times there. She was there on her day off with her son Alex, also going to Toddler Tales and Tunes. We caught up a little bit and then headed off to the storytime room.

Toddler Tales and Tunes is a fun month-long program for those aged 12 to 24 months. It focuses on various important aspects of a toddler's life such as being in the kitchen and potty training. Today was kitchen day. Songs were about food (including Humpty Dumpty sung to the tune of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall; I guess he's always depicted as an egg, though the only egg-like characteristic in the rhyme is that he can't be put back together) and cooking and pots and pans. For the pots and pans song, the lady handed out little plastic frying pans and pots for the kids to bang on or bang together. It was a lot of fun when the kids would actually share.

At the end, Jacob wandered over by the shelves and latched on to a large, slim book about the weather. Assuming he wanted to check it out, I let him keep it. We said our thank yous to the librarian and our goodbyes to Miss Ellie and Alex. At the checkout counter, we picked up our reserve copy of Twilight for Mom. All was running smoothly.

Often, I go to Giant (a local grocery store) after a visit to the library since it is fairly close by. Jacob did not want to come out of his seat without his newly acquired book. Figuring it couldn't do any harm, I let him bring it into the store with him. He's in the shopping cart so he won't be able to subtly drop it somewhere without my noticing (unlike his shoes). As we walked the aisles, we ran into Miss Ellie and Alex again. Miss Ellie had a good laugh when she saw us. At first I could not figure out why. Then I realized she saw Jacob with his book. Whoops! I hope she doesn't report us to the library authorities!