A Perfectly Ordinary Day

I have to admit I am a bit distressed. I had to drag Isaac to the library today. We have not been this summer (I know, I can't believe it either) because our schedule has been kind of crazy. The few times I have planned to go Isaac was not in the right mood and I did not want what should be an easy trip to turn into public parental humiliation. Today, I told him we were going and there was some grumbling, but he came quietly and actually behaved himself. He didn't look at the books and everything we brought home I chose, but I got him there so I am calling it a "win."

Isaac used to love going to the library. But in the past six months he has not been interested. That is probably our fault because who has time to go when you are running to church and t-ball practice and guitar lessons and frisbee games and have meetings after school and just want to collapse after you have managed to throw some dinner on the table? It's so much easier to pull bedtime stories from Isaac's already rather large collection than to make the trip. So my goal for the fall is to visit the public library with Isaac at least once every two weeks. Every week would be ideal, but why set myself up to fail?

One of the books I pulled last week to write about helped push me to make a library trip. Isaac may not want to visit the library, but he does like to read the book Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw. For a few weeks some months ago this book was in the nightly rotation. It has been pushed to the back of the stacks, but is not yet consigned to the "I'm over it" pile. As the title implies, it is a story about a little girl's weekly visit to the library, from putting her books in her backpack to story time to getting a treat with her mother afterward and walking home. There is nothing earth shatteringly unique about this book. It is a cozy read about an ordinary experience.

The everyday-ness of the story is probably why Isaac relates to it. He could be Lola, if he actually liked going to the library. I may take a cue from the story and end library visits with a trip to Feeney's Frozen Yogurt Bar (I like their variety of frozen yogurt toppings) or Chick-Fil-A (Isaac likes their milkshakes).

I will admit that when we got home from the library Isaac started digging through the bag and asking me to read to him. And that's what library visits are really about, discovering new books. It doesn't really matter if I pick them out or he does. But that doesn't mean I will stop trying.