As If I Needed More Reasons To Be Grateful for Spring

Fresco has many qualities that I think would make him an excellent bounty hunter or Navy SEAL:

– he has amazing powers of focus
– he will not be deterred from the task at hand, whether that be chasing a cat or getting Trombone’s cup of milk
– he is tenacious when he finally reaches his goal
– he is a physical powerhouse, relative to his size and age
– the windpipe pinching thing
– when all else fails, shout like a mofo and someone will help you.

Unfortunately these same qualities make him a bit difficult to take to the library.

It was the warmest day of the year. I suggested a park visit and Trombone said no, the library, so we went. Gathered up four tripsworth of books we weren’t reading anymore, dumped them in the buggy, handed each kid some crackers, huffed and puffed up the hill.

(I find it is helpful, motivation-wise, to think while I climb the hill about how many pounds I am pushing. Trombone = 35 lbs. Fresco = 23 lbs. Buggy = 30 lbs. Books = 10 lbs, at least. My purse = negligible by comparison but let’s say 4 lbs. That’s a total of em, em, em, 102 lbs on a 45 degree incline. Hey look, I’m at the top!)

(Go ahead, check my math, you know you want to. Nerds.)

This past winter we have gone to the library A. LOT. Where else can you go with two children of different ages that does not involve the Baby Gym? (Oh, don’t tell me now, I don’t want to know. Winter is OVER.) At first it was easy. Fresco would sleep in the carrier. I would read stories to Trombone and whatever other children happened by. It got harder when Fresco got mobile and stopped napping at that time of day. He would crawl away, I would pull him back by his foot, the other patrons would laugh, etc.

But now? It is impossible.

I didn’t frequent the library when Trombone was this age, so I have no basis of comparison. But even if I had done, Trombone at 11.5 months was a mellow, pre-walking baby who loved books more than stuffed animals. I hardly think I would have had a problem.

People, I am stunned by how tiring it is to go to the library with this one-year-old of mine. Who walks. And ignores his name when I say it. And wants to take everything off the shelves, everything, all at once and then wants to eat peoples’ sandwiches (sidenote: why was there a daycare having their lunch against the stacks in the children’s section? When it was 17C outside?) and then wants to eat the tiny puzzles and then wants to climb the shelves to get to the giant stuffed lion on the top shelf THANK YOU LIBRARY FOR THAT and all the while Trombone in the background, sweetly, “mummy can you read me this book?” and me having to call over my shoulder, “no I can’t but we’ll take it home and I’ll read it later when your brother has been tranquilized” and then you get ALL the funny looks from the grandmas and the nannies.

He is a dervish, passing the spinny shelves and spinning them, grabbing five Goosebumps paperbacks from the young adult section and dropping them in favour of the the Hannah Montana magazine, trying to climb some poor boy’s leg while the boy sits on a stool at the computer playing a Barney computer game. There’s me behind him, picking up everything and putting it back, grabbing him and carrying him back to the book room, handing him lovely board books to look at that he drops with a huff and then, with a flick of his devastating eyebrows, he is off again.

It’s not that he doesn’t like books. He does. But he has to be in the mood. The library is just far too exciting.

Ultimately I think it is good that Fresco can walk. I don’t have to carry him as much. Sometimes he even pushes the buggy, which is a big help. He has achieved a level of mobility that pleases him so he does not shout nearly so much anymore. But I am seeing now the advantages of the kind of toddler Trombone was. One who walked before he ran and ran before he jumped and could say the words “walk” and “run” before he even attempted either. At the very least, one who turned around when I said his name and who even CAME to me when I called him.

Saints alive! How good did I have it!

Motion carried: There will be no more library trips involving Fresco. (Unless said library trip involves beer. And then I will be that drunk lady with the bad hair at the library.)