getting carded

we make a trip to our local library about once a week.  the kids gather up their dozens of books from their rooms, pour them into their canvas bags, and we unload them into the book drop as soon as we walk through the sliding doors.  and then, they tread their well-worn path to their favorite racks, and always in the same order: susanna hits the magic tree house aisle, finding the next two or three titles that she and chris have reached in the grand line-up, while liam gravitates toward the non-fiction section of history and sports.  they both wind up sitting on the floor in the aisles, flipping through pages of their new acquisitions until i quietly remind them that there are other areas to explore.

so they stand up, dumping their books into their bags, and resume their routes.  susanna beelines it to the princess section.  (no matter that we have checked out every single disney title that our system owns -- i have given up fighting this battle.  mostly because there are loads of far more interesting books that surround the disney rack, and after she's gathered all the rapunzel/cinderella/ariel stories she can handle, a dozen far better ones always seem to catch her eye.)  meanwhile, liam has moved onto the encyclopedia brown and harry potter collections.  and again, they find a spot to sit, opening a different book this time.

why yes, if you look closely at my elder child, you will see that in this tender moment i happened to catch him picking his nose.  given how common this activity is, i am not at all surprised

as we checked out today, our helpful librarian explained to us their summer reading incentive program.  there were so many events and rewards and exciting parts to the program that i couldn't even keep up.  liam's and susanna's eyes were wide as they proudly wrote their names on stars that will hang on the wall.

and then -- the pinnacle of our visit.  our new library friend looked at both of them and asked, "would you guys like your very own library card?"

i mean, really.  did he even have to ask? they nodded enthusiastically and then painstakingly signed printed their names in red permanent marker on the back of their new shiny plastic cards.  luckily the ink dried quickly, because they clutched those suckers in their palms all the way home.

i must admit that i enjoy getting carded these days, on the rare occasion that it happens.  but this kind of carding, which was such an unexpected surprise on a hot june afternoon, will surely be one of the highlights of our summer.