The Lake is Closed and Shooting Stars

Monday and getting back into the routine we're creating for ourselves. Started the day off with swim lessons. Daniel is not so keen on the structure of the class, however he clearly loves the water once it is free swim. After class I presented him with the option of going back to the lake and spending the afternoon there or going to story time at the library. He chose story time. I was surprised by his response, so I asked him again several times in a few different ways. Finally he said, “We not go to the lake today 'acause' it is closed.”

“It is not closed,” I replied.

“Yes, it is closed,” he insisted. “Mom, you say 'the lake is closed' to me, okay?”

“The lake is closed,” I repeated back to him.

“We not go to the lake today 'acause' it is closed. We go to the story time.” he chimed away and was on to the next bit of chatter.

We were fortunate enough to get the last spot for the 6-week story time at the library at the town next to us. Story time found us in the basement of the public library with a handful of other children and assorted mothers, grandmothers, and babysitters. The theme for this series is outer space, which Daniel was delighted to find out when we got there. Miss Debbie read 2 books and then we sang a song and made our own shooting starts. It was interesting to observe that Daniel didn't want to use any color on his color sheet of the solar system. The other kids were using the crayons and adding all sorts of embellishments to the page. Daniel was content to use a pencil, which he was thrilled about because it had a sharp point. I asked him a few times if he'd like to add color. Perhaps orange or red. He had no interest. Again, he was very interested in the craft of creating the shooting star from the popsicle stick and adding the glue and glitter but not interested in creating a visual effect through the use of color.

After the story time was over, we went back up to the main section of the library (and thankfully out of the mustiness of the basement which set my allergies off for the rest of the day.) Daniel followed the other children over to the small children's section and was completely excited to find Mr. AND Mrs. Potato Head with a wide variety of parts. Since we didn't have anything else planned for the afternoon I found a book and read while he played for about 30 minutes. He delighted in coming up with the most ridiculous combination of body parts and showing them off to me, exclaiming, “Isn't this funny?!” or “That is so silly!” and laughing at himself. He'd throw in “I am good at this game” every now and then. It felt so good to have the flexibility to allow him to play there until he was ready to go. On the way out we stopped and said good by to the kind and heavily tattooed librarian who offered to stamp both Daniel's hands. Daniel gladly accepted and proudly displayed the designs for the rest of the afternoon.