Story time

Today we decided to go to story time at the library that's about 5 minutes down the road from our house. We've never been but were excited to "sing, listen and play" as described on the library website.

When we got there, we were early, so we got out of the car when we saw another mom and her son get out. Santi immediately pointed at the little boy, who pointed back, which prompted the mom and I to strike up a conversation. So we waited around and I asked her if she'd ever been to this story hour before and she said she had once before, and warned me that the lady who did story time was weird.

We went inside a few minutes later (greeted by the story time lady at the door, who seemed normal enough at first glance) and found a seat by the window. I figured if it all went south that at least Santi could look out the window.

After a minute or so, the woman came in, and proceeded to speak in the smallest voice, with this weird attempt at calming tones as possible. I think she was trying to speak quietly for the kids, but it was weird. Then she pulled out a book to "read" at the story time - it was a book with all black and white shapes and no words. In my opinion, when you "read" at a story time, there should be words in the book, correct? So she just showed the pages (which none of the kids - all ages 2 and under - could see anyway.) Then she moved on to some songs (most of which I didn't know, but the other moms seemed to know them and sing along) and then to a felt board with some animals on it where she acted out little scenes like asking if mice lived in certain houses, etc.

Frankly, I was bored the second I sat down, and so was Santi. Any time she sang, he looked at her, but he had no interest in paying attention to the books, which was fine by me. I let him look out the window at the "cahs" as he calls them (his great grandfather would be proud because he says "car" like a Mainer!) and then he toddled around for a bit while I chased him.

Santi is VERY social, so he kept going up to other moms and their kids and smiling at them, touching their hair, etc. It was pretty cute but I kept an eye on him in case he was annoying anyone.

The "story time" lasted 20 minutes, and then they put out three big bins of toys and it was basically a toddler free for all. There were about 30 kids there and each had at least one parent with them. So way too many people in a small room essentially. I plunked Santi down in an area where there were some toys and then sat next to him, but he was too into his truck to notice me. So some of the moms and I attempted to talk but mostly it was taking toys away from our kids when they decided to snatch them from another kid and not share. After 10 minutes, the story time lady came back in (I can only assume she was doing shots in the back room since she ran out of there as soon as the toys came out) and collected the toys. Then everyone left in a mass exit of the library.

Kind of a bust. I don't know, I don't remember story time being like that when I was a kid. Maybe Santi needs to be older, but there were kids his age who seemed interested in what was happening. Santi was more interested in interacting with the adults and kids there. So I don't think we'll be going back. For now he'll have to suffice with me as his story time lady.