Two Year Olds and Book Stores

This was not planned. We were not suppose to end up in a book store with three two-year olds. We even talked about it -  and what a disaster that would be when my husband said there was also a Barnes & Noble where we were going. The plan on Saturday was to wander through some mall while Jordan watched a movie nearby and according to my husband we would be doing what most Filipinos families do when going out in the Philippines. Okay, now listen, I'm not a big fan of malls, but he was right about the the mall part, if  living in the Philippines, it really is a  necessary commodity with the awful heat which I attested too while visiting there ( I was all game, take me to the mall!). But under normal circumstances and given a choice you can put me on some historic brick lined street with lots of boutiques and shops and I am all smiles, but in this case and with a little reality slap, doing ANYTHING was just fine with me if it meant some time away from the house. One day though. I can just smell it!

Anyways, when we walked outside after leaving the theatre, there was no mall (my husband said  it was just two doors down to get to the entrance) turns out two doors down was the B&N, as this was only a small shopping plaza with 3 store fronts. Well that sure did change our plans ( as we already had a parked car) and even though we had already agreed that hanging out in a book store would be a disaster we took the plunge and stumbled through their doors along with our three harnessed toddlers.

I know I said I would be happy doing just ANYTHING, but come on, not this one!  I thought "oh this is just great, we're going to be doing a lot of bending over and tugging on harnesses to keep them from pulling books off shelves,"  but when we came across the children's section after climbing the flight of stairs to the 2nd floor (instead of  the adjacent escalator) my anxiety quickly began to melt when I saw just how toddler friendly the area really was!  I have always been a believer of destiny, and thought "oh this is okay, this was meant to be" (so it seemed anyways!).

At one end was a small little stage with several benches arranged around it for story telling and other activity's that the store offered. I saw the perfect opportunity to make this work and started moving very quickly, pulling out crayons and paper and plopping each girl down on either side of one of these benches. Mean while  Alex was on a different mission and that was running frantically after Reagan who happened to notice the escalator when  we came up on. He was fixated on seeing what this was all about and could care less about what his sisters were doing. Every time he would bring him back to the coloring station he would just turn around and run straight for the "moving thing"  and with my husband beginning to look a little frazzled, I knew we needed an intervention.

I think the woman who was working in the department thought so too by telling us there was a Thomas Train play area on the end and maybe he would like that.  Perfecto!

Although this did contain him for small periods of time, he was still on a mission to get back to the escalator. By the time we left the store, he had become quite proficient with his Dad, who finally gave in practicing getting on and off a whole lot of times!

Thankfully it was just one who wanted to do this. The girls had no interest and were excited about discovering their favorites. Aren't they all toddlers favorites? Elmo? Cookie Monster" Big Bird?

They are with Kathleen especially. She becomes unglued when she sees that other places have them too besides hers at home. The rest of the time she held on to her friends giving out random kisses from time to time.

 While Susannah moved on to looking through some books, I was happy to see that she wasn't pulling any off, that is until I turned my head just for a brief second.  When I looked back the nice lady who directed us over here was on her knees picking them up. She reassured me as I scrambled to help that she expects it, "after all it is right at eye level" was her only comment. What a perfect person with a most cheerful attitude to have work here as I could only imagine how many times she spends her time doing this.

Now that we have braved our first book store, I am more than willing to come back. Yes, there was a lot of re-directing, but that's okay. Not as dreadful as we both expected and a good experience for us all. I can't wait for the next time. On that visit  I will focus on showing them and talking to them one on one about all the books that surround them.  

It's a good thing when things sometimes don't go as planned! It all works out. Doesn't it.