To Read or to Run

My daughter loves reading and looking at books, so naturally the library is a place for us to visit. I have these visions in my head of Ava picking out a book on the shelf, sitting in my lap while I read it to her, and us picking another book out to read, and so forth. Then we jointly pick out some books that we can check out to enjoy at home.

Did I mention that Ava is just 17 months old? So that whole romantic idea of a library visit is really just that - a romantic idea. We went yesterday, and I could barely keep track of her! She wanted to be everywhere else but in the 3 book aisles that were for her age. She would much rather pick up a Nancy Drew or Junie B Jones book, or maybe even a parenting magazine donning the nearest shelf.

She kept going over to this sweet little girl who was trying to quietly do an alphabet puzzle at a table by herself. Ava would talk to her and point to things, then try and pick up a piece of her puzzle as if to say, "Do you see this?" Then she joined another mom and daughter for a storytime, nudging her way right up there, pointing and talking at the book, to which I quickly picked her up and apologized for my oh-so-comfortable social butterfly innocently interrupting a great mom-dot storytime moment.

And the self-checkout at the library is a great idea! Except if you have a curious 17 month old who would rather simply run from you while you try and check out books. I left my purse and coat and Ava's coat and out stack of books to quickly retrieve her before she ran through the doors going into the adult area, where people were studying and it was (shhh) quiet. Of course, she thought it was a game, and laughed and laughed and laughed....until I caught her and brought her back to the children's section of the library. Apparently, it's way more fun in the boring part of the library.

Needless to say, so many things we do with our kids turns out this way, doesn't it? We have in our heads what something is going to look like, and our kids have a completely different agenda than we do! I'm learning that different is not necessarily bad - just different from what I had been expecting. When was a time that you had to adjust your plans or your agenda for what your kids decided they were going to do? It can be something as simple as how they were going to make a craft, or their reaction to a gift you thought for sure they were really wanting. Leave a comment and share with the rest of us! We've all been there! :)