As I was sitting there,I was reminded of a story time that went a little differently....
AC and B were newly 2 and we had been going to story time at our library and they really loved it...lots of moving around, a puppet show, singing.
Well, we moved to a new town and so we went to that library's story time. We, of course, got there right as it was starting. Each child was to sit criss-cross-applesauce on their piece of rug that was placed in a semi-circle around the librarian while she read a stack of books. The parents were to sit in chairs behind the children.
At this point I began to sweat. I had no clue what criss-cross-applesauce even meant and had to look at the other children before folding AC and B's legs. They wanted to sit together on a carpet together, but no, we were told that was against the rules. The only parent's chair was at the very back in the middle, so knowing this was not going to go well, I went and sat down.
The librarian picked up the first book and began to read.
At our old library, we started with a song. So, before I know it my little sweets are singing a very loud rendition of "Hello How Do You Do", while clapping their little hands.
A few minutes into the book, they both stood up and walked to the front to get a closer look at what was being read.
AC had recently started saying, "What will happen next?", while shrugging her shoulders and holding her palms up whenever the page of a book was turned. We thought this was not only adorable, but absolutely brilliant.
The librarian did not.
She looked at my duo and said, "If you can't stay on your carpet criss-cross-applesauce, you will need to leave."
I knew it was time to go.
So, I walked to the front and picked a very unhappy AC up while she screamed, "No! I behave! I behave! NO! I do it myself, Mommy!" This was her favorite phrase during her second year.
B apparently knew his turn was next and seized the opportunity to escape. He began running around the circle as fast as he could. So, with AC in my arms, I began to run around the circle trying to catch him. I'm pretty sure we looked like we playing a heated game of duck-duck-goose.
Finally I wrestled them both to the car, got them strapped in, and began crying. I called T at work and he patiently listened to me sobbing that we were failures as parents and how were they ever going to be able to go to school if they couldn't even sit criss-cross-applesauce on a carpet? And don't you know, we went home and practiced criss-cross-applesauce for the rest of the morning....I even considered getting some squares of carpet.
Thank goodness that town had more than 1 library and that I can laugh about this now!
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