A new leaf

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to step outside." I'd never been kicked out of a library before.

We had a few books to return, and I wanted to get a library card, so I set off after dinner with the three kids for the Queen Anne branch of the Seattle Public Library, which closes at 8 pm. We arrived about 7:30, and Rachel and Lydia immediately went to the kids section, while Colin pulled a book off a display shelf and started looking at it.

I eventually got them all in one place, and read Ten Little Rubber Ducks to Lydia while Rachel and Colin took a few more books off the shelves. I took Colin with me to accompany Rachel to the bathroom. When we came back, Colin was getting a little over-exuberant with the book pulling, so I picked him up. He did not like that. These days, when Colin doesn't like something, he's apt to scream. That's when the librarian came over. She was very nice about it—probably too nice—but there's no mistaking it: she kicked us out.

Rachel and Lydia weren't ready to go, though, and I didn't have my library card yet, so I just took Colin outside and tried to talk to him about it. He still isn't using very many words himself, but he understands a fair amount, so I explained to him that we needed to be quiet inside, and he nodded his head, so I took him back in. He was quieter than before, but eventually started running and making increasingly loud squawking sounds, so I picked him up again. You can imagine how that went.

This time, I told Lydia and Rachel that it was time to go, and Colin became quiet enough that I managed to complete my application and check out Rachel's book without further incident.

To me the most amusing part of the experience is that I didn't understand at first what was going on. Quiet in libraries is deeper than conscious for me, and when Colin started screaming, I didn't even think about it, I was completely in parenting mode, aiming to calm him without letting his bad behavior win. If silence had been my priority, I would have simply put him back down.

The other amusing thing is that the librarian thought Colin was tired, and called him "poor thing". Not even close! We stopped at the playground on the way home, and all three kids played for a while before I made them go home. Colin protested again when I carried him away from watching a softball game.