storytime, sort of…

On Wednesday, Amber, Alana and I headed to Barnes and Noble for Alana’s first storytime.

I didn’t know what to expect from Alana during storytime but I thought I’d try it out and see. It’s a great concept, right? 🙂 At home, books are always abbreviated because Alana is VERY busy and her attention span is like that of a gnat. Rather than reading stories, Rich and I have to just point to different animals, people, and things, and go at her accelerated pace. Book “reading” typically ranges in time from ten seconds to about sixty seconds. Maybe that’s typical her her age, I don’t know, but it is hilarious. And a bit disconcerting, when I think about a classroom environment in a few years! 

And so, hoping that Alana might become enthralled by someone other than family telling the story, we ventured off to our Hamilton Place Barnes and Noble. I love this place…and spent quite a bit of time here BEFORE we had Alana. Lounging around and reading books with a cup of coffee isn’t exactly on my weekly agenda anymore. Ha! 

Here are Aunt Pixie and Alana…headed inside! 

It started off on a good note…alana was very happy when she saw all the kids gathered around. We put her in a chair and attempted to settle her in for storytime. 

While we waited for the story reader to come, Aunt Pixie tried to read a book to Alana…

…it lasted about two seconds until she was up and running…

And here she is not listening to the story because she’d much rather run around and hug random children…

She started to cry since she wanted down, so I had to grab her from Amber and quickly move her away from the storytime area. We were quite the distraction. We moved far enough away so as not to distract anymore and let Alana wander…

She was looking around at books when she suddenly ran back over to where the story was being read. When I grabbed her so that she wouldn’t completely ruin the story, she made a noise that seriously, I could not believe came out of her. It was a scream/shriek/grunt that was so loud that everyone turned to stare while I RAN out of the area with Amber trailing close behind with the diaper bag and our purses.

When we were a safe distance, Amber and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. After I told Alana “NO!” first, of course…

It was hilarious and totally embrassing at the same time. I could just imagine that every mom in that area was thinking that I am a horrible mother! Alana is SO sweet, but has definitely reached the age of, um, shall we say, asserting her opinion. Everyone there probably thought she was a little brat! 

Okay, so it’s a little soon for storytime…and I need to work on the shrieking thing…but other than that it was a great experience. No, wait, it was a total waste of time. Ya, that’s it! 

Here we are…leaving about ten minutes after we’d arrived:

Thank you for sharing this enriching experience with us, Amber! Memories…