Like the library, but not really....

This morning Little One and I headed to this place for some fun. We spent the morning in the children's section and had a blast. There was a Thomas the Train track and trains for him to play with, along with a little stage that was so fun! This was a first time intro to the Thomas deal, and he thought it was super cool to let the little cars (one at a time) go down the little hills "very fast!" and scoot them through the "yunnels". We then explored the little stage for story time, and looked at lots of different books. I noticed that they have an official story time a couple times a week, which we'll have to check out.

Coming from a mom's point of view, I loved it because it was a whole lot less stressful than the library experience. There were no computers to distract him, and it was whole lot cleaner than a library. Now, don't get me wrong, I love libraries and we will definitely be patrons of our local one. However, in this stage, it is so frustrating to go to the library because Little One would much rather explore (ie find every kid-size computer and try to get them to work and then be frustrated because they don't and then dump all the puzzles out and move on to what ever else he can find - probably another computer) and he really cares very little about the actual books. Not to mention the whole voice-keep-it-to-a-whisper deal. Phew. Those are all good things, but we're not ready for all of that yet. I know this is just a season, and I figure if we make trips to B and N he'll get the idea of the books without all the distractions, and then we can graduate to the library and actually take the books home. Another part I liked, is seeing all the displays of children's books. It reminded me of books that will definitely go on our library list but the displays made making that list a whole lot easier. Going to the library you have to search the books down, and is very time consuming and next to impossible with a toddler at bay.

As far as the spending part goes, we didn't drop a dime today. Little One hasn't figured out that when you go to the store you can actually take the things home with you - it's just all for looking at. I love that! However, it did get Mom thinking about purchasing a Thomas the Train track in the future, and how it would be so easy and enjoyable to grab a cup of chai at the in-house Starbucks and enjoy it while he plays with the tracks. Not to mention all of the sections of books we had to walk through in order to get to the children's section. Don't worry, B and N - I am sure your generosity of the train track use will pay off in the long run. :)