First, did you know that Baltimore has this completely huge and totally free, used bookstore? No? Well, neither did I but today we went and checked it out...it's totally legit!
The Book Thing of Baltimore was worth the drive, unless you have Mac's OCD for neat and orderly bookshelves and my desire to look at every book minus a little boy cute though he is with his constant "Mommy, I love you", makes it very hard to focus on all the happy books that need love. We brought Mac's big backpack to fill with books. We didn't stuff it, but it was put to good use.
The point of the blog isn't to give a total love fest to the Book Thing, well maybe a little, but more to share the awesomeness of the interaction I had with another mother while looking through the bins of children's books. This mother was there with her husband and 9month- year old daughter. She was picking out books for her daughter while I was searching for books for Nixon.
She had come across a Star Wars book with sound!! and opened it, Nixon ran over and was "Star Wars Mommy, may I have the Star Wars book?" I, very jokingly, said "Well, thanks for that" and before she could decide if I was seriously a bitch or not I went on to say "NO, really, thanks for that (she had handed the book to Nixon, who gleefully ran off with it to show Mac), just yesterday he was working on his Darth Vader voice while building a tie-fighter with his Lego's. His dad and I are so proud of him!" She laughed and her husband said "That's so awesome, he's a pretty cool kid." I, of course, did not dispute that claim and thanked them.
We continued looking for books and (unbeknownst to each other) were becoming equally disappointed by the overwhelming amount of child-friendly religious books. The other mom finally mentions it "Well, here's another religion-based book. But that's not for you" she said to her adorable little one. I kind of smirked, because an older lady behind her looked like the mom just spit on her child, and said "Oh thank gods I'm not the only one trying in vain to wade through all of those!" This time her husband chuckled and said "Nope, you are not alone today."
I got ready to explore the rest of the store and the husband said to his wife "She was a really cool parent. Those are hard to find."
Why yes, yes I am. Thank you for noticing. It was pretty nice to have such a chill conversation, over FREE books. So here's to you, Book Thing, for letting me have that moment today!
That must have been so awesome to hear!
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty great! It's not often that I get judge-free comments like that, so when I do get them I savor them.
Delete