We made our weekly trip to the library for story time.  Luckily, we weren’t the only ones to make it this week.  Another mom and her 3 year old son, Nikko, joined us.  Abby was pretty excited to meet him and the two of them became instant friends.  I think they were much more interested in playing with each other than in what the librarian, Ms. Nancy, had planned for us!  Still, she told us that this week’s featured animal was the moose.  She read Looking for a Moose by Phyllis Root, Mooses Come Walking by Arlo Guthrie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, and Moose on the Loose by Kathy-Jo Wargin.  Apparently, the moose is a very mischievous creature, given the nature of the main characters of those stories!  They were all pretty cute selections though.  Ms. Nancy also taught us that the sign for moose is simply putting up antlers with your hands like this.  We sang and danced to a song called Doin’ the Moose, which called for us to make antlers with our hands as we danced around the room.  Shawn really liked the song and stepping side to side as I held his hands up to his head for antlers.  Even after the song was over, he kept bopping back and forth.  Abby and Nikko liked the song too, but I think it was more that they were able to get up and run around together without us trying to reel them in.  They giggled, ran, and danced around until they were both panting.  As we were getting our coats at the end, Ms. Nancy gave out the little sheet of what stories we read.  Right away, Shawn recognized the picture of a moose at the bottom of the page and even said, “Moose!”  Ms. Nancy got really excited when she heard him.  Nikko’s mom mentioned that she didn’t realize the library sponsored this event, but now that she knows about it, they may try to come more often - I’m sure the fact Nikko and Abby got along so well probably helped her make that decision!

On the way home, we stopped by Jewel for a couple of groceries.  The shopping itself wasn’t very exciting.  When we were done, I opened the van door on the side of Abby’s car seat to let both kids in.  I buckled Abby into her seat while Shawn played with the buckles on his seat.  When I finished with Abby and shut her door, I walked to the other side to help Shawn into his seat, but he was gone!  In the few seconds it took me to walk around the van, he had managed to climb over the console and into the driver’s seat.  I found him grinning from ear to ear, holding the steering wheel, announcing, “Shawn drives Momma’s car!”  (Yet another reason not to have the car running unless you’re actually sitting in the driver’s seat and ready to go!)