red balloon

This is both the name of the object in Anna's right hand, as well as the name of the fabulous bookstore we went to Tuesday morning for storytime. Toddler storytime begins at 11, so before we entered the cozy bookstore we made a stop at the local Starbucks for a hot chocolate for me and a piece of pumpkin bread for Anna. She sat on her own stool next to me like a "big girl", looked out the floor to ceiling windows and pointed to every car, puppy and person that walked by. It was a great start to the morning! (See, I told you yesterday was a much better day!)

After our tummys were full we stopped at the great fabric store I mentioned a few weeks ago to pick out some more fabric. Anna enjoyed hiding from me behind the various bolts of fabric, jumping out only a few moments later to say "boo". She even got a job offer from the woman who worked there - offering first $0.25 cents an hour and then after further negotiation, $25/hour! I think I'll have her negotiate for me in the future.

Anyway, back to the red balloon. So, we arrived to about a million babies leaving the store since Baby Storytime ended just a few minutes before. We found a cozy spot on the floor and soon were accompanied by over 50 toddlers and their caregivers. The leader of Storytime is the children's librarian from the downtown library and she is fantastic. She came equipped with 2 books, a trunk full of puppets, music, songs, and the letter and number of the day. Anna loved it! I worried that she wouldn't be able to sit for the 45 mins but she did very well. On our way out the door each child was given a red balloon to wear around their wrist. Let's just say this was a hit! Our red balloon stayed with us all afternoon, and is here to greet Anna on her chair again this morning.

We'll definitely be back there on Tuesdays to come...what a wonderful way to spend the morning.