Evan's winter playground

As the days got colder here this winter, the walks that we once took around the neighborhood and to the park became things of the past, we've found ourselves cooped up inside the house most days.  However, recently, John started taking Evan to the public library on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They have some children's story times on those days and at first we figured that would be something that Evan may like.

However, when John first took Evan a few weeks ago, they discovered a trip to the library was about a lot more than just going for story time.  In fact, I don't think they've made it to the actual story time yet, but rather spend at least a good hour enjoying the other things the library has to offer.

First of all, there is a whole wing of the library designed for kids, including young kids, and on the days with story time the place is crawling with little ones.  Thus, these outings have been a good opportunity for Evan to socialize.  Then there is a puppet theater with puppets, rows of low (kid-height-friendly) book shelves/bins, a toddler-sized play table and chairs with megablocks and other shape sorter games/toys, and then of course there is the train.  Sure there are some kid's toy trains on the play table, but there is also an elaborate model train display.  This display is enclosed (for safe keeping!), complete with a mini-town and a mountain scene with train tunnels.  The train runs for a few minutes, but stops until someone pushes the button to turn it back on.

Today we took a trip to the library so I could see what this place was all about and witness Evan enjoying it.  It was clear that the model train display was a hit with him.  It was also clear to me that he's become very vocal!  Of the kids that were there today, he was the one saying very loudly "dop dop dop" when the train stopped running.  He'd repeat it until I affirmed him, saying "yes the train has stopped."  He also said "tane tane" (train) when he saw it running, among a number of other things.  He played at the play table with the blocks and shape sorters.  He loved running in and out of the puppet theater.  And he (somewhat) interacted with some of the other kids there too, which was fun for me to see, but it also made me nervous (I didn't know if he'd throw a toy at one of them, or if they'd get mad at him for taking a toy from them, etc).

We also explored some other parts of the kids wing that John and Evan hadn't yet, including a reading area with several bean bags (he loved crawling all over them) and at the end of our visit Evan and I sat at the coloring table and he colored for the first time!  He loved seeing the color marks go back and forth as he scratched the crayon onto the paper.  In fact, he loved it so much that when it was time to go he had a bit of a tantrum as I put the colors away.  I tried to console him by telling him he could take his picture home, which didn't work at first, but I think got through to him because as I picked him up to go  I gave him his colored paper and he clung to it with both hands as we left.

I have a feeling these visits will become a regular thing for us, especially while it's too cold to play outside.  And maybe as Evan gets a little older, he'll be a bit more interested in those rows of books there too.