Books and Bridges

Zoey and her manservant doing a little light reading under the Bluewater Bridge.

When I was a kid I was usually pretty desperate to go to the library. Today wasn't much different only I'm not a kid anymore. I used to get excited about sneaking under the Bluewater Bridge for fries and shenanigans too. It seems I still get a little excited for that too.

How full can a day get before you call it a day, I mean officially? After a morning of leisurely waking, eating and leaving, we wandered to the library, then met Mom in the park for lunch, then played, then snuck home, and now Zo is supposed to be sleeping, but isn't...and I'd like to be, but now can't. So I beg the question, when is a day officially scribed as being full?
'Cause this one feels like it.


Oliver Jeffers "Up and Down" is first rate reading.

We scored Oliver Jeffer's recent book, Up and Down...awesome. We love us some Oliver Jeffers every chance we get. We also scored Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke...stellar. Parks are just flat out better with books. They just are, no arguing. Especially free books, as libraries are kind of in the business of providing.


Score and score...a library trip with some taste.

I'm much to definitive a sucker for a Caldecott Medal winning, or Prix Saint-Exupery award winning book it's ridiculous. Have you ever paid attention to the award winners? There's a giant gap between what takes home either prize, and the rest of the children's literature published that year...a giant gap. So when I saw A Blue So Blue by Jean-Francois Dumont my heart skipped a little (geek) and I snatched it up and tossed it in our bag. If you haven't flipped through it then you've missed an absolutely amazing story, with incredible artwork and the most unique idea. It's better than shade, I swear. Find it...read it...offer me thanks and over the top affection later.

We have every intention of making the library a safe, fun spot for Zed. It was for me, so much so that when I was struck by a car at age ten, and in obvious shock laying there along the side of the road, when the ambulance attendents asked me where I was I answered, "at the library." I guess that's what you call "finding your happy place." Zo seems to love it already. I would quite say that it's her happy place but it's a pretty cool one.


That's my daughter. She's for sale if anyone is interested in buying a geek.

The problem with book borrowing when you're only two and half years old (almost) is that you're typically finished the books that you borrowed almost as soon as you check them out. A child's picture book only goes so far. The three books today are a collective 89 pages...some with words...some without. That kind of meagre verbiage gets swallowed whole by Zed. I know, she's 29 short months old, but she's fairly voracious in terms of how much reading she enjoys being force fed. I suppose, all that means is more trips to the library, more time at bookstores...more opportunities to read in the park with a little girl who still wants to be read to.

Day 6 of Camp Zed...full, and very much in the business of building foundations.