On Halloween night

 E: How many days until Christmas?

M: Ok, Google, how many days until Christmas?

Google: 55 days until Christmas in Merion.

E: How many hours is that?

Library magic

Elliot's been into folding paper airplanes at school during "quiet time." He's even been folding them for friends who "pay" him back with drawings. It's so sweet.

This weekend he confessed, "I don't really know how to fold GOOD paper airplanes." And I suggested the library might have a book on it. He didn't want to wait to go to the school library, so after soccer I took him, still in his cleats and shin guards, to Bala Cynwyd library with his card.

With my prompting, he walked right up to the children's librarian and announced, "I'm looking for a book about folding paper airplanes." She said, "Let's see what we can do." She searched the computer and wrote down a call number on a slip of paper which she handed to him. She pointed him toward the non-fiction section, saying, "Here's where we keep all the books that aren't made up stories." She gave a kid-friendly explanation of the Dewey decimal system and then lead him through the search for his call number. When we made it to the right shelf and I started reading through the titles, finally getting to "Your first book of paper airplanes," he exclaimed, "That's it! That's the one!" I We found a second one, and I asked if he wanted to look for any other books. Nope, he had what he was looking for. He checked them out himself on the computer and carried them to the car.

As soon as he was buckled, he opened the first book and laughed out loud in delight. "Mommy," he said, "There's more than one in here!"

I wish I could bottle this memory to share with him when he gets older, but the sheer joy that the library would have just what he was looking for was beautiful to watch.