The Library

Andrea began reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to our kids this morning and my son, Ian, kept breaking out of the flow to ask Siri for the time. “It’s 8:52am” … “It’s 9:07am” … “It’s 9:11am” “Ian!? What is your deal? Do you have some kind of appointment?” He explained that today is Halloween and he was wondering how soon he could go trick-or-treating. As luck would have it, my plans for the day offered their own distraction; we would go to the library. We’ve been doing this lately, mostly on weekends. It’s part of our routine: read (or be read to), workout, practice drawing or painting, play the ukulele or the guitar, and then go to the library. I’ve been trying to cultivate some good habits for both of us, all done for their own sake. Ian loves the library. He begs and begs and begs, and I tell him not until all the other parts of our routine are done and then we head over to this third place where Ian immediately heads to the computers — we don’t play video games at home…