This morning Matteo and I headed down to the main branch of our local library. It's about a 30-45 minute walk depending on your pace. Years ago when I was between jobs and trying to decide where to go next I used to walk to this library once a week and read lots of biographies and autobiographies. I must admit, all of them helped me to see how life was about choices and trying and moving forward despite setbacks. I remember that time as a very important and pivitol space in my life where many signifcant decisions were made.
I have not been back to this library in a long time and today it was great tohave my memories resurface and to start a new relationship with Matteo. The library has changed quite a bit and at one point the new building for this library was supposed to be built right down the street from us, about 3 blocks away. I was ecstatic until the plans got changed as there was much criticism of the building design...never followed up on what happened and if they will still change its location??
Today they recommended that Matteo get his own library card to so that I can register him for various activities should we choose. We were the first ones in the children's library and I know we will be visiting it at least once a month. Matteo loved being able to run around and I could let him do that and feel secure that he was safe. It was great to see him pulling out books and looking at them, though I think he enjoyed the running and climbing the furniture a bit more!!
There were lots of sitting areas, some toys to play with and of course lots and lots of books. We came away with five English books and one in Italian...Matteo's favourite which we read at the library about 10 times was "Mama loves me!". At home we read it 10 more times. I have a feeling it is going to show up under the Christmas tree. A simple little board book that immediately touched Matteo's heart. Each page says something like. Mama bathes me. or Mama colours with me. or Mama plays with me. and after each Matteo nodded yes as if those were questions.
We stayed for over an our and even listened for a little bit to a Spanish storytelling event that was taking place, where it got very busy. I've been trying to speak to Matteo in Italian more often but at times he gets very upset. Of course he doesn't understand it but when we listened to the Spanish, I tried to explain to him about different languages. So hence why I picke up the Italian book. They have a huge Spanish language section as well as various other languages, but only one shelf of Italian. I had planned to take photos to mark the occassion of our first visit, but we were both so busy exploring the children's section and looking through as many books as possible, that I didn't even pull out my camera at all!! So will have to document the second visit.
I know Matteo already loves books, and as a teacher I sure know how important that is to being open to learning and wanting to go to school. So I will continue to do what I can to support and encourage him to continue being joyful with books.
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