"Get Used to Disappointment"

Granted, the quote is about swordplay and not making bookmarks at the library, but the sentiment still stands.

After the awesome morning my daughter had, we gathered our already overdue library materials and walked there for the first session of this year's story hour.  As the story hour specifically is for "4-5 year olds" I have never had all of my kids qualify to attend this grand event.  Now that Girl turned four and Boy Two has yet to turn six (three more weeks!) we have a small window of time to seize upon!

First off, I had no idea that patrons intent on joining the Sacred Story Hour must enter through the Forbidden Door (aka Employees Only) and give the Secret Knock.  (Okay that last part isn't true, but it makes the event seem so much more mysterious.)  Huh.  I had thought that since we arrived four minutes late the small window of time (exactly sixty seconds during 9:30) had closed for the week.  Sheesh, I though, how demanding they are of moms with small kids.  They must really want to keep this a small assembly.

Second, I was exceedingly proud of my kids.  They were the best behaved kids there (out of a possible fifteen) and actually paid attention to the three stories.  Hurray!  I adore it when my kids show off how well I parent them (ahem).

 Then the small hiccup and pending disappointment.  The craft was to use the stickers to customize a bookmark, cover it with contact paper, and cut it out with fancy-edged scissors.  Girl is easily pleased with butterfly stickers and some amazing three-D daffodil stickers that sparkle.  Boy Two, however, spots the fluffy (squishy?  spongy?) snake stickers (a full sheet!) that another boy has, sets his mind on those, and feels great sadness when the boy uses the entire sheet of stickers on his bookmark.  Grief!  Woe!  Anguish!  Sorrow! Heartache!  Angst!  Pain!  Misery! (synonyms from my computer thesaurus, thanks WORD).

Despite the other sticker possibilities, Boy Two nurses his sadness (albeit silently with minimal frowny faces and pouting) for the next fifteen minutes until he decides to make the best of the situation and use an entire sheet of stickers himself: the horse head ones that nobody else wanted.  He was finished in record time and, because it was the first day of Story Hour of the year, was invited to choose a snack bag of bunny crackers (thank you, Library!) as a treat.

The three of us had a decent talk on the way home about why it's important to share things with others and about considering other people's feelings.  This is something we discuss often at home regarding siblings, but I hope the situation that was presently experienced with strangers helps to solidly reinforce the idea.