The magic library

I look forward to Mondays. It's library day, and the day we follow the trash trucks all along our route to the library and sometimes around our block upon returning. It's been our routine for months. Our tiny little library has a cute children's section with lots of puzzles, tables and chairs and this bead thingy that attracts children as if it were coated with cotton candy.

Until recently, we went early, long before story time actually started at 10:30 because Danny just wasn't a story time kid and Fiona needed her morning nap (that's a whole other story right there). Every month or so, we'd visit the room as the kids began pouring in. I'd ask, "What do you think, Dan? Wanna stay to sing and dance with the kids?" He'd survey the room thoughtfully, and then turn around and tell me "Uh uh" or, more recently, "No, not like it." And then we'd check out our books and leave to go stalk the trash man. When he was younger and much less verbal, he'd just scream and bolt from the room as soon as the music started, leading me to wonder whether he'd gotten the claustrophobia gene or, worse yet, the extreme anti-conformity gene from yours truly.

Three weeks ago something changed. Danny walked into the story time room all on his own, got himself a little mat, plopped down on the floor and eagerly, rather patiently (for a 2 year old) waited for the music to start. He asked me to turn the music on and to do the bubbles, but miraculously understood that he needed to wait. Then something even more amazing happened ... he began following along with the rhymes and motions and sat down for each of the stories.

Did the librarian put a spell on my child? Was there some magic conformity pixie dust falling from the vents there? Maybe it's in those bubbles she blows during story time. Did I just witness my defiant, selectively deaf and hopelessly distracted maniac of a 2 year old SIT DOWN at the musical suggestion of this library sorcerer?

I have only two questions ... can she be our new nanny? And can I have some of that magic conformity dust?