Reading Prize!

Today Tommy and I went to the library for the first story time and play group of the fall. We probably spend more time at the library than at any other activity, excluding church of course. We are regulars. Library rats, if you will. You may recall that our obsession with reading was especially strong this summer, because Tommy discovered the joy of summer reading programs and more importantly, the reading prize. I did the adult reading program as well, and between the two of us we earned two family dinners at Chipotle (love those free taco coupons), a water bottle (broken now), and way too many finger puppets, color-in puzzles, and plastic sharks. This was all in our quest to win second place in the family reading program and earn ourselves a one year pass to the children's museum. Usually Tommy and I only aim for numero uno. In this case we made an exception because first place was an overnight stay at a Holiday Inn with an indoor water park. Tommy is probably too young to fully appreciate an indoor water park, and I find them incredibly repulsive (this is a direct result of being forced to swim in the disgusting overly warm and small YMCA kiddie pool as a child). Hence, aiming for number two.

The reading contest ended in early August. Since we didn't hear anything I assumed we hadn't won. I was a little dissapointed because I thought we had read enough, but mostly I just felt bad because I knew Tommy had read more than anyone else in his age category (by far), which meant that I hadn't done the necessary work to boost our team average. I tried. I really tried. But, my dissertation had to come first, and so I didn't read as much as I could have. Don't get me wrong, Jeff and I don't watch much TV during the summer so I did do quite a bit of reading. A lot really. Just clearly not enough.

Imagine my surprise when today during play time one of the library staff came up to me and said "So, did anyone ever tell you that you won second place in the summer read family contest?"

Um, no, they didn't.

"Oh, you did. I added up all the minutes myself. They just haven't told you because the prizes are missing. Our director moved her office over the summer and they got misplaced. We are looking for them. The first place family keeps bugging us about them."

It's a little hard to get excited about winning a prize that you might not receive because it is lost. I am still a little excited. After all, a win is a win. I'm not sure how I'm going to explain it to Tommy though. He might be too young to understand that family pride is more important that actual material benefits (that's for you, Em).