Librarian at Heart

I remember setting up the nursery when I was pregnant with Beth. We painted the walls, put up the crib and changing table, and folded all the adorable little clothes. I especially recall placing the books on the new bookshelf in Beth's room. Being a librarian, I sorted them into fiction and non-fiction, and then further sub-divided them by author. I loved browsing the many books that had been given to me at showers, especially the shower held by my colleagues at the library. Everything in the "baby" room was organized and perfect.

Things remained quite orderly for Beth's first nine months of life. But once she began to move around independently, everything changed. One of her favorite games was to pull each and every book off the bookshelf and throw them all on the floor in piles. I would crawl around after her, trying to keep the board books from mixing in with the larger sized picture books, and vainly attempting to keep the books in alphabetical order. When she moved on to another activity I would run to the bookshelf and try to reconstruct my mini-library. After a few months of this I finally surrendered. I shoved the books back onto the shelf any-which-way and simply focused on trying to keep her from chewing or ripping the books into pieces.

Today I watched Erin pulling book after book off the shelf in her room. I have to laugh a little bit when I remember my attempts at organization back in those early parenting days. I've since come to realize that life with little ones is never really routine anymore. They need room to grow, play and learn, and it's hard to do that when there's no flexibility. Luckily we learn as they grow, and so Erin is not subject to a crazy mother following her around in an attempt to maintain constant order in her room. Erin's clothes are hanging haphazardly in her closet, her pajamas are mixed in with her pants and shirts, and I can never find a pair of socks to fit her. But that's okay. In time the girls will grow and order will return to my bookshelves...and to our lives.

And I know that when that time comes, I'll be fondly remembering these days of chaos with my precious little ones. So tomorrow I'll try to focus on spending time reading the books to my daughters...instead of attempting to organize them.