At the Library with a T-Rex

     Yesterday Clara and I went to the library to check out some new books and music.  We haven't been back to Toddler Tales since that momentous occasion a few weeks ago, but we have been going on our own to practice what it's like to be at the library.
    I let Clara go as soon as we entered the kids' section.  She ran to the computers.  She's not so much interested in what's on the monitor as sitting on the stool in front of the screen.  She sat on each stool in front of each of the six computers.  She played with each mouse, turning it over to examine the red light underneath.  She tried on headphones.  She insisted that I try on headphones, too.  She banged on the keyboards.
     As soon as she was done with the computers, she jumped up and ran to the carpeted amphitheater steps at the back.  On the way, she stopped briefly to watch a family play Monopoly.
     Some kids were sitting in the amphitheater, sucking suckers and reading comic books.  She cruised past them to the mural on the wall, said "Hi," to the dog on the mural and patted it with her hand, turned the corner and stopped at the toy box.
     The toy box is filled with puppets and a set of big, plastic dinosaurs.  Sometimes Clara props the puppets up next to the dog on the mural and pretends to read them a book.  Yesterday she pulled out two brontosauruses and a T-Rex.  She squatted next to the T-Rex and patted him and spoke to him gently.
     I sat down cross-legged next to her and grabbed one of the brontosauruses.
     "Rarrrrr!" I said, making him gnaw on the T-Rex's neck.
     She picked the T-Rex up carefully and cradled him to her chest with both hands.
    "Be back!" she said.  Then she took off running back to the computers, her hair bouncing and her shorts bulky from her diaper.  Talking to the T-Rex in a high, soft voice, she made him sit on the stool next to her at the computer.  Then she made him read the cover of a book about whales that was on a plastic display.
     She brought him back to the amphitheater and generously bequeathed him to a tween with a jet-black ponytail.
     "Uh, I think her wants to be with you," the tween said, handing the T-Rex back to her.
     Yes, maybe she was right, Clara seemed to think.  She made the T-Rex sit beside her on one of the carpeted steps while I read them a book about parrots.