Candy Math

We did it.

We finally got a library card from a library that is close by!

Apparently the house we live in is out of the city limits and does not pay library taxes through property taxes.  So - we had no library access close to us.

The city of Austin has a kind of "no child left behind" policy for their libraries.  Basically if you don't have access to one then you use theirs.  The nearest one to us took 25 minutes in traffic each way.  

I started taking Secret Agent Man to the library when he was 7 months old.  Baby story time.

We have gone each week since then.  Until we moved here.

This is our longest time away from the library.

So we went to the local library in the next city over (actually closer than our own cities) and asked.  It only cost $35 for the year!  I was hesitant about paying because I remember the Aurora public library card costing several hundred.  Admittedly the library system in Aurora is top notch.  There are no libraries here that even compare.

With Secret Agent Man reading several books in a day, the cost is easily mitigated.  Even if we were only purchasing used books.

So anyway, one of our first books to check out was M&M math.  It is the second version.  I think the math is a bit harder in this one.

I quick went and bought some.  Of course they only sell the extra large bag (that's okay he did it a few times over several days).

It was a fun project to squeeze in before school started.  Secret Agent Man loved it!  

Happens to Every Guy sometimes this does

Secret Agent Man has been doing a lot of reading this summer!  He joined the summer reading program at the library and easily filled in the first 500 pages of the reward chart.

We finally went to the library to get his reward.  A dairy queen dipped cone!
He was so excited and did not know if he should redeem that coupon right away or save it for the next day.

Soon he decided that he would like it right away.  He enjoyed it very much.

Later that night at bedtime, tears filled his eyes and he said he thought he should have saved that ice cream for tomorrow instead.

Regret.

Longing.

His great critical mind often faces these perplexing struggles, much like the stories he knows.

“He felt that he was still groping in the dark; he had chosen his path but kept looking back, wondering whether he had misread the signs, whether he should not have taken the other way.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder

"Happens to every guy sometimes this does." - Yoda

*Edited to add

When I read this post to Secret Agent Man, he thought it rang true but asked me to explain what it all meant.

I told him that it meant he was growing older and that he now was making decisions that he could feel the consequences of.  I explained that it was common for someone his age to struggle with making decisions, big and little, that were always previously made by Mom and Dad.

The sweet little guy agreed that yes, this was true and couldn't decide whether he would smile about this independence or be sad about the pressure of it.