Curious George!

Austin loves Curious George! He doesn't watch the cartoon on TV, but he has two compilation books with 8 stories in each and he pretty much has them memorized we've read them so many times. On Saturday, Curious George was at story time at the Barnes and Noble in our mall here in Rochester. I took Austin to it and he had a great time meeting Curious George.

We got there shortly before 10am (after waiting for the battery on my little camera to charge so I could get some pictures). There were lots of kids there, mostly sitting nicely on little benches or on the floor. The parents were all gathered behind the kids watching their kids to make sure they behaved. Austin and I stood near the back and Curious George came up behind us on his way to the front for story time. When Austin turned around and looked up at Curious George, his face lit up in a huge smile, then he turned around, took him by the hand and started walking up to the front with him. I released George from his grasp and got Austin to sit down with the other kids (briefly!). He's at the bottom of this photo in the red/white/black striped shirt.
He then managed to wiggle his way up to the front and stood in front of the other kids, then went up the step and right up to George.
Well, I didn't let him stand in front of the other kids or disrupt story time, and when I removed him from George's stage, he threw a major tantrum in true 2-year-old style. He eventually calmed down and we returned to story time. He continued to squirm continuously and fuss on and off.

When the stories were done, they let the kids swarm George...and so they did.

Austin, of course, was right in the mix. He kept wanting to get right in front of George and play with him. Here he is getting high fives from George.

And checking out the George doll Curious George was holding (of course, the doll did belong to another kid...not sure which one). Unfortunately, I missed getting the shot of Austin standing there looking up at George adoringly with a huge smile on his face (camera was too slow!).
He wasn't too thrilled when we had to let other kids see him and have pictures with him. We did get Austin to sit on the chair next to him and smile...of course I missed the brief "peeeeas" as he smiled and looked at the camera. Then he was off and running.

When George left, he was quite distraught. A little time playing with the train table calmed him down, but it was a full on kicking screaming tantrum to get him out to the car eventually and then screaming all the way home. So, all in all, it was fun for him to see Curious George, but it was a tough morning. I'm not sure why he was so fussy then, but he woke up that morning cranky and cried quite a bit even before leaving for story time, so I suppose I should have expected it.

I'm on an emergency department month, so I've been working shifts that change throughout the week. I had a string of 6pm to 3am shifts for 3 days and they were tiring, but fine for me since I'm a night owl. Austin had some trouble with it though, because he is not used to me being gone at bedtime that many nights in a row. I've been home more during the day though, so Steve has been able to get a lot more work done and go into the office a lot more often than last year. So, all is well in the Cronk house. Hope March is treating you well...it seems like March came in like a lamb...hopefully that doesn't mean it goes out like a lion!