048/366: Reading Race

Every Sunday, I take the kids down to the Schenectady Greenmarket, which from May-October is held outdoors, on the streets around City Hall. This puts it right next to our local independent bookstore, The Open Door, which is kind of popular with the kids:

SteelyKid and The Pip running into our local independent bookstore. SteelyKid and The Pip running into our local independent bookstore.

We have a standing agreement that they can each get one book every week, and SteelyKid can use her allowance to buy a toy if she chooses. We're amassing quite the collection of picture books, and The Pip will buy absolutely anything with superhero branding-- this week, he insisted on getting a "How to Draw [DC] Superheroes" book, despite the fact that he can neither read the text nor draw a steady enough line to follow any of the instructions. Because it was the only book with Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman on the cover that we didn't already own.

In a couple of weeks, the market moves inside, at Proctors, and the Open Door shifts to winter hours, meaning they're not open yet at the time that would be most convenient for a market visit, which may curtail our visits a little. So, this seemed like an appropriate time to grab a shot of the store...

More like this

For a long time now, I've had a Sunday routine with the kids, where we go to the Schenectady Greenmarket and then to the Open Door (which is right next to the outdoor market, and a couple blocks from the indoor location), then to lunch at Panera, and usually grocery shopping. We have a standing…
During our weekly trip to the Schenectady Greenmarket, we took refuge from the rain in the Open door bookstore, where a short while later I saw the following scenes at opposite ends of the kids-book aisle (also the "Featured Image" for this post, but I'll reproduce it to save the RSS folks from…
The "featured image" above shows SteelyKid and The Pip checking out a couple of books at The Open Door during our weekly trip to the Schenectady Greenmarket. As cute as this is, though, the image can't do justice to the full scenario. We were in the toy section looking for a birthday present for…
This one's a bit of a cheat, but the only pictures I got Tuesday that turned out well had other people's kids in them, and I won't post those. So here, instead, is a picture from over the weekend, mostly because I want to tell the cute-kid story that goes with it. On Sundays, I take the kids to the…