These were the first words spoken to me yesterday afternoon by the lady in charge of my daughter’s afterschool program. A program that I have simply adored over the past few years that The Girl has attended. In my eyes, they can do just about no wrong.

Wednesdays are field trip days and this week’s trip was to the public library. I made sure the night before that I laid out The Girl’s special field trip shirt that they have to wear to be allowed to go on the trip, as well as making sure she had her libray card in her back pack. This was indeed a treat.

“Apparently the library has eliminated their maximum number of items you can check out at any one time,” she said as she immediately caught my attention and my ears perked up.

“How many books did she borrow?” I asked as I scanned the hallway, waiting for The Girl to appear.

“32.”

*blink*blink*

“32?” I asked. “32,” she repeated. I couldn’t help but smile as the office manager stood behind her snickering with her hand covering her mouth.

I looked down the hallway and see The Girl, HUGE grin on her face, struggling to carry three large plastic library bags stuffed to the brim. Did I mention that huge grin on her face? Only my child would think to check out 32 books. I just burst out laughing.

On the ride home we were talking about all those books in the back of the truck. She thought she might be in trouble. I told her, “I absolutely LOVE that you checked out 32 books. I could never be angry with you for being so excited about reading.”

Later on that night as she’s sorting through all the books, she did finally agree with me that maybe 32 was a bit excessive. She picked out her favorite 6 and the rest we packed back into the library bags for me to return.

“Yes, babylove, we can check them out again, absolutely yes.”

My child.

32 books.