We started off with a Baby Einstein and a Veggie Tales or two — gifts, all of them. But then time went on and being the word-lovin’ mama I am, I felt Livia needed a new Baby Einstein DVD, Baby Wordsworth. Now, I believe it was entirely worth it to buy this one for Liv. She’s learned many words and a lot of sign language from it (and she has thoroughly entertained us during all the learning), but overall I would rather not spend another dime on a children’s video. Why is that? Because our library ROCKS.

I can pick up scores of different children’s shows on DVD (many more on VHS) at our library for, and here’s the clincher, FREE. Free! We can check them out for three weeks at a time (four weeks from the Bookmobile) and return them any time before that, at our own convenience. That’s not all… I recently learned that if Livia checks out her own books (and, ahem, some of her mom’s, too), late fees are reduced to a dime per day, per item. This is definitely something that works me me considering the fact that my late fees alone could pay for the eventual renovation of the public library downtown.