My daughter repeatedly reminded me today that it is the one-month anniversary of our trip to Chicago for BookCon 2016.We had an awesome time. She asked for tickets last autumn, and I presented them to her on Christmas. She was beyond thrilled. She’s become quite the book aficionado and prefers to spend all of her money on books, books and more books.

Quite honestly, I couldn’t be happier.

After an amazing day in Chicago on Friday, May 13, we hit the convention center early Saturday morning to get in the longest line I’ve ever been in (that is not a joke) waiting for doors to open to the day’s BookCon event. Alyssa had mapped out exactly what authors she wanted to meet, the panels she wanted to attend, etc. She’s quite the planner. I told her the day was hers and I would do whatever she wanted to do during her time at the event. We had an amazing time and she scored lots of big books. (She’s becoming a hardcover collector.)

Yesterday, I drove her to a Barnes & Noble bookstore (the closest one is about an hour and 20 minutes from our house) so she could attend a creative writing workshop, get some book loot, and spend her babysitting earnings (from the day before – it burns holes in her pocket if she holds onto it for too long).

She bought a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I saw it on the shelf and pointed it out to her and told her I would like to read that one too should she ever get it. But she sat it back down and proceeded to shop around the store for a good half hour. One of the beautiful things about her is that although she likes to spend money, she doesn’t make impulse buys. She figures out exactly what she wants before she chooses to spend her money on anything.

The little sweetie snuck up to the register when I wasn’t looking and bought Miss Pelegrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. She wanted to surprise me. Happy mama.

And…she picked up yet another bookmark. The slogan? “I like big books and I cannot lie.”

Too funny. Read on my little bookworm, read on.