For the Love of Trains

He has always loved them.  Trains.  Ever since I can remember.  If he had something with wheels, he loved it, but if it was on a track even better.  He could sit for hours and watch the wheels go around and around. He always looked at them with wonderment.  I don’t know what it is for him.  The power or speed of them, the idea that nothing unexpected is going to happen, or if it was just soothing to him. 

I thought he would grow out of it.  It started with the Geo Trax and Thomas.  He would spend hours happy to sit and just watch the trains go around the track.  He would sleep with them or a car, anything that had wheels.  Aren’t little ones supposed to snuggle with something soft?  He would pick a train or a car and it went everywhere with him as if it was his security blanket.  He would push them back and forth over and over again.  What was going on in his little mind?  Was he taking them on a journey?  Why was it soothing to him?   

I guess we didn’t try to stop the love.  I encouraged it.  I took him to see the trains, and we would chase them in the car.  How many times could we catch it at the different intersections to watch them?  I took specific routes that I knew would cross the track.  On our trips to Tucson and back, we would stay at the same speed. I checked out videos from the libraries.  We would visit my parents in San Francisco, and we took him to ride the various trains around the area.. We took the Amtrak to the Sacramento Train Museum.  He was invited to the front of the train and was able to honk the horn. He is nine and still talks about it.  He rode the trolley, and one that takes you through redwoods.  We took the trains in Seattle.  His other grandmother planned a trip to Milwaukee and we arrived by plane, took the El, and then took the Amtrak instead of renting a car.  What an exciting day for a 3 and a half-year-old!

He is now nine.  He draws them and reads books about them.  He has moved onto documentaries and science shows about them and away from Thomas.  He still plays with his Geo-trax just because the set we have is so big, and when little ones come over, he knows they will love them too.  He now goes with his Papas to train stores and has his HO sets and engines.  They are his obsession. He still loves to race the trains on the freeways and loves to see engines he has never seen before.  We still go to train stations and watch the trains go by.  There are times when I wish he would talk about other things, but I am happy to know he still wants to talk to me.  One day he will be too cool for his mom.

It will be interesting to see if he ever grows out of this.  I thought he would have a long time ago. Until then I am going to let him love his trains even if others think he shouldn’t.  But honestly, I hope he always loves them. 

Lost and Hopefully Found

So once again I have been lost in action.  Where does the time go?  How does it slip by so fast without a single moment for me to sit and just think (or type quietly by myself)?  Even as I sit here at 10 pm, I have a little one who is leaning on me and can't seem to go to sleep in her own bed because she is "scared."  Scared of what you may ask? Talking toys....oh honey, I wish you only knew about the things you should be really afraid of like...spiders and snakes and creepy people.

I went back to work full time and this is what happens.  All the simple and quiet moments I was thinking would be mine have completely disappeared.  I go to bed late and get up early, and yet my day just flies by. I don't seem to have a moment to write like I was starting to enjoy.  I knew I should have taken my friend's advice and started on this whole blog thing much sooner.

Here are a few things I have re-learned since going back to work:
1.  There is never enough time in the day.
2.  Politics at work is something I have always been pretty good at staying clear of.
3. It is nice to have adult conversation when it makes me laugh; however, I still think it is better during happy hour!
4.  It is nice when my husband acknowledges how much I did while I stayed home and admits it was a lot now that nothing ever seems to get done.
5.  Grading papers after school while trying to help my son with homework is not easy.
6.  Grading papers on the weekend....sucks.... My students are not allowed to use that word, but I have to admit it is pretty appropriate.
7.  There is never enough time in the day.
8.  The realization that my husband is such a huge help is fantastic.  It is nice to be a team player.
9.  Missing all the things about staying home like a stolen quiet moment is not necessarily a good trade off for a paycheck but the paycheck does help.
10.  Going to the gym after school can be a stress reliever and a stress adder depending on the dwindling time of the day!
11.  It was going to be so exciting to have a paycheck to buy all the things I wanted but couldn't buy while I stayed home only to find that trying to find the time to get to the mall to get that pretty purse is impossible to find!


I wonder how long it will take me to write again.  .......hopefully not as long as I have a few pieces of travel advice I need to share!