Obsessed with Trains

Desert Boy has been obsessed with trains for about a year now. Every time we go to a place that has train tracks, he gets excited, even if there aren't any trains running on the tracks. Fortunately we can usually find a few parked boxcars that will satisfy him. The only problem is that the nearest tracks are 65 miles away, so we have to make do with toy trains most of the time.

At Christmas, the Border Inn had a great little train set up, and Desert Boy wanted to go there every day to watch it go around and around. He would agree to do anything we wanted if the reward was to go out and look at the train.

For Christmas he got a little wooden train, and he spends about an hour a day playing with it. I enjoy rearranging the tracks a couple times a week to keep it fresh. Sometimes the little town gets set up, but that's not the important part. Having the train go up and down and around and around is the important part.

Desert Boy really likes to have someone play with the train with him. He'll pass off one train and say, "Here you go," and then take the other.

A super special treat was when Grandpa Dean took out his train at Christmas. Desert Boy couldn't get enough of it.

We found this cute Thomas the Train ride-on engine for $2 at the thrift store. Desert Boy insisted on new batteries so now I have the theme song in my head all the time.

When it was time to go to the hospital to have Desert Girl, Desert Boy was happy to go to his cousins' house, partly because he knew he had a new train in his backpack. In fact, I think he might have been more thrilled with the new train than the new sister!