Those Cheeky Little Engines
July 21, 2011
When my oldest son was 3-4 years old he became obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and all things train related. The obsession continued for several years. He had a special tiny backpack in which he would carry them. He would line them up on the table while he ate. He would line them up on his bed while he slept. He would line them up on the tv stand so they could watch themselves on tv.
At the time I couldn’t even imagine his love for those trains lessening. I’m not sure what I thought would happen. I certainly didn’t picture a teenager playing with diecast metal trains, but I couldn’t picture how it would end, when the last time it would be that he would play with them. After several years the obsession waned. They were played with less and less. And slowly they were forgotten.
Yesterday, Miles pulled out the Thomas the Tank Engine trains that belonged to his oldest brother 13 years ago.
Miles holds them up and asks the name of each one. My oldest tells him to turn the train faces toward him and he tells Miles their names. After all these years he still remembers the trains by looking at their different faces.
And I look at him, mostly grown now, needing to shave, shouting out the names of the train engines and I remember the little boy.
*****
Over at Alphamom I have a post about the sneaky way I get my older kids to do stuff around the house. It’s win-win for everyone over here at my house.
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