Joe has always been the one of my three boys who derived the most pleasure from playing with the trains. I attribute this to his love of travel.
When we lived in New Jersey, the trains rarely made long-term appearances on the floor simply because of lack of space. Our old living room was 16x12. That, in theory, sounds peachy keen. But add in an over sized chair, a couch, a television armoire that could have doubled as a crypt it was so bulky, a small bookshelf, 5 people and a woman who despises clutter and you have...well, you have clutter. Clutter of the worst order. Clutter that is necessary if we would like to sit down and read occasionally. Or watch Survivor. Whichever.
Each person was assigned a 2x2 area of space in which to move about freely and that, as we all know, works amazingly well with three children under 8.
John would haul all of the trains out and set them up in a huge circle through the living room, dining room and kitchen. You only have to slip on Percy the engine one time to truly feel the injustice of the situation. The trains made their way to the basement and were rarely seen until we moved here.
As you can very well see, our train collection rivals that of the Franklin Mint, and this is only half of them. Joe asked me if I wanted to play trains with him and because I cannot resist his powers of cuteness, I played. In truth, "play trains with me" is code for "set them up nicely and then scram woman, playing trains is my bidness."
Behold!
My masterpiece.
Imagine if I used my mad train track building skillz for monetery gain.
He only looks cute. Ten minutes after I built the track he pulled it apart claiming it wasn't good because I didn't put make proper use of the crane, which is not pictured.
The Cuteness will only take you so far.
March 13, 2008
Mommy Gets Tricked
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6 comments:
Great train set up! I know what you mean. Steve built David a train table for his Geo Trax trains and it's in the basement. He has already stopped playing with them. So true about the cuteness...
Oh my gosh, it's a thankless job some days, huh? (hee hee) A For Effort!! =-)
The cuteness goes a lot farther with me! A LOT farther! I love that face.
Nice train set up. The breakup is symbolic for the role of a mother, don't you think?
I've retired from track building; he has to do it himself or try the Cute on a big kid. Daddy on the weekends.
LOL. He IS cute. And it'll get him farther now than it ever will again, won't it?
I cannot wait to build the den. Our living room, as we like to call it (it's a corner space where we store the two bookshelves, 80's size TV, couch, coffee table, swivel-rocker-I-refuse-to-part-with-until-I-get-a-glider, foam Elmo chair *???*, and all the peripherals that supposedly go with a "living room") is only 10x10. I spent a full YEAR trying to figure out why I couldn't get a good configuration on that thing before I broke down and measured it one day. Total epiphany: four children, two adults, and their "stuff" simply will. not. fit. attractively. in that space. Not gonna happen. *sigh*
I have living room envy.
Dy
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