Trains...Oh the trains!

I can't even REMEMBER when Liam wasn't interested in trains.  I honestly don't think we've gone out of our way to encourage this...ahem...ADDICTION.  Yes, it's to that point. 


I can first remember Liam rocking back and forth, at five months of age, in front of Grandpa Dean and Grandma Dolly's Christmas tree.  He would rock back and forth, waiting for their model train to come around the track / tree.  Once he would see it coming toward him, he would stop rocking momentarily.  Then, as soon as the train would pass, he would start rocking back and forth again, waiting for it to round the track again.  He did this over and over!

Liam has taken a particular interest in Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends.  He has countless miniature trains, ALWAYS with one in hand.  He will often take one to sleep with him, falling asleep with one in his hand.  Doug and I joke that we know Liam has finally fallen asleep when the train falls out of his hand. 


While in Disney World's Magic Kingdom in February, Liam's beloved "Thomas" fell out of the stroller, somehow unnoticed, during his nap.  Sensing there might be a panic attack on the horizon for Liam, "Grandpa Pam" found a replacement train in a gift shop for Liam.  This train was a small plastic train that Mickey Mouse drove.  Something for Liam to clutch during his Disney adventures.  He seemed happy about it.


The day prior, Liam was happy to find a model train village / set-up in Epcot Center, complete with tunnels, bridges, etc.  Practically a real-life Island of Sodor!  :-)  Although Epcot wasn't nearly as kid-friendly as Magic Kingdom, Liam and Ava both enjoyed the model train display.  Once we left the display, Liam kept pointing in the general direction of the trains, saying "Trains!", basically asking to go back.  After his nap that day in the stroller, immediately upon waking up, he actually pointed back in the direction of the trains.  I thought it was too funny that he still had enough sense of direction to know the way back to the trains, even after a nap!  Numerous times he pointed that way...


When Liam is acting two, we only have to threaten to take away his trains for the day and he decides to change his behavior.  He has had his trains taken away a handful of times.  This seems to do the trick!


His favorite thing to do is busily connect train tracks together, so the trains can "chug".  Liam uses the word chug as a verb. :)  "Dad, can you come chug with me?"


As you can see, we will run out of living room faster than we will run out of train tracks.  These pictures are of Liam in action, connecting train tracks.

Liam sees trains wherever he looks.  He makes trains out of things that aren't trains.  Trolley cars are trains, in his book.  He puts books on the floor and lines them up, end-to-end, and says they are trains.  At breakfast the other day, he noticed a train on the orange juice carton.  

A few weeks back, I just got out of the shower and was wrapped in a towel.  Liam points up at me and says: "Train tracks!"  (I'm no longer surprised by hearing any word related to trains, in any situation...)  I looked at the towel, to see what he was talking about.  Sure enough, the towel had a decorative border of squares on it, that looked like train tracks, to Liam...

Oh, and it doesn't end there... Every night, when Liam says prayers, he thanks God for his trains, trucks, cars and toys.  That exhausts the list, for the most part.  I've been trying to work with him on thanking God for other things; more lately he has been adding "Mommy and Daddy and Ava and Liam and Mommy and Liam and Ava and Daddy."  We're working on adding to the prayer list. 


What can I say, this boy eats, sleeps and breathes trains.  Or, in Liamspeak, "trainses".


Peace, love and a little loco(motive),
Shelly, Doug, Ava and the littlest engineer