Trains and Tracks
I might've written about this one before, I know I've told the story before, but a quick search of the two relevant blog archives didn't turn up anything, so if I'm repeating myself, please indulge me a bit.
Christine and I finished putting together cupcakes for Daniel's not-a-birthday-party tomorrow. Well, I say "finished" but they're not quite finished. The finishing touch goes on tomorrow. Tonight we laid down turf (green frosting), railroad ties (without ballast ... I know, I know) and rails on the tops of the cupcakes. There will be pictures tomorrow once we place the engines on their tracks.
Anyway, so I've been thinking a lot about trains and tracks tonight. Then I came downstairs to clean up a little bit and spent maybe fifteen minutes working out how to build a couple of circuits from the pieces of Duplo train tracks we have on the play-table in the basement.
That inevitably reminded me when we came into possession of these particular tracks.
It was early December 2013 (I'm confident of this date for other reasons that'll become clear soon). It was kind of a gloomy, wet-snowy Saturday afternoon with James, a not-yet-particularly-mobile Daniel and I hanging out and Christine prepping something for supper. There was a knock at the door and there was her uncle Al with gifts for the boys.
Al's a great guy, I love him like he was my own uncle, and he always thinks of the boys, usually showing up with really cool gifts. I think Christine asked him if we should open them before we went out east for the holidays or not and he said we should open them now.
So that's what happened.
I don't remember what he got for Daniel, but James' gift was perfectly in line with his interests and his age. A Duplo train set. Except once we opened the box something was terribly wrong. The set Al had picked up was this one.
I caught on earlier, but James was so extremely excited about his train tracks there was no turning back. We finished assembling it and I remember him looking at the track, then at the box, then back at the track. I don't think he even asked "where's the train" or anything of the like, he just considered what was in front of him and decided, as he so often does, that he was going to enjoy what he had. He stood up and started walking around the tracks, keeping his feet on the tracks as much as he could, saying "Choo choooooo!"
So Christine and I talked for, maybe, two minutes and I said I was going out to Target (because Target wasn't just still operating in Canada back then, the honeymoon wasn't even over yet, as you may recall) and Toys Я Us to find the base set to which this set would connect.
I'm mildly agoraphobic. I don't try to hide it and I don't consider it a problem, most of the time. I don't get panic attacks (or at least I haven't had any) but in any significant crowd I do get a very intense fight-or-flight response unless I'm standing still. So I'm mostly good at events like general admission concerts provided the people around me aren't moving too much, otherwise I need to find another place to stand. I always leave early or late because moving in a crowd of people who are also moving is a sure way to freak me out.
Background.
A gloomy Saturday afternoon in December was essentially the perfect storm for me in terms of shopping. Nobody would be doing anything outside and everyone would be gearing up for the Christmas insanity. And the two places I had in mind as destinations ... I guess they might've been less crazy than Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't be going there without medication anyway, so let's say they seemed like the worst possible places to be going. But I had a mission. James was enjoying his Christmas gift from Al, but he was still just a little bit disappointed, because there was supposed to be a train.
So out I went.
And back I came (obviously unharmed) maybe an hour later with a gift from Grampie Vernon. I called dad later and told him the story and how I went out and returned with a complimentary set and told James it was from him, so he didn't need to worry about getting James anything for Christmas.
Good call Uncle Al, and thanks Grampie Vernon.
Christine and I finished putting together cupcakes for Daniel's not-a-birthday-party tomorrow. Well, I say "finished" but they're not quite finished. The finishing touch goes on tomorrow. Tonight we laid down turf (green frosting), railroad ties (without ballast ... I know, I know) and rails on the tops of the cupcakes. There will be pictures tomorrow once we place the engines on their tracks.
Anyway, so I've been thinking a lot about trains and tracks tonight. Then I came downstairs to clean up a little bit and spent maybe fifteen minutes working out how to build a couple of circuits from the pieces of Duplo train tracks we have on the play-table in the basement.
That inevitably reminded me when we came into possession of these particular tracks.
It was early December 2013 (I'm confident of this date for other reasons that'll become clear soon). It was kind of a gloomy, wet-snowy Saturday afternoon with James, a not-yet-particularly-mobile Daniel and I hanging out and Christine prepping something for supper. There was a knock at the door and there was her uncle Al with gifts for the boys.
Al's a great guy, I love him like he was my own uncle, and he always thinks of the boys, usually showing up with really cool gifts. I think Christine asked him if we should open them before we went out east for the holidays or not and he said we should open them now.
So that's what happened.
I don't remember what he got for Daniel, but James' gift was perfectly in line with his interests and his age. A Duplo train set. Except once we opened the box something was terribly wrong. The set Al had picked up was this one.
I caught on earlier, but James was so extremely excited about his train tracks there was no turning back. We finished assembling it and I remember him looking at the track, then at the box, then back at the track. I don't think he even asked "where's the train" or anything of the like, he just considered what was in front of him and decided, as he so often does, that he was going to enjoy what he had. He stood up and started walking around the tracks, keeping his feet on the tracks as much as he could, saying "Choo choooooo!"
So Christine and I talked for, maybe, two minutes and I said I was going out to Target (because Target wasn't just still operating in Canada back then, the honeymoon wasn't even over yet, as you may recall) and Toys Я Us to find the base set to which this set would connect.
I'm mildly agoraphobic. I don't try to hide it and I don't consider it a problem, most of the time. I don't get panic attacks (or at least I haven't had any) but in any significant crowd I do get a very intense fight-or-flight response unless I'm standing still. So I'm mostly good at events like general admission concerts provided the people around me aren't moving too much, otherwise I need to find another place to stand. I always leave early or late because moving in a crowd of people who are also moving is a sure way to freak me out.
Background.
A gloomy Saturday afternoon in December was essentially the perfect storm for me in terms of shopping. Nobody would be doing anything outside and everyone would be gearing up for the Christmas insanity. And the two places I had in mind as destinations ... I guess they might've been less crazy than Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't be going there without medication anyway, so let's say they seemed like the worst possible places to be going. But I had a mission. James was enjoying his Christmas gift from Al, but he was still just a little bit disappointed, because there was supposed to be a train.
So out I went.
And back I came (obviously unharmed) maybe an hour later with a gift from Grampie Vernon. I called dad later and told him the story and how I went out and returned with a complimentary set and told James it was from him, so he didn't need to worry about getting James anything for Christmas.
The reason why I knew Dad didn't already have something for James was this was December 2013 and he'd been essentially in the hospital non-stop since September. So, yeah, that's when that happened.Anyway, the boys are older now, obviously, but they still love the Duplo and they still play with the train set whenever we're in the rooms with it. I just finished putting it back together and I know tomorrow they'll play with it for a bit then end up tearing it apart and probably squabbling about it. And I'll love every second of it.
Good call Uncle Al, and thanks Grampie Vernon.
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