For Christmas this year, Santa Claus blessed Bug with a new train set. It's a wooden set, that the big red man picked up at Toys R' Us for $199.00. It was on sale, and came with everything you could ever ask for in a train set... far cheaper than the Thomas sets, though its compatible with those sets. Table (with built in storage), double sided mat for playing on, about 20+ feet of track, mountains, cranes, trains, waterfalls, a helicopter (no train set is really complete without at least one helicopter), the whole nine yards.
The night before Christmas, one of Santa's elves was up until 3:30 putting this thing together... despite several defects in the materials (wrong screws provided, holes drilled in the wrong spot). At the time, Santa's elf swore that he was going to take the damned thing and burn it in the back yard. Thankfully, that did not happen, and all were rewarded on Christmas morning when son's eyes lit up like the sun...
The set is fantastic. It has already provided countless hours of "Choo Choo" and "Ding ding ding" play. It keeps him busy when the baby needs more attention, and provides great stress relief for me when he and I get to play with it. Which is dishearteningly rare, due to having only one hour from the time I get home to the time he goes to bed.
However, I fear I have become addicted to the train set. Last night, moment before bedtime (and that means after bath and stories were both completed), Bug begged to "play trains". I assuaged my "no" guilt by promising that we would make a new train layout tonight - and I have spent all morning (the trip in on the bus, my coffee break and my walk) planning new layouts in my head. I have a million things that should be taking my attention, a hundred plans for the house that need to be sorted out, work on the three short stories I am still trying to complete, plans for my wife and I... but this train set up is taking every available bit of my free time!
Hello, my name is Mr. Passive Aggressive, and I am an addict. I have a train problem.
The fellow I used to babysit for years and years ago had a 'train room' in his basement (other folks had 'rumpus rooms' or 'playrooms'). His kids weren't allowed in there without him. He had a little engineer's hat and had built a table that went all the way around the walls of the room on two levels. He had terrain built for it, small towns, and everything. I have heard that in later years, he went so far as to build a series of switchbacks by way of which his train could run a couple of circuits about three inches from the ceiling.
ReplyDeleteYour mad minis-painting skilz and terrain building abilities won't go to waste!
(That guy turned out just fine, and so did his kids. He was my drama teacher.)