Last year, with his grandson reaching the age of 18 months and developing (as most boys do) an obsession with all modes of transportation, "Big Papa" Riedeman went out and bought a brand new Lionel Train Set to put up around the Christmas tree. Will always loved listening for trains going by outside- watching in awe and pumping his arm in the air while saying "choo choo!" So a train inside the house? That's just too cool. But now that he's 2 1/2, he has an even greater interest and appreciation for the miniature locomotives.
On Monday night, we went over to visit the Riedemans and Papa and Will got to set up the train set. Will is Papa's little "mini-me". (They're even coincidentally dressed alike in these pictures.) And it is such a pleasure to watch the two of them interact. Papa is such a natural with Will. He is patient and calm and he explains things so perfectly for Will to understand. His voice always carries an easy tone and he often lets Will lead the conversation and try to figure things out on his own. Will responds so well to him and they just seem like they were meant to be good buddies.
Sorting out the pieces
The track is up and now it's time to test out the wiring
Papa explains to Will how the lever makes the train move
And you can see Papa's pride as Will watches with excitement
Will gets to take a turn at pressing the buttons to make the train whistle. The engine even blows steam!
"Choo! Choo!" he says
You'll notice the red train car is hauling Will's Thomas-the-Train sticker around in circles :)
Soph came along too, of course. She mostly cruised the coffee table and played with her toys.
Papa brings out more toys for the kids
Soph takes a turn at riding the awesome high chair/rocking horse (remember from Thanksgiving?)
Daddy arrives after work and he and Will set up little block towers for the train to "crash" into. Sounds morbid, but Will thought it was so exciting!
Sometimes he couldn't resist knocking over the tower himself before the train made it to the demolition point.
Also, as an aside, we did take the Rudolph cookies to the sitter's today:
And we have four Christmas parties this week (one of which was this past Sunday), so I'm just going to combine them all into one post early next week.
Just 3 more days till Christmas!!! We're getting so excited!!!
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