Choo Choo!

As I have said many times before, since he was a baby, Lucas has been a generally easy going and agreeable child. His mild manner and overall go with the flow attitude has meant that he hasn't really had obsessions or harp on things the way that Elise did/does. Elise LOVES her greenie and can't sleep without it to this day (I even catch her cuddling and kissing it saying "I love you so much Greenie" randomly). She was insanely obsessed with Elmo and then Dora and then princesses. She likes to eat the same things all the time. And so on and so on. (not saying it each child's tendency is bad or good either way! just different!)

But with his "take it or leave it" attitude about pretty much everything, Lucas seems to really enjoy variety and therefore doesn't get overly attached to one particular thing. So it was surprising to us a few months ago when - out of thin air - Lucas developed an all out obsession with trains. We have a regional rail train station a few blocks from our house and it became his favorite thing in the world to go to the train station to wait it see a train (which is really not all that exciting looking). Just seeing the train for a few seconds was incredibly exciting to him. He then started asking about trains and talking about them all the time - picking out nothing but train books at the library, wanting to play with his train set and so on. Before long it became official - the boy is absolutely crazy about trains in a way that is very different from his love of pets (he loves to see them - but they are sort of out of sight out of mind).

As part of their birthday gift to Lucas, Oma and Opa took the family a train ride on a real steam engine train! While admiring trains from afar for a long time, he'd never been on one before (that he remembers) so this was a double treat - he got to see AND go on a real train (that actually looks like a train!). It was so much fun for the whole family, but obviously Lucas was absolutely thrilled. The train ride went for about a half hour - blowing it's train whistle often to Luke's delight - then stopped at a picnic grove for about a half hour and then back to the station. We all had a great time and I think it has firmly secured Luke's love of trains for years to come!