thomas is alive and well in our house.....

we thought that austen outgrew his thomas the tank engine trains many moons ago. we had them packed up in the basement for years and austen found them down there a couple of years ago. up they went to his bedroom where they were played with sporadically since then.


in the last couple of weeks however, the trains have occupied a large portion of our great room. we haven't even put them away for the last week, we just step over the tracks and trains. he usually gets a couple of minutes of playing time in before leaving for the bus or before going to bed. scarlett even likes playing with them.
i actually love seeing him play with these trains. it brings back memories of when he was two and lived and breathed his thomas and friends collection. we had {and probably still have} all of the thomas videos and dozens of the trains. papa made him a train table to set up a track on and it was permanently situated in our
living room at our old house. you never saw austen without a train or two in his hands and he is holding his train engine in his two year old professional pictures because he cried when i tried to take them away for the picture. it was easier to let him hold it. there were always trains in his crib because he had to take them to bed with him at night and naptime. he was obsessed and we were obsessed {okay, i was} about adding to his stash of engines and cars. we even went to ohio for a weekend to see "a day out with thomas" , a full sized thomas engine that we were able to take a ride on, and meet sir toppem hat, even though it poured rain the entire weekend. he was little enough to not know where we were going and it was a complete surprise to him to see that thomas engine puffing around the corner. what a happy little boy he was that day. it is a good memory...a happy memory...its good to see these trains again...