In which Owen goes loco for locomotives.
Each morning, our boy wrestles with a terrible dilemma: "Shall I play with my cars or with my 'choos?' " As his parents, we wrestle with a dilemma of our own: "Can we watch Thomas and His Friends Help Out one more time without losing our wits?"
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Thomas and his buddies, it's a horribly British children's show about a collection of trains who do their best not to be disgraced and hope that the stern but fair Sir Topham Hatt will call them "useful."
Hilariously, the shows are narrated by the off-color American comic, George Carlin. Clearly no one in Britain has heard Mr. Carlin's act.
At any rate, we discovered that today was the Kansas City model train show and decided this would either be a slice of Heaven or pure torture for Owen-- Heaven becase he'd be surrounded by his most favorite choos, torture because he wouldn't be able to touch a one.
It's been a rough week for the O-boy. He's fighting down ear infection number 72 and the anti-biotics gave him diarhea which, in turn, spawned one of the nastier cases of diaper rash I've ever seen. (I didn't think my rear could flinch, but after seeing Mr. Red McChapheinie I discovered it could!) We thought the little trooper had earned a special treat and decided to risk the threat of a melt-down.
Off to the American Royal, then, we forked over $14 (not including parking) for the opportunity to show Owen a collection of the more elaborate model enthusiasts' trains. As predicted, Owen declared the first train he saw "MINE!" and wailed when we wouldn't help him reach over the protective glass barrier.
After awhile, though, he settled in and just enjoyed the displays, two of which you see at left. He had an opportunity to ride a choo-- which ran on Dad power, apparently. He declined with a back arching "NOOOOOO!" Somehow I still ended up helping to push the pack of kids who did decide to ride. He was fine until it was time to leave, then it was "More! More!" and just a pinch of wailing until we got back into the car.
As of this writing, he's happily driving James the Tank Engine over the cars' garage. We've just finished supper-- Owen enjoyed chicken fried rice. Dad had graham crackers with chocolate frosting.
Being the parent rocks.
