Our Afternoon Ritual

Harrison and Charlotte have been getting along pretty well lately and starting to play together. But, there's one thing he does NOT want her playing with him: Trains. Each morning a little before we eat lunch, Harrison starts asking if it's time for Charlotte's nap. He anticipates her going to sleep because it's when we play trains. :) We do the same thing every. single. day.

While I put Charlotte down, Harrison decides what kind of train track he wants that day (wooden or grey) and what pieces he wants to be a part of it. Once Charlotte is down the fun begins! We work together to build the track and Harrison tells me all about the "story" he's going to do when it's finished. Building a traintrack seems like an easy thing, but it's so not easy. He's old enough now that not any ol' figure 8 track will do! We have bridges and tunnels and split pieces. Every day I think that I should have taken an engineering class or two -- would have come in handy. :)

I love to see his mind at work when he's playing. He can entertain himself for hours with his trains, although I usually get to sit in and watch his stories at some point. He uses the Thomas language and says things like "bust my buffers" and "Thomas was cross with Percy." He also narrates the stories which I think is too adorable!

And, no track is complete without a Train Yard.

I try and sneak in some learning while we do this with counting the trains and organizing them by color or size or type (steamie, diesel, etc.).

I've found that I really look forward to this time each day too. I love working on a project together and Harrison is much happier building trains than crafting, so that's what we do! My life is so much richer because of this little boy!