Peter was not at all happy with our plans to visit Longwood on Friday. He'd gotten it in his head that we'd go to the Camden Children's Garden, and just didn't want to be swayed from it. I was nervous, since Longwood can be difficult to maneuver with a cranky preschooler - there's significant walking involved - and despite Lucy's repeated reminders about cookies in the cafe, Peter sang the same tune: no thank you.
racing the trains - Peter was faster
So it was with some relief that I spotted the sign "Garden Railway Now Open!" on the entrance to Longwood. It's not the first time a little choo-choo has saved this family, and it certainly won't be the last.*
possibly ready to move on - cafe cookies await!
It's also fitting to post here how Peter and Lucy are now somewhat hip to Thomas the Tank Engine, although they still don't quite get the whole picture. What they do know is that there's a blue train named "Thomas" - enough people have said and pointed it out to be so - and there's a type of train that has a face on it. Also, their eyeballs move back and forth. When we tried it, it made us dizzy.
I'm hopeful that we've escaped Peter's potential for Thomas hysteria.This isn't to say that he wouldn't BE OUT OF HIS MIND BONKERS if we popped on a Thomas video. He just doesn't associate his love of trains with Thomas; he likes trains as they are, without added branding and commercialization. Aren't regular old trains awesome enough?
As for our Thomas, he loved the trains. At first he stares at them, dumbfounded, with an occasional point and accompanying "that!" Then, he tried to scale the fence to get to the trains. When thwarted, he resorted to eating leaves and mulch. Oh, that reminds me to Google "are chrysanthemums edible."
*On a romantic note, a train ride figures prominently in the early stages of my relationship with Kevin. Awww...
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