This has been the Christmas of trains for us. Toy Story and Curious George were big players, too, but trains dominated our thinking these past holidays. Shortly before we left town for Christmas, we watched the train setup at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. And then we played, and played, and played with trains all through the break. Pictured above are Will and his cousins Jake and Clara; Will and Jake were glued to the train set.
At Beth's parents, Will's first Christmas gift were some trains. He immediately disappeared, running the four cars all through the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
I love this picture of Will and Jake. Boys and their trains. We later took the kids to see the big train setup at Breton Village.
Of course, it wasn't just the little boys who played with trains. My brothers and I hauled out some of our dad's and grandpa's old train set. My dad and his siblings played with these as kids, and we had a turn with them years ago. We were elated once we got that engine running. The sound of the wheels, that old metallic, electrical smell, the feel of all the cars... those brought back a lot of memories. These trains are the old-school O-gauge Lionel trains, well over 50 years old.
We started with a small oval. A single engine and a few cars...
...but then we decided to branch out a bit.
It didn't take us long to start figuring out the nuances of powering an old engine on such a long track. We polished the track for better electrical connections, cleaned the wheels of the cars, and my brother Greg even rewired an old engine that we had never seen in use.
We tried building a long straightaway to see how fast we could get the engine going.
It was really great to re-discover these trains as grown-ups. I feel like we had a better understanding and interest in how they worked, and Dad, our Uncle Dan, Aunt Beth, and our grandmother shared some more stories and tips about the trains. It'll be a fun tradition to start tinkering with and hopefully fixing up these trains over the years.
Beth had her 20-week ultrasound this past Friday, and we were delighted to learn that we are having a GIRL! We took Will along for the visit, so that he could be part of the process. He was concerned at first that the doctor was his doctor, but we reassured him that this doctor was for mommy. He seems to understand now that there's a baby inside Mommy, and it helped that he got to see the pictures of her on the computer screen during the ultrasound.
These are just two of the scans from the ultrasound. The top one shows her profile, and in this one you can see her little fingers. Knowing that she's... well, a she... makes the whole thing seem that much more real. It's exciting to think how our family will grow and change with the new addition!
