On the Choo-Choo!

Today was Nicholas's first train ride!

Nicholas is quite the mass transit aficionado, as you may know from earlier posts—trains, planes, buses, pretty much anything captures his attention, regardless of what he might have been doing just before he noticed it. And trains have been especially fun because we pass the light rail tracks several times on the way to the day care center.  In fact, Nicholas and I have been known to detour on occasion to the parking lot of the light rail stop between our apartment and daycare to watch trains for a few minutes on the way there or back.

We've also been talking with Nicholas about riding the train, so he's been a bit prepared, but we still weren't sure what to expect.  In many areas, he's apprehensive at the first attempt, or even a little frightened.  On the other hand, he never gets to like it the second time if he doesn't go the first time.

So Sarah and I made a plan: one Saturday when we needed to go to Wegman's, I would take Nicholas from our stop north to the end of the line (which is in the Wegman's parking lot) and she would meet us there and we'd run our errands.  And today was the day.

We ended up spending far more time than we meant waiting for the train because we just missed one, and the one that followed it was delayed by about 10-15 minutes.  Nicholas spent the time looking up and down the tracks scouting out trains (two came by in the other direction during our wait on the platform), each time calling out "choo choo!" excitedly.

Finally, our train arrived, we boarded, and were off!

From 2010 December

Nicholas liked it! He wasn't exuberant, but he had his eyes in "maximum information absorption" mode, and would occasionally state, as if surprised to discover it anew each time, "on the choo-choo!" He did this about every 30 seconds for ten minutes. I would have found it annoying if I wasn't so darn happy that he was enjoying it. I tried to point things out, like railroad crossings and the one time we went under a bridge, but of course a rail trip is rather underwhelming, for the simple reason that almost all buildings face away from the tracks. Oh well. Every few minutes I asked him if he was having fun, and he would smile and giggle—a clear sign of success.

Towards the end, I think he began to feel the monotony a bit.  At one stop I pointed out that people were going through the door to get off the train, and his new refrain became "off the train."  At each stop he asked again, and I recounted how much longer to go, and tried to point out the front of the train when a corner was sharp enough that you could see it (that part he didn't get so well).

So, the train experiment was a success.  Now I can't wait to find a reason to get him on Amtrak, or maybe MARC or Metro-North, so he can see what it's like to be on a "real" train.