Visiting Thomas the Train

We journeyed down to Edaville over the weekend, where Thomas the Train makes an biannual appearance.  Chris and I were totally overwhelmed by the mayhem of strollers, toddlers and preschoolers, and general noise and confusion.  Sam handled it better than we expected.  I don't think he was completely taken with Thomas.  They hook up one "Thomas" car to the front of their usual train.  Sam kept asking us while we were on the train, "where Thomas is?" but he enjoyed the park until we made a hasty departure around lunch time.

                         
Thomas among the crowd, where you could pay for a photo taken with him.  We choose not to.  There were about 10 regular train cars behind him, which was the deceptive part.



There are a number of mechanical rides, but other than venturing on one, we stuck with the shady park area where there are more stationary old vehicles to climb on and less crowds and noise.

At the Beach

Sam loves the beach this year, which is exciting, since Chris and I also do.  When he woke up this morning he stood up and said, "Sam wake now.  Go beach!" and was digging the sand from the moment we arrived.  He also loved the water, once he got used to the idea of the waves.  His favorite activity was "jumping" over the waves, which was Chris or I lifting him over them.
Here's a short clip of his exploration in his droopy trunks.

Trike at the Mechanics

Lately Sam has had to "work" on his trike.  Here are a few shots of the little mechanic at work.  It usually involves a variety of tools, including a garden spade, screwdriver, hammer, wrench, and sometimes Scotch tape.

At the Mechanic

We've had a long bout of Sam being sick again.  Nothing terrible, ear infections, the croup, and what is probably all related to the change in seasons and mild allergies.  After the second round of antibiotics and not eating for a good week, and being out of his routine, Sam's temperament and behavior was verging on terrible.  We finished up the antibiotics and he finally seemed to start to return to his old self.
Yesterday he was starting to return to the temper tantrums and endless tears and started to take inventory of, I swear, every misplaced toy he could think of.
"James??  Mama where James?  Sammy look for James?" with a note of desperation in his voice. After a quick search I located the missing train.
"Dump twuck?  Sammy no see dump twuck?  Is it?  Where?"  Now there were actual tears.  We found dump truck.


I was stumped when we got to Mater.  A little tow truck from the movie Cars, who is one of the uglier characters I have ever seen.  Sam hasn't seen the movie, but from the magical powers of Disney marketing, he knows who Mater is.
"Mater?  Where Mater?  Mama????" still in tears.  He wandered around the house calling for, "Mater..."  He returned to the living room and told me, very seriously, "maybe Mater mechanic."
I jumped on it.
"Yes, Mater is at the mechanic.  I forgot!  I'll call the mechanic now and check on him," figuring we could prolong this one until the truck turned up.
We "talked" to the mechanic, only to discover that Mater was still being worked on.

This morning I found Sam walking in circles on his toy phone.  "Yes, Mater?  Oh, no.  New tires Mater.  Yes."
He reported to me, "Mater not finished yet." Whew.

We were at a local farm today with friends and Sam fell asleep in the car coming home, and then was off his nap schedule.  Chris and I desperately needed him to take a nap to catch up with work we needed to do.  Chris somehow, in negotiating that Sam would at least lie down and rest, told him that if he rested, he would "go and pick Mater up at the mechanic."
This totally backfired as, first off, Sam never slept, only rested, and we spent the whole time he was "resting" turning the house upside down looking for the missing truck, and secondly, resulted in Chris running to Target to buy a replacement $2.99 Mater.

It seems that Mater got a paint job while he was at the mechanic.  This Mater has what looks like airbrushed paint on his sides.  Luckily Sam accepted the fact that Mater had a paint job.  He has also been inspecting the truck very closely.  "Oh, Mater new tires!"  "Mater yellow light?"  I'm waiting to see what happens when the old Mater turns up.

Town Day 2012

After a not very good night of sleep the night before, and an early morning awakening, Sam didn't know quite what to think about Town Day.  This was taken when I put him down to look at the Fire truck, which usually he loves.