The Pumpkin Train

I may have written before about my son's fascination with trains. Every day when I get home now, he's replaced our daily routine of looking at pictures of fy-twucks on the computer to looking at pictures of "choo-choo twains".

I've tried to take this interest to the next level, by taking him to train yards and stations on the weekends. It always seems to end the same, though. He loves them from a distance, but they terrify him up-close. For several months it's been this way. So when my wife told me about a "pumpkin train" this weekend, I was a bit hesitant to get too excited about it.

We arrived just in time for the last train of the day. We climbed on board. No tears yet. Eventually, almost imperceptibly at first, the train began to move. A look of alarm briefly crossed Mockbaboy's face, then melted into complete joy - "We wydin' duh twain!!!"










The train drove for about 5 miles, then came to a stop at a small but very neat pumpkin patch. The kids all had a blast. There was a hayride, a spacewalk bouncy thing, and some other smaller stuff to keep them occupied. The little guy and I took a little walk to investigate some of the surroundings.

He picked out a pumpkin that weighed about 400-lbs. He ran all over the place. We finally talked him into getting into the spacewalk. That was a particularly big step for him, and he made it all the way inside and almost bounced a couple of times before he screamed for me to rescue him. We found an old barn and some rusty old farm implements - he had a blast rummaging around and investigating them.

Eventually, we all loaded back up on the train and headed back to the station. One of the conductors offered to let Mockbaboy see the engineer. He made almost made it all the way there before collapsing in a fit of panic. Oh, well. We still have a little work to do, apparently. It was a great day. I got some superb pictures. Fall is finally here, and I couldn't be happier.

The Vaseline Incident

It's been quite a week. So when I got home tonight and found that Mockbaboy was taking a late nap, I gladly jumped at the opportunity to crash briefly myself. I woke up about an hour-and-a-half later, not really knowing where I was. I immediately wondered why the little guy hadn't stirred. I got a little bit worried.

I got up and walked down the hall to his room. I cracked the door ever so slightly and peeked in. He was wide awake, watching Curious George. "Hi, Daddy", he said innocently, standing up in his crib. "Hey buddy"...there was a weird smell in the room, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Something didn't look quite right, either.

I turned on the light. My son was sort of glowing. Maybe glimmering would be a more accurate description. And he looked wet all over, his hair matted down. Where did all this water come from???

I went over to him and touched his head. In horror, I drew back my hand, now covered in some sort of...goo. This goo covered him. It covered each and every possible surface of the crib. It covered his sheets. It covered all his stuffed animals. It was one of those kinds of messes that only a child can make. The kind of mess that takes lots of time and dedication. The kind that we'll be cleaning up for a long time.

I called for my wife. We both just stood there, looking down at the little grinning halfling that had wrought this destruction. All we could do was laugh. Well, laugh and take pictures with my cell phone.

He cried when I put him in the tub. He cried even more when Mockbamom tried diligently but unsuccessfully to scrape the Vaseline out of his hair. Eventually we gave up and ate dinner, his hair plastered to his head in a most unnatural fashion.

Thank goodness for the web. We looked up "how to get Vaseline out of hair", and found that this is a favorite of a lot of kids. Corn starch was the apparent antidote. We took turns alternately holding him in place in the kitchen and scrubbing the white powder into his locks. He cried again when I had to put him back in the tub to wash out the corn starch. It was only modestly successful. This is going to take a while, apparently. I think we are going to cancel his scheduled hair cut appointment for tomorrow. Unless, of course, they have some magical secret for getting out Vaseline. Never a dull moment, right?