Choo choo!

One of the advantages of living in a big city is that there is plenty to do. And happily there are some free activities too. One of the little gems we were told about it a place called the Whittle. It's in a small industrial pocket of the St. Louis metropolitan area and there is no way we would have ever know about it if somebody hadn't told us. It's tucked away between an off street and some railroad tracks, which is totally appropriate as they sell wooden train sets. But the best thing about this place is that they have train tables set up all over the shop with no shortage of tracks, trains, trucks, buses and everything else you would want to play with while making choo choo sounds.

Jeff is still on paternity leave, which has been such a huge blessing to our family, so we decided take Benjamin on a little outing to get him out of the house and to give him something special to do. He was a great little railroad conductor, sharing the track with all of the other kids and using nice manners. But my favorite thing about watching him play at The Whittle is seeing how seriously he gets about his play. Don't you just love it when kids get totally engrossed in something and they act like they have a big, important job to do? So funny.

Very serious about this train business.

 Setting up.

 Hoarding.

 Sharing with daddy.

 Ben is totally into buses right now. Every time we see one in the car he says,
"Oh, look at the big bus! I touch the bus?"