choo choo heaven

on sunday afternoon, colin, will and i made a trip to the chicago botanic gardens with a very specific exhibition in mind: the model train garden.  despite a steep entrance fee, it was everything we could have hoped for.  our little train aficionado was enthralled for a full hour.  steam engines and amtraks and coal cars and circus trains and dairy trains and old fashioned passenger trains circle in and out of tunnels and around ponds, climb mountains and cross bridges high and low.  the exhibition is set up so as you walk through it, you move from seattle to san francisco, and so on all the way across the country, through big cities and national parks, to cape cod and boston.  the final stop is a train station in glencoe, illinois, home of the botanic gardens.  without further ado, here are some of our photos from choo choo heaven. 

awe.

trains down low.

"moh choo choo!"

and trains up high.

"todas!  perdus!"

"i know it's sad, but now we need to say byebye to the choo choos, will."

seen and heard

seen:

toddler running down the hallway with gymbo the clown in one hand, a diaper in the other.

gymbo the clown in a diaper.

toddler rummaging through the garbage can and retrieving a piece of discarded food.  eating discarded food.

eight car magnets strategically stuffed beneath a drawer next to the fridge.

toddler and three-year-old neighbor in violent tug of war over a giant red ball, each hugging one side of the ball while crying and yelling at the top of their lungs.

potty insert worn as a hat.

toddler spinning and spinning and spinning, and then falling over.  repeat.

toddler sneaking out of gate at park and running down street while laughing like a maniac.  repeat.


and heard:

yook, man!
look, man!  also, look at that man.

bawack o-mama!
barack obama

todas and perdis
thomas and percy

i did it!  you did it!
self-explanatory

ah jou.
i love you.

mano geegee peese!
mango squeezie please!

gak ooh.
thank you.

gaj doah! uh uh uh!
garage door! up up up!

and finally,

bo, yoh dwa-manic. 
will, you're dramatic.

elk

the four of us (that includes bean, of course) spent last weekend at uncle keith and aunt lisa's charming lake house in elk rapids, michigan.  it was magical.

miraculously, all of aunt lisa's antiques survived.

i can often be overheard calling will "the bug."  

i think he looks just like my little bug in this photo. 

being a bug is a good thing, by the way.

will was very passionate about this car.  

he endured great emotional pain when other children attempted to ride it in his presence.   

and i just love this photo.  

the public beach was an ideal place for will to begin to feel comfortable "swimming" in bodies of water larger than his bathtub.  just where a small river meets lake michigan, several sand bars form around very shallow pools of water.  it's perfect for little legs and timid hearts.

here, will courageously nagivates the waters.

we got home monday evening, and tuesday morning i was ready to go back.

endless thanks to aunt lisa and uncle keith for sharing their home with us and 

making these beautiful memories possible.