The wooden trains have been buried in their storage tub since that sick day when he built an un-Christmas train last year. I made a good-faith effort to pull out the train and placed the tracks under the real Christmas tree this year; but the train was not embraced. In fact, it was simply ignored. I even slid the already-decorated Christmas tree right across the floor to allow more “building” room for the track. (Not one ornament was lost in the move.) Space, apparently, was not the problem. He had a change of heart. Just like little Jackie Paper, one day he just found other things to occupy his time, besides trains.
When we opened the book to Puff, and sang the song about the little boy who left his childhood friend behind, I never thought we were reading a story about us.
So I asked him, “You’re really done with this train, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered, without looking up from his latest Bionicle creation.
“Well, then, maybe we should pack it up , and find some other little boy who’d like to play with this train.”
“No, Mom,” he said. “Let me tell you how it’s gonna be. When I’m all grown up, and I’m a Grandpa, you’re going to keep the train around, built all around your house so that you can remember me.”
So sweet…. pack it up and save it for those grandbabies