First Train Ride

Today, my parents and I took Josiah on his first train ride! They live near the town of Elbe, where they run some old trains up to Mineral Lake and back as a tourist attraction. It was the kind of train that makes you sea-sick, rocking back and forth. By the end of the ride, I was thankful for the shocks in my car!

Josiah was pretty bored at first while we were waiting for the train to start moving. Then he heard the whistle! This face you see is his "uncertain about this situaiton" face. I was holding him once when the whistle tooted again and could feel his body tense up. He settled in pretty well once we started moving. Before it started though, I let him walk up and down the aisles to get his wiggles out. He stopped at every young child to look at them and sometimes said, "UH" to get their attention. Everyone thought he was very cute as he toddled up and down the aisle a few times.

During the trip, Josiah did his usual ritual with Grandpa in taking on and off his hat. They also play peek-a-boo with the hat as well. Josiah can say hat, but it sounds more like "AAAATUH" with a very pronounced "T" at the end.

Grandma & Grandpa bought Josiah a little toy train that was tight in his grip nearly the entire journey. He seems to treat toy cars/trains like they are his security blanket these days. I have a tractor that remains in the the car that he holds on to and chews on during every car ride we take. At the end of the car ride, he throws the tractor on the seat when he realizes I am coming to get him out of the car.

The train runs to Mineral Lake as I mentioned earlier, and we had about 15 minutes to wander around the area before re-boarding the train. They had a Blues Band playing live music there near the lake and some old engines and historical paraphernalia around to view. Josiah liked looking at the water pumps (that were displayed running as they would be normally though of course not pumping water) and the steam engine as well as the myriad of rocks all over the ground.

On the way back, it was obvious that Josiah was getting pretty sleepy. Grandma was holding him in such a way that he was able to sleep, but Grandma wasn't in the most comfortable position and decided to stay that way so that he wouldn't wake up. Later she commented, "Man he is sure a ton of bricks when he is asleep!" She took him off the train asleep and I got this sweet picture of them. It was a fun trip, but we had a very tuckered baby on our hands afterward. He woke up when we put him in his car seat and of course didn't fall back asleep on the way home, but I got these excited "AHH" sounds off and on and he played quietly with some toys.