Ollie ♥ Choo Choo
There's a train track not too far beyond our back fence, and several times a day we hear (and feel) the mighty railroad cars rumbling by. Now that the new overpass at Covell is in place, the engineer doesn't feel the need to blow the "choo choo" right by our house, but we still hear it up north (at Coffee Creek) and down south (at Danforth).
Oliver is a veritable human choo-choo detector. Susie and I will be going about our business, and all of a sudden we'll hear Oliver say, "cha cha." We'll stop and listen, and sure enough we'll hear the approaching train in the distance. Still, until yesterday I wasn't sure Oliver really knew what a train looks like. He just associates it with the "choo choo" sound and the rumbling noise.
Well, now he knows. It just so happens that Anne Marie's gravesite is also a terrific spot to watch the train go by, so late yesterday afternoon I took Oliver to pay Mammie a visit, hoping that a train might come by while we were there. Sure enough, around 5:00 I could hear the mighty steel beast approaching from the north. We hustled over to get a bit closer and grabbed a front-row seat on the ground right next to some large trees. Ollie sat on my lap. As the train got closer and closer it got louder and louder, but we couldn't see it at all because the trees completely obscured our vision. I think Ollie was really surprised when it suddenly ... burst into sight! I mean, that sucker was big and loud and majestic and close. He sat safe in my arms while the first several cars went by, and then I let him stand up and make the official proclamation: "cha cha."
UPDATE, eight days later: Mary Margaret was lying on the couch this afternoon, slowly waking up from a nap. Oliver was behind the couch, playing with his cars on the wood floor. He couldn't see his tired sister, but he heard her tell her mother, "I feel like I got run over by a train." Which prompted him to say: "Cha cha."
Oliver is a veritable human choo-choo detector. Susie and I will be going about our business, and all of a sudden we'll hear Oliver say, "cha cha." We'll stop and listen, and sure enough we'll hear the approaching train in the distance. Still, until yesterday I wasn't sure Oliver really knew what a train looks like. He just associates it with the "choo choo" sound and the rumbling noise.
Well, now he knows. It just so happens that Anne Marie's gravesite is also a terrific spot to watch the train go by, so late yesterday afternoon I took Oliver to pay Mammie a visit, hoping that a train might come by while we were there. Sure enough, around 5:00 I could hear the mighty steel beast approaching from the north. We hustled over to get a bit closer and grabbed a front-row seat on the ground right next to some large trees. Ollie sat on my lap. As the train got closer and closer it got louder and louder, but we couldn't see it at all because the trees completely obscured our vision. I think Ollie was really surprised when it suddenly ... burst into sight! I mean, that sucker was big and loud and majestic and close. He sat safe in my arms while the first several cars went by, and then I let him stand up and make the official proclamation: "cha cha."
UPDATE, eight days later: Mary Margaret was lying on the couch this afternoon, slowly waking up from a nap. Oliver was behind the couch, playing with his cars on the wood floor. He couldn't see his tired sister, but he heard her tell her mother, "I feel like I got run over by a train." Which prompted him to say: "Cha cha."
