"homas choo choo" and "happy mudah day"

saturday was the big day.
i have been waiting for this day since i first heard thomas and friends was coming to our area many months ago. i just couldnt tell bennett about it yet, well, bc you can imagine how these last few months would have been for us. :)

i told him on thursday we were going in two days, and he spend all day thursday and friday asking "homas choo choo now? go see homas now momma? go see homas in just a minute?"

stephen was on call, per usual these days, so bennett and i woke up bright and early saturday morning to make the treck to silverhill, AL.  it was one of the most pleasant rides ive ever had with my chatty two year old - he was in a wonderful mood and quite giddy.  our first stop on "bennetts special day" {aka mommas special day bc i really dont believe bennett is old enough to come up with this one:} was mcdonalds for an egg mcmuffin.  he has only eaten at mcdonalds breakfast one other time, and it was for a yogurt parfait.  but i was NOT going to trust a giddy two year old with a yogurt parfait in the back of my car.
so it was an egg mcmuffin instead
and he only dropped the egg and ham once.

upon arrival bennett was, as you could imagine, thrilled beyond belief to see a real live thomas. he spent almost the entire morning laughing and smiling which warmed my heart {even though these pictures may suggest otherwise - he does NOT smile for the camera}.

he even voluntarily ran up to, turned around, and posed in front of the banners with some of the trains for a picture. {celebrities for toddlers}


while we were waiting to ride thomas, we played around in the train table room.
have i mentioned bennetts obsession with train tables?
i guess it goes hand in hand with his obsession of trains.
let me tell you a quick long drawn out story that happened a few weeks ago - it was definitely blog-worthy, i have just been a lazy blogger.

we ran into books-a-million to get mommy a book for her plane ride and bennett a book bc he is a "good boy".  bc i will gladly buy my child[ren] books any time.  after picking out a good mommy book, we went over to the childrens section.
where there is a train table!
perfect! yay! something to keep the child entertained while mommy finds him a wonderful book! brilliant! {~thinks naive first-time mom}
until its time to leave and said child wants nothing to do with leaving.  and doesnt respond to any type of discipline, firm word, coaxing, bribe {dont judge...desperate times call for desperate measures} or threat.  momma gets within "pick up" range and wails ensue.
so what choice do i have but to pick up child anyway and carry him out of the store.
except that when i pick him up he straightens his legs out and wont let me carry him.
which only means one thing to this potty-training momma.
there is something in those pants that the naughty preoccupied child doesnt want touching him.
joy
in an instant i became "that mom" who cant control her frantically screaming, blubbering, smelly child making an ENORMOUS ruckus in the quiet, relaxing bookstore.  i did the only think i knew to do, and that was to pretend like i didnt have a frantically screaming, blubbering, smelly child "draped" across my arms not unlike a stiff board and get the heck out of the store.
and then a scowling old man who was sitting outside the store, but who definitely had witnessed the scene inside and the continued scene as we walked to our car, had the pleasure of witnessing yet another pleasant scene as frantic child gets a rare spanking on a now clean behind after momma changes his dirty self.
and now blubbering two year old has another reason to scream as all he wants is to wear his dirty thomas pants "right now."
and now i have to be honest and say i was thiiiiiiis close to just putting them back on him and making him wear them home.  but i knew my nose wouldnt handle that type of "i told you so."

we were in the car two minutes when bennett stops fussing and says "all better mommy.  all better now.  bennett is happy."
::hmph::
oh i am so thankful these episodes are few and far between.
so
thankful

anyway, HE LOVES TRAIN TABLES
when we walked into the train table room he was "that kid" freaking out and saying every trains name so fast i just gave up trying to understand him.  after some "no bennett he was playing with james" and "we have to take turns and share" and apologetic looks at the other parents, bennett played quite nicely - in that overstimulated train obsessed way.
and then right before we went to ride the actual train a new batch of kids came in and i was smugly pleased to see their behavior completely mirror my own sons initial behavior.
bennett was in a place of shared obsession.
he was in his happy place.

 

when we got on the train he was quite solemn, as he tends to be when he is observing things, which is very often.

though painfully slow, the train ride was quite a hit and thankfully there were plenty of things to distract him after we got off {more momma!! more ride homas train!!!}.

initially i wanted tickets for 10:30am but ended up thanking my lucky stars they only had 9:45 available bc it got HOT at 11.
like really HOT and with another books-a-million tantrum flashback, i drug my terribly unhappy-to-be-leaving two year old back to the car where he quickly calmed down when he saw his faithful thomas and gordon toys waiting on him.

seriously though, overall it was a huge success and i would definitely go back!
bennett gives it two thumbs up! :)

and now some pretty pics with no words {bc i think you have heard enough of me recently... :)} of my handome fella {thomas tatts and all} on mothers day, where he was his wonderfully lovely self and reminded me what a blessing it is to be a momma, frantic smelly tantrums and all