Train Table

I spent most of this week helping Parker with his track that we had built on the dining room table...the only place the girls can't get him, the track, and the trains. It seemed like a good solution until I realized he couldn't move the train around the track by himself. So he would move it half way around and then look at me and say, "I need help with the train." So I would move it the rest of the way around and we would start the process all over. It got pretty old after about the 30th time.

I had been thinking about getting a train table for him for a while, but agreed with my sister that the table would limit creativity since building the tracks is so much part of the fun. But after this dining room table situation and after watching Miranda and Elizabeth standing on, sitting on, eating, and taking apart his tracks when they are on the floor, I knew the time had come to get the table.

I posted on my twin groups for used tables, but got no such luck. So I went to Target and got a cheap, plain one. Michael and I set it up last night after the kids when to bed.



When he saw it this morning, Parker was a little stunned that it was right here in our house. Then he started playing with it immediately. He was so happy. Especially when he discovered the storage bins underneath filled with more trains and tracks. (He put a bridge over another bridge quickly.)




Then...the girls woke up. And the fun ended. Sure, they couldn't crawl all over the tracks, but they could go near it which was enough to set Parker off demanding that "Elizabeth GO to Mommy!" After several complete meltdowns, we improvised a solution. And we thought the train table was too big and ugly for the dining room. Ah well... So much for my great ideas.