“Baby play train tracks.”
Almost unfailingly the first words Arthur utters when he wakes up for the day, or as we finish a meal, or when we come in from our adventures in the outside world.
Usually swiftly followed by “Mummy play train tracks” or “Daddy play train tracks”. In fact I think pretty much anyone would do. He almost roped in the plumber today.
It’s seriously cute watching him become so obsessed by something. And he really is obsessed. He was given a brio train set for his first birthday and since then it’s been added to incrementally with new trains and pieces of track so that there is now some seriously good potential for imaginative play.
I’ve surprised myself by how much I’m enjoying joining in. Constructing different worlds so that Arthur’s trains can go over and under and through. It’s like a puzzle putting all the bits of track together. We generally freestyle rather than following any particular pattern, and it’s brilliant fun seeing where the different connections lead.
The freestyling is spilling over into some of his other toys now too. Combining the train tracks with his wooden blocks and duplo (very important for building Tidmouth sheds), as well as his stacking rainbow which makes great tunnels and his new wooden farm set which provides the perfect destination for the milk train.
It’s clear that these little trains reside almost permanently in his mind. He woke up at 4.30am the other day – unusually for him, but what was even more unusual was that he was perfectly content to stay in his room and was just running through his rolling stock, filling his bunny rabbit in on anything he may have missed: ‘the magic train, it goes choo choo! And the steam comes out, on the train tracks.”
He chatted for about half an hour and whilst Leigh and I probably should have been making the most of the time to sleep we actually lay there in the dark wide awake, listening and giggling softly as his little voice came over the monitor.
There’s something pretty awesome about being able to create such an all-encompassing world without even leaving our front room. I cannot wait to see where Arthur’s imagination takes us next.
Sophie is... 
Oh, I love this post! Those photos are gorgeous, and there is something adorable about little ones being totally obsessed with something, especially something as wonderful as trains. We have a lovely, ever-growing, Brio set, too, though Little Man hasn’t reached this level of interest in it…yet! Thanks for sharing with #WotW x
The obsession-level interest has been fairly recent… It definitely makes for some very cute photos! X
What lovely photos and a fab post! It sounds like he has a lot of fun which is wonderful x
Thank you. He definitely enjoys it 🙂
great post, reminds me so much of my little man only with us its Thomas sets and they’re taking over!!
We haven’t even ventured into the Thomas sets yet… He loves the TV show of course but I fear it would blow his mind!
try and stay away from them, they’re endless!
My son saw this post and he says we should ‘like’ it. He is used to instagram and FB =P
I love these! My son loves his trains too and in his head there’s always something happening, a story, a scene. And that is why I love it when he is playing like Arthur here because his imagination is just working and its the most beautiful thing.
#wotw
It’s just amazing to see their little minds working overdrive isn’t it? Glad your son liked this post 🙂 x
You could well have a future little train driver! What an awesome track he has as well my boys would seriously love that (and probably my little girl as well!) #wotw
He does have quite a collection of track now… I think it might just take over the lounge!
Awesome train track! From ex-toy-shop-owner they are the best ever toy (next to wooden ball tracks 🙂 Lot’s of train posts on my blog to! #wotw
It is a pretty awesome toy. I’ll check out your train posts too 🙂