Earlier this year, Ethan’s grandpa and uncle teamed up to make play tables for the grandkids. Next, I protected Ethan’s table with non-toxic Clear Coat from The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. And finally, today, the train set arrived. We set it up while he was napping. When he saw it, our often wild monkey was surprisingly quiet, studying the trains and tracks. As he carefully guided the trains, he seemed more like a child playing with a new chess board than the kid in a candy store I was expecting.
There is a product called SureTrack that locks the tracks together. We’d read reviews that said it was a must have for this type of train set. It doesn’t look like Ethan will have a use for it. The SureTrack packaging says it’s for ages 3 and up; after seeing Ethan playing today, it’s hard to imagine a child that age needing it.
After the three of us played together for about a half hour, the toy held his attention for I don’t know how long before it was time for dinner, a walk outside, and sleepy-sleepy-now. For a moment, it looked like pulling himself away would be too great a challenge, but the promise of playing more later changed his mind, making the experience enjoyable from end to end.
Update: When Ethan woke up the next morning, the first words out of his mouth were, “Downstairs. Choo choo train.” He played trains for hour before coming up for breakfast.
