One thing people always tell you about is how quickly time flies when you have a kid. The first year of being a parent I didn't believe this fact was true, as it seemed like many years rolled into one. But then this year I finally understood what people were taking about as Finn quickly moves past the two year mark and the trips to the park or the daycare started to blur together. Actual events to make a single day or moment stand out often act as hands on a stopwatch as they inform me how quickly time is moving on.
From the moment we started taking Finn to the local country park in his stroller for walks as a baby I had my eye on riding the train at the park. This train went around the whole place, and was often running while we were there. But I wanted him to be old enough to sit and enjoy it, and I wanted to take a grandparent along who would also enjoy the ride. Recently when Finn and I were eating at the Hat Creek in Round Rock as we waiting for the emergency vet to check over Luna a real train kept running by the place and he kept getting excited as they went by. He would rock in his chair yelling "choo choo" again and again, and at that point I knew his love of trains was probably at its maximum. It was now or never for the train at the park.
The next week as Luna recovered I began to make my plan, and at the start of the Easter weekend I worked it out with Rene for us to take him riding on the train. We got to that part of the park later than I wanted and missed the train I intended to catch. But Finn had fun playing around the wooden wild west play area they had, and overall he knew how to enjoy himself outside at a park. Eventually enough time passed that it was time to get ready for the next ride as we bought the tickets ($9 total!) and loaded Finn up.
I was nervous he was going to flip out finally being on a train, but instead he acting like he was always meant to be there. He sat next to me and looked out on the surrounding park as I narrated for Rene. As we went around the hills and through the tunnel it felt like the capstone of over a year of me taking him to this park by myself to let him play. We had finally done it all. We had ridden the train.
When the ride was done we got off and went home after a detour to get some ice cream. The memory secured I began to focus instead on nursing Luna back to health and making sure Finn (who went to the emergency room less than a week before the ride) wasn't exposed more than he needed to be. We would likely ride again I thought, and I also began to think of the more run things we could do when he got a little older at places different than the park. But I didn't want to abandon the moment too quickly, as recent events made me appreciate the little things I had in my life. I remember the first time I got excited about the train, and the first time that park became a place we hung out instead of a disc golf course.
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