Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

A couple of weeks back, I took Noey on a playdate with a couple of other bubs from his Mandarin Playclub class. The other mums suggested Royce at Liang Court. I hesitated a bit because it was a bit of an expensive option -- you have to pay a $50 membership fee and then $12 an hour for playtime -- but I thought the variety of toys available there might be worth it, so I agreed, and that's where we went.

So there we are, in essentially what is toy haven, and what does my dear son do? He flirts a bit with the high slides and the skips from ride-on toy to ride-on toy for a bit, and then gets drawn to the train table and DOES NOT BUDGE for a good 45 mins. I tried to encourage him to roam around, more so that I can chat with the other mummies, but he was happy to stand in the same spot, just rolling the trains up and down the slope.

Must. Roll. The. Train. Up.

Up and down and up and down and up some more.

If you've ever seen Noey rolling his cars on the bed or sofa at home, you will understand the single-mindedness he displays when he goes about his task. I can never understand what he finds so interesting about rolling his cars back and forth, though DD assures me that he did plenty of the same when he was a child too. It falls in the category of "boy stuff that I don't understand".

After I had to practically had to tear him away from the train table when we had to leave, I had a better idea to give me better return for my money. On our next trip to Ikea, I made sure to grab one of their wooden train & track sets.

It's been the best $25 spent ever.

More slopes for me to conquer, just me and my train!

Roll, roll, roll your train, gently down the slope...

It's also inspired me to the theme of his next birthday party: TRANSPORT. (I could go with trains, but I decided not to limit myself.) The best part about this theme is that we have lots of ready props at hand at home. There's only going to be a small party this year at home, nothing the scale of his 1st birthday. Partly because I realised to my dismay that a good friend was having his wedding on the exact same day and the timing clashed with my intended party time. But mostly because this pregnancy has taken quite a lot out of me and I couldn't find the energy in the past few weeks to pull together anything more than a simple affair.

Still, I hope he enjoys it. That's what matter, isn't it? And with his favourite cars, planes and trains around, I'm pretty sure he would. And if not, well, there's always next year!