Interurban Railway Museum

This morning Adam and I had a little outing to historical downtown Plano to see the Interurban Railway Museum.

We didn't spend much time inside, as interesting as it was . . . we were the only ones there at the time and therefore had the office manager (or whatever she was) tailing us around the tiny place. I think she was trying to be helpful, but the hovering made me nervous. She wanted to talk about trains . . . Adam wanted to touch everything (which he couldn't hurt, believe me - they are all very heavy plastic displays with pictures and words on them, built to survive the excitement of children).

She showed us the model train set, which Adam thought was really cool. I'm starting to think he'd really like some kind of train set for Christmas, although his love of trains is about on par with "Trains are cool . . . Choo! Choo!" -- and not so much "WOW, a TRAIN! a TRAIN!"

Because the concept of "quiet" and "still" to Adam is having one leg moving and a little bit of noise at all times, he started gently kicking the wooden side of the model train display (not hard, not loud), but I told him to be "easy" and tried gently to get him to stand on both feet and not kick. He insisted, although not in an obnoxious way, and I insisted, but not in an urgent way. And seriously, we were the only people in there, who were we really bothering?

After the third time of telling him, "easy, easy, don't kick the wall," and putting my hand on his foot, she decided to chime in and say, "No no!" (Thanks Lady, that really helps). If she wanted me to force him she could have seen what kind of noise he can really make - he is not bad, he's just very independent. When he gets an idea in his head, he has to try it out. And if you tell him "no," he wants to do it even more... which is why I've started avoiding the word "no," and telling him specifically what I want him to do. So far, it's working.

That's right, Adam, kick it harder. That'll teach her to chime in.

After she tried to participate in the discipline of my toddler who was actually being pretty calm and well behaved (AND ESPECIALLY QUIET) as he grinned and pointed at the model trains, I picked him up and we wandered around a little more (with her still on our tail), and we came back to the model train set. After a while she said, "Well, we really don't have anything else that would interest him at his age." If that isn't an invitation to leave, I'm not sure what is... She invited us to the story telling time that they have tomorrow, which was really nice. I truly don't think she was trying to be rude, but I was feeling quite like we annoyed her a little.

So we went outside (which was much more fun anyway), and Adam ran around a little.

Then he discovered the gazebo (the park is actually really beautiful), and perfected his understanding of "UP!" and "DOWN!"

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!

 Then he saw the park, and although he was pretty tired by that point, he couldn't pass up just checking it out.

Evaluating the slide.

 

By this point he was exhausted, so I pulled him away (he only mildly resisted) and we went back to the car. As we walked back by the train museum I saw a mother with her two sons (clearly older than Adam, probably about 3 to 4), and they were getting a tour of the big red train outside. I couldn't help but think, "seriously, you didn't think he'd like to see that?"

I don't mean to complain, of course. The Interurban Railway Museum is really cool - they have lots of things to see, it's free, and they have story time on Friday mornings for preschoolers. We'll go back again someday.