Our Sunday: Flagstaff, Trains, and Autumn Leaves

For the past week or so it's been all about trains in our house. Henry has been loving Thomas the Train and all things train-related, so Hank and I decided to take a little roadtrip up to Flagstaff to watch "Thomas and Friends" go by.

Whether you're a parent or not, I'm sure you can relate to having an expectation about how you want something to go, especially with little ones. In this case, I had this wonderful vision in my mind of sitting at the train station with Hank and Henry, sipping on a hot drink, and enjoying the rush and sounds of the trains going by. So much of that depended on so much; the weather, Henry's mood, and most of all, if and when trains were running. But I am so happy (and feeling so lucky) to miraculously report that my hopes for the day totally matched up to its reality. It was really a perfect afternoon, and Henry had the best time. We were able to sit outside the station for awhile and watch freight trains go by every 15 minutes or so. One of my most favorite parenting moments ever has to be watching Henry's face light up as he yelled "THOMASSSSSS!" as loud as he could when he first spotted it coming down the tracks. Honestly, it doesn't get much better than that.

The rest of the day was filled with collecting leaves and rocks in the various spots we stopped to hang out, eating our favorite vegan treats and my favorite breakfast sandwich from Macy's, perusing a couple shops, and really just soaking up the beautiful weather. It was a wonderful Sunday full of family and fun, and we're already counting down to the Polar Express train ride in December.

Here are some photos from our day:

Little Moments I Never Want to Forget

photo by Emily Snitzer - more of these to come next week

Everyday there are these moments that I never want to forget. Little snippets in time where my hurts aches so badly in the best way for how full it is, for how good it all is in the here and now. It's hard though to remember it all with time moving so fast, so I almost always try and jot down those memories on little pieces of paper, or in the memo section of my phone before I forget the details. And today I thought I would compile some of my favorite recent moments here too, so you could enjoy a little bit of Henry's sunshine!

The other morning I asked Henry if he could pick out a shirt to wear for the day and looked me square in the eye and said, "Okay, babe."

Henry eating Goldfish, holding up one to me and saying, "Cheers, mama," reaching his little orange snack towards me so we could clink them together.

The other night before bed we read A Pocket for Corduroy for the first time. As we got to the part where Julie leaves Corduroy there, Hank and I notice a tear sliding down Henry's cheek...and then a moment later he's softly crying. He was mesmerized throughout the entire story, and to know he really got what was going on, and felt Corduroy's sadness at being left alone, broke my heart. It was amazing to see him feel like that, and even though I was so sad that he was sad, it made me feel happy we're raising a thinking, feeling boy. I hope he always, always knows it's okay to be sad, to cry, and to show his emotions.

A couple of weeks ago we were at my parents' house eating dinner when out of the blue Henry looks around the table at all of us and says "I'm happy," with a big smile on his face. I'd never heard him use that word before when speaking for himself, so it was an amazing surprise.

Henry will often say "come on, Mama!" when he wants to get going or play. It might not be that funny without hearing it, but nothing makes me laugh more than trying to get ready and to have this little guy saying "come onnnnnn!" with that little look on his face. I like to imagine him tapping his foot impatiently too.

Just last night while we were putting Henry down to sleep, he said "group hug, guys!" and enveloped Hank and me into the biggest hug.  I died a couple times from cuteness, right then and there.

xoxo