All aboard!

Grandma Martha is quite the professional yard sale master, and she hit the jackpot this weekend with a Brio train set for Joshua. When we got back from my 36 week prenatal appointment this morning (good measurements and heartbeat, and I'm Group B Strep negative this time--woo hoo! No IV antibiotics this go-round!), Joshua and I put together the set in the dining room...rather, I put together the set despite Joshua's best efforts to "help," which usually consisted of him sitting on whatever I'd already put together and accidentally destroying it :)

Can you tell he's a little excited?

The swing bridge

My best efforts at using as many pieces as I could,
while still being able to make one complete route
(How cool is that train station?! When the train goes
through the station, it triggers these really neat train
sound effects that Joshua loves)


Even though the train is battery-operated and runs
all by itself, Joshua wanted a little more control

So we turned off the power and let him run the show :)

The engine was getting all the love

Who needs a boxcar or caboose with rider?

Over the swing bridge and through the mountain tunnel

Eventually he realized that the train and the tracks

didn't have to be a group package, so he took off

with the engine and carried it all around the house

The carnage left behind :)

**A few funny things from this weekend**

***

~Joshua is currently obsessed with prayers...out of nowhere,

he'll walk up to me, fold his arms and ask for me to pray...

so I just say a short prayer about whatever comes to mind,

and once I finish and we say "Amen," he's happy to go back

to whatever he was doing :)

***

~As we were working on converting our guest room into

the baby's nursery, Joshua decided he loved playing inside

her closet in the dark...after a minute, David and I realized

he was in there saying, "Prayer...amen" over and over.

I guess he's taking the Scripture about not praying out in

public but retiring to your closet to pray in secret very literally!

***

~The first few months Joshua was in church nursery, he did

great...he never got upset when we left and went to our classes.

Well, the last few months have been a different story.

Since David teaches the 11-year-olds in Primary during that time,

and I'll have a new little one very soon to take care of, I'm really

trying to get him to stay in there the whole time by himself.

So I snuck out after a few minutes and went to Sunday School

with no trouble. A few minutes into Relief Society, I hear

the back door open and after a second or two of silence,

I hear a voice I recognize right away cry, "Mommy!" His nursery

teacher said he got sad a few times earlier and asked for me,

but they were able to distract him and he was fine. Well, for some

reason, when they got snack out and another mommy came

to check on her little guy, Joshua lost it...and they couldn't get

him settled down...sobbing, runny nose, begging for Mommy...

the whole deal. When I came out into the hallway, he practically

jumped from his teacher's arms into mine and did the death-grip

hug and wouldn't let go for quite a while. We've only got a few

more weeks before this is going to be a lot more difficult...yikes!