The Quest for GeoTrax

Cole has discovered his Holy Grail of toys, his Red Ryder Model Air Rifle. It is called Geotrax, and he can no longer live without it. I swear, he has thought about that remote control train system every moment since he first laid eyes on it.

His relentless campaign begins each morning as soon as we wake ("Mommy, can we go to the store today and buy Geotrax?"); and continues far after his bedtime ("Mommy said that maybe I'll get Geotrax for Christmas and I can't sleep!") At first, his earnestness was enduring. He has never wanted anything this badly before. But now, it is wearing on me.

The reasons he dreams up to go shopping are far too clever for a four-year old:

• "We should go to Target to get Jay new shoes and, while we're there, we could check if they have Geotrax."
• "I want to use all the pennies in my piggy bank for something new."
• "We don't have to wait for Christmas. We could get them now."
• "Jay wants them too. We should get them for him."

I have to admire his tenacity. He reminds me of the pigeon in Mo Willems books, especially The Pigeon Wants a Puppy: "I WANT A PUPPY! RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW!"

One benefit of this obseesion is that the boys are playing with our Thomas trains everyday (poor Thomas was getting quite dusty and lonely). The tracks are spread across our family room rug, and each new layout is bigger and more complicated than the last. I love the Thomas toys and their old-fashioned looks and ageless sensibilities. I'm not sure I want to replace them with a Fisher-Price, plastic, noisy, battery-eating train set.

After some reseach, however, I have to admit that there are advantages to Geotrax. For one thing, the Thomas tracks link together only one way, which inevitably leads to two open ends facing each other (my best solution so far has been to tape the pieces together--utterly unacceptable to a purist like Cole). Geotrax tracks, on the other hand, join together on either side, so no need for tape. They also seems to lock together tighter. The Thomas tracks break apart quite easily, which can be quite frustrating with a little brother who likes to sit on the tracks.

I even see advantages to the remote controls. Now that the layouts are becoming more elaborate, it's harder for Cole to reach the far tracks. We bought a train table last year for that reason, but he hardly uses it. Despite how much room the table takes up, it isn't big enough for the layouts he wants to create. With the remote control, he wouldn't knock over bridges or break the tracks trying to reach the other side.

***Update to the first draft (because he can't read yet)***

I convinced myself with the previous paragraphs and bought Geotrax Grand Central Station. Now that I have it in my possession, it's burning the proverbial hole in my closet. Can I hold out until Christmas? Waiting will be hard, especially since I know it would occupy him for hours and that means FREE TIME for me. However, I hear Super Nanny's voice in my head saying it would be a good lesson in patience and the futility of expecting instant gratification.

Perhaps we'll give it to him in New York so he can play with it the week we're there for Thanksgiving. Besides, I suspect Pop Pop will want to play with it too.

Why I Love Living in the South

It's mid-November. After four years living here, I still marvel at the weather. I specifically picked plants with fall/winter blooms to fully appreciate the climate. These plants are in the bed along the foundation in the front yard.

My favorite southern plant, the camellia (I also have other types of camellias that haven't bloomed yet):

When I was browsing at the nursery, these Leopard Plants caught my eye (I have two). I didn't expect them to bloom until next year, so this was a nice surprise (aren't they funny bloomers ?).
The impatiens are still in bloom!
And last but not least, our azaleas.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of the boys' favorite holidays. This year it was even more special with a visit from Grandma Carlene, aka Yingy (no, I don't have any idea how Jay came up with that moniker).

The festivities started with my friend Holly's costume party the week before Halloween (for the kids, not the grown-ups). She set up her sons' Geotrax trains in her living room, and Cole spent the entire time there. He skipped playing outside with the other boys, watching a Mickey Mouse video, and dinner. The only time he left his station was when the cake was served. I'm afraid he is going to ask for a set of Geotrax. It's a great system, but I don't want to get into it since we have baskets of Thomas tracks and trains that rarely get used.

On Halloween the kids weren't allowed to wear their costumes to preschool; instead they were asked to dress as their favorite character in a book (who does the administration think they are fooling?). Cole was an astronaut again this year (click here to see last year's pictures) and brought the book Quasers, Pulsars, and Black Holes from the Isaac Asimov Library of the Universe series (remember those, Dawn?). The book is for much older kids and I got a kick out of seeing it next to princess and Spiderman books. Jay was a fireman and wore his hat backwards all day, as he always does with hats (click here and here to see some of his other backward-hat styles).

That afternoon we went to a party at a classmate of Cole's. Apparently John informed his parents that he was having a Halloween party for all his friends. They assumed he would forget the idea, but the next day he invited all the boys in the class and talked about it nonstop. For a last-minute party hosted by a four-year-old, it was a lot of fun and thoroughly exhausted the boys. (This time Cole spent most of the time playing with motorcycles that loaded onto a truck, missing pumpkin painting, dinner, and the pinata.)

Trick or Treating went quickly this year. After five houses, they were done. I was worried about getting them to bed, but both fell asleep rather quickly as mom and I finished a bottle of wine (after that day, we needed a treat too).