After the banging

After Friday’s brief foray into the world of demolition, we here at the House of Eggerts are on the mend. Luckily the only repercussion, aside from the complete loss of the door to our office, seems to be Noah occasionally referencing his Mama’s “banging, banging, banging.” We’ve been over the story a hundred times already. “Why was Mama banging?” “Noah.” “Where was Noah?” “Office.” “Noah was locked in the office. Could he get out?” “No.” “So Mama broke the door to get him out of the office?” “Yes.” “Was it scary?” “Yes.” “Mama was scared too. But Noah is okay now?” “Yes.” He no longer seems distressed about the incident, but it certainly seems like a notable occurence. Thankfully I'm pretty resilient too.

Post office break-in, Noah had a long cuddle, a long nap and then we headed to the National Model Train Show at the Convention Center. My neighborhood friend Holly and her son Tripp were good enough to join us. Holly is due with her second child any minute, so she drove us rather than taking the El. Though Noah is still a bit cautious of the overly gregarious Tripp, the two now seem to be forming a good bond. Meanwhile Noah is downright infatuated with Holly. I can hardly blame him. I think she might be the most bubbly overly positive person I have met in my entire life. I don’t think she has complained once about her pregnancy despite being pregnant while chasing a rambunctious toddler – not even one little comment about being tired. When it comes down to the nitty gritty of common interests, Holly and I aren’t really a match – but she’s just so sweet and refreshing that I look forward to spending time with her. Anyway- TRAINS. Hundreds of tiny trains on tiny tracks, surrounded by tiny buildings. Noah was AMAZED. And they also had a play area with nine different wooden train tables set up on which the kids could play. He loved it.

To me, the most stunning thing at the train show was the LUG displays. What is a LUG you ask? It’s a LEGO Users Group. Yes- organizations of Lego devotees who design and build large scale LEGO worlds. At the show they had these enormous LEGO city and country scapes with LEGO trains running through them. The time, the money, the energy these people put into their hobby is just dumbfounding to me. And the patience! WHO is that patient? HOW?

On Saturday Noah, Mark and I went to the Northern Liberties Music Festival. We put down a blanket and some toys, bought some Yards beer and hung out for four hours watching the bands and the people. I was pleasantly surprised how long Noah could just sit and hang out with us. He really enjoyed listening to the music and watching the people perform. It was a really lovely afternoon.

Sunday we headed out to Qtown for a picnic at my Mom’s place. We were introduced to some family members of my Mom’s new beau. So far everyone seems very nice. Of course no one invites cousin Hitler to the first barbecue. My Mom has also been doing quite a bit of home improvement – painting, tile, and hardscaping, so it was cool to see the progress. Over the years that place has become unrecognizable as the place I lived in when I was going to high school. Have I ever mentioned to you that my former bedroom is now my Mom’s closet? It still kills me.

After the picnic we sent Mark home on the regional rail and Noah and I spent the night so we could spend Monday with my Mom. We drove out to New Hope where we rode an old steam engine, had lunch at Wildflowers, and did a bit of window shopping before heading back home. Of course Noah dug the train. Are you sensing this trend yet? Chugga chugga choo choo! I’m figuring that by my feeding his interest in trains he’ll either tire of them quickly or he’ll become some sort of a nut. What do you think is the likely outcome? Am I overdoing it?