Kathie hosted her investment club at the lake this past weekend, so I decided to "escape" to Minneapolis for some time with my grandson and his parents. Anders' 5th birthday is coming up, and because I thought it would be fun to play with him with his gift, I decided to give it to him early. You won't be surprised to learn that it is an electric train set.
I don't know if he was quite as excited as this picture suggests, but I asked him to hold up his birthday card for a picture, and this was the big smile I got in return.
The wrapping paper soon was gone, and with a little guidance from his dad and mom, he was even able to cut the packaging tape on the box.
Inside, he found this Santa Fe steam engine set, complete with an oval track, transformer, caboose, and two freight cars.
Anders wasted no time in learning how to put things together, fasten the wires to the transformer, and get the cars on the rails. He studies things and pays attention to the details we provided. He was not permitted to do any plugging or unplugging of the transformer, but otherwise, he could do everything. One disappointment was that the engine didn't operate quite properly, so we took that in for a repair.
We found an inexpensive diesel engine that would tide him over until the steam engine is back. Not surprisingly, Anders tends to like "wide open" as his favorite speed. Most of the time, the cars stayed on the track.
We found that his Legos were perfect for making tunnels, rail yard stations, control towers, bridges, and cargo. We even made a paper river to pass under the track and made up some communications between the yard master and the engineer so that we could schedule trips between cities and delivery of freight.
I got a big "thank you" from him before I left to return to the lake.
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