Trucks, Trains, and Motorcycles...

Emmanuel loves any form of transportation.  I mean, quite frankly, he is obsessed with transportation.

1.  Big trucks...dumptrucks, forklifts, cement mixers...you name it!  Since we live in a neighborhood of newly constructed homes, we wake up to the sound of big trucks almost everyday.  And when we walk around our neighborhood, I let Emmanuel take the camera and take pictures of his big trucks.  When he sees the men working on houses or riding in the big trucks, he says, "Bob the Builder...Bob the Builder."  

2.  Trains...I have said before that Nashville should be called the "City of Trains" since there are so many trains that run through the city.  There happens to be a train that runs through our neighborhood...(we'll talk about resale value later)...and our community park is called "The Red Caboose Park" and yes, it even had a red caboose on site.  He has been up close and personal with a lot of trains. 

3.  And his most recent fascination:  motorcycles.  He has a motorcycle toy that he takes almost everywhere (I mean, assuming he has room in the bag with his trains and trucks).

He even got to "play" on my Cousin Waymond's motorcycle...

Check out this face! 

Our latest project has been painting and assembling toy trains.  Most kids that I know have a train set that features Thomas the Train...but I've got some serious issues with Thomas (I know he's so cute and everybody's favorite, but I have some sound reasons for this)...so instead of buying a train set that was already assembled, I thought it would be really cool if Emmanuel made it himself. So, we went to the local craft store and bought some train kits that were on sale, and he started to paint.  

and paint....
We let the pieces dry (this is a shot of the caboose)...

and we put all the pieces together to make a train! 

Emmanuel was so proud of his creation.  He's made 6 so far, and we have one more to go.  It's not nearly as nice as a store-bought train kit...I mean it's not painted perfectly and I have to re-glue the parts when he's too rough with them...but he just beams when he plays with his trains.  

He told his cousins, "I made them myself" and smiled real big.  

I am so thankful that he took ownership of his project and is so proud of what he has accomplished.  It doesn't get much better than that.  

All aboard...