My choo choo!

Fair time continued this week.

When I was judging last week, I picked up a flyer for a children's day, which happened to be on Monday morning.

Last week, I didn't exactly know what the kid day would entail, but I figured it'd be fun to take the kiddos.

I made arrangements at work, and then met my Mom and three nieces at the fairgrounds that morning.

First off, is there anything better than a child running to you in public, with a big smile on their face? I know I won't always be cool to them. Maybe one day they'll roll their eyes at me. But for now, I'm going to scoop them up in my arms, kiss and hug them, and spin them around, or put them upside down, whatever they want.

Okay, after hugs and kisses were had, we made our way to the kid activities.

My 2-year-old nieces are probably too young for most of this stuff, but I still think it's fun taking them to events like this.

Their differences are striking. One twin loved a T-Rex toy, and wanted to take it home. Sorry, kid, you can't take a dinosaur home. The other twin was terrified of the toy that her sister loved.

Go figure.

The real star of the morning was a choo choo.

The local electric company has a pretty cool train they take to children's events. I rode on the train with my nieces the first time, and it was pretty fun.

The second time, I made my Mom go with them.

The third time, I think my Mom also went with them, and I handed her the baby, who was busy eating my bracelet.

And then there was a fourth time.

On the fourth train ride, we saw a bird. That tickled my little niece. In my mind, she sees birds all the time, but I guess seeing a bird on a train is extra special.

She squealed "Tweet tweet!" when she saw the bird.

It was a special bird.

After the fourth ride, I got her off of the train. But the man running the train then announced that the next ride would be the last ride.

I looked at my little niece. Fine, I said. One more time.

Two big kids joined us. They were talking about how many times they ran rode the train. The boy rode it twice, the girl three times.

I told them that the little curly-haired 2-year-old beat them both, and rode it five times.

They laughed.

The meltdown after the train ride was funny. She did not want to get off the train. She threw herself to the ground, and the mega meltdown ensued.

My choo choo!

Just let her throw her fit, my Mom told me.

I backed off. Then my little niece got up, looked around, and started running away.

She was running after the choo choo, which was driving off.

She was chasing a train, with her hands in front of her, crying, saying: "My choo choo! My choo choo!"

I wish I could describe how funny this was, but I can't.

:)

I ran after her and picked her up. Sorry, kid, but I'm not going to let you chase a train.

The same kid chased Santa Claus last year.

When the train came back and was being disassembled, we told the choo choo bye bye and waved at it. We told the kids that the train was tired and needed to take a nap.

The choo choo was a hit. I took a photo of the train on our way out, and I printed off a couple of copies of it and gave it to my little curly-haired niece.

It's her choo choo.