Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga TOOT TOOT!

As part of his speech therapy, James speech therapist suggested that we get him a wooden train track to play with.  Playing with trains encourages the use of lots of consonant noises such as chugga, whoo, toot, stop, go, etc.  It has been a huge success for us!  Not only has it encouraged James to practice his speech sounds, it has been a very valuable piece of entertainment.  James is officially a huge fan of trains, especially Thomas.  He sleeps with his trains, eats with his trains, bathes with his trains, plays with his trains, watches Thomas and Friends every day and so much more. He is officially a train fanatic. 

For family day this past week we decided to go to EnterTRAINment in West Chester, OH.   EnterTRAINment is a large train museum with a train play-place.  It is full of tables with play train tracks, a full size train that the kids could "operate", a large train playground, a train ride and lots more. 

Here are some of our favorite exhibits...

The museum walked you through an old fashioned train tunnel and let you watch a HUGE motorized model train village.  The kids could even press buttons to control the trains, make noises, control trolleys, etc. James was in Heaven.

James enjoyed controlling the trolley in the model.

James was a fan of the clock tower at the Thomas and Friends train table.  He really liked that the trains would race down the hill so quickly.

Daddy was in charge of the map and directions.

Nicholas and Mommy walked around to encourage Nicholas' napping.

James is getting so big.  He wanted to play in the train house all by himself.

James and Daddy shoveled "coal" into the engine so the train could run.  It was a very important job!

James was the train engineer for the moving train.  He rode the train FIVE times!

We had to play on the giant playground for big kids.  Of course James was a little too scared to play on the big playground by himself, but Mommy was a good sport and climbed through the playground with him.

James got an engineer's cap to make his train play much more official.  Of course, if you have an engineer cap it is essential that you operate the train and its bell.

Nicholas spent the whole trip sleeping with Larry.  We couldn't have asked for a happier baby!

James found the model DC Metro train to be really entertaining.  He's really going to love riding the real thing soon!