{What They Say}

As a mom of three kids who definitely entertain me with the things they say on a regular basis, I had lots of ideas for this Joy Of Love assignment: Simply capture something that a loved one says that melts your heart, shows the love between you, or makes you smile. Boy, do I have a list of doozies that my kids have said over the years! I love hearing the funny things that come out of their mouths that show their innocent creativity.

But I decided to focus on the little man today. He doesn't have a large vocabulary for an almost two-year-old, but he is picking up more and more words all the time. (Hopefully he'll start calling me "Mommy" instead of "Nana" soon!) One of his favorite things to say is "Choo Choo!" This boy loves, I mean seriously LOVES, trains. Cory and I - I mean Santa - got him a train table for Christmas and he has begun to collect motorized trains as well. Anything that has anything to do with a train is gold in his eyes. And lucky for him, there are very busy train tracks practically in our backyard. Trains choo choo past our house all. the. time. While the adults in the house find them a bit of a nuisance (especially Cory), Dixon is heaven. Every time he hears that first "choo choo" sound, he runs to the nearest door or window and choo choos back to the train. The joy in his face is priceless as he watches the train pass by. There isn't much that makes this kid happier than his choo choos!

So here is my boy looking for a train and saying "choo choo" this morning. Poor kid. I had to lie to him and tell him there was a train ouside to get this picture in the beautiful morning sunlight . . . but there was no train and even if there was one it would be on the other side of the house. He choo choo'd in anticipation anyway. What a good boy. Does that make me a bad mom? Perhaps I need to go by him another new train to make up for my fib.

Choo Choo, Dixon!