Train Garden time

The snow has kept us in a bit, so I took the bull by horns today and took the boys to a little mall in Towson that has a great train garden. The mall opens at 9 a.m., so we got there right when it opened. We had good views, the boys ran around and all was right with the world.

Then the people started arriving...more and more kids but that meant more and more adults. Then, a busload of Mennonites dropped off a bunch of teenagers. The little kids were fine because they are low to the ground, but the grownups made it tough because I started losing sight of my own children. The train garden is set up with three and a half sides, so you run around it looking through the plexiglass at the toddler height train garden. But, once those tall grownups and teenagers arrived, I had a harder time peering through the plexiglass and chasing both my kids.

So, after we had a cookie (I told you I was being a nice mom), I decided we were going to look at the trains a bit more and then leave. Ben had no problem weaving in and out of people. He pushed his way where only a toddler could go. Eddie behaved as usual and wanted to keep me in eyesight and look at things with me. Finally, I could take it no more. Ben was weaving in front of all the grownups legs and I couldn't reach him anymore. I captured him and the screaming immediately started. Picture it: me pushing a stroller, holding a very heavy screaming toddler and hearing the whining start of my four year old. Picture it: me putting Ben down on the floor where he proceeds to lay face down on the mall floor crying his eyes out because he got taken away from the trains. And to top it all off, picture it: Eddie whining, "Mommy, hold me!"

We bolted through the mall doors. I buckled both crying children in the car and listened to them cry and whine on the way home. Why did I bother doing this again?