Our weekend: A Day out with Thomas

This past weekend marked our third trip out to St.Thomas, Ontario, 20 minutes west of London, Ontario, to take a ride on Thomas the Tank engine with our kids.

The first trip was for Linus alone – he loved trains, especially Thomas.  2 years later is was Linus and Stewie and this year the 3 children with Berry being the most excited for the trip.  She was inconsolable her first ride on the subway and was practically in tears when the train pulled into the station, but she kept reassuring us on the train before the trip “I’m not going to cry”, that she would be okay.  Once the music started and the train started creeping slowly along the tracks for its 30 minute ride she proudly proclaimed “I’m not crying!”.  Once we got back in the station she summarized her trip by stating “I didn’t cry”.

Viola.

For those of you wondering about a Day out with Thomas, it is located in the Elgin County Railway Museum which is a registered non-profit charity with the function of preserving and restoring railway heritage for St. Thomas and  surrounding area.   The Elgin County Railway Museum is also known as the Railway Capital of Canada because a total of 26 railways have passed through town.  This is due to the location which is the 1913 former Michigan Central Railroad Locomotive Shops juxtaposed to the Canada Southern Railway.

You purchase your tickets online and you choose the time you would like to ride the train.  But be careful, if you miss your ride, they all book up quickly so you may not be able to hop on the next one, and because you have to book for a specific time, moving that time or date could be nearly impossible – this year we missed an opportunity to sleep at the Roger’s Centre after a Blue Jays game and a bris…

There are so many wonderful things to see for the train-lover of all ages, including locomotives, cabooses and other rolling stock. Additionally there are videos and historic photographs, railway artifacts, children’s activities, guided tours, music, food and more!

For the kids, in addition to the ride, they also receive an Official Jr. Engineer Certificate signed by Sir Topham Hatt – whom we met and had pictures taken with. 

Here is the Jr. Engineer Certificate Day Out With Thomas event.

After riding Thomas, taking a lot of pictures, doing some crafts indoors and then heading into town to grab a bite, we went to see Jumbo – the elephant hit by a train in 1885. 

A replica Jumbo was erected in 1985 to mark the 100th anniversary.  It was built in New Brunswick. 

Considering Berry’s favourite animal the past month has been the elephant, this was a great albeit short stop on a hot, humid weekend.

We like St. Thomas and London and enjoy hanging around for the weekend.  My wife and I have always felt that if the main strip in St. Thomas was cleaned up a little bit and had some more artsy stores it would be a wonderful tourist attraction because of its old town feel.  Some local crafts, local foods, cafe’s, etc. would be a huge draw.  Right now there are a lot of empty stores and some run down buildings.  Sad.

The city, located at the intersection of two historical roads, was first settled in 1810. It was named the seat of the new Elgin County in 1844 and was incorporated as a village in 1852, as a town in 1861.  In 1881 St. Thomas finally grew to become a city.  Ten years after the incorporation as a town ( in 1871 ), the developing village of Millersburg, which included these lands east of the London and Port Stanley Railway, amalgamated with St. Thomas.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century several railways were constructed through the city, and St. Thomas became an important railway junction. A total of 26 railways have passed through the city since the first railway was completed in 1856. In the 1950s and 1960s, with the decline of the railway as a mode of transportation, other industry began to locate in the city, principally primary and secondary automotive manufacturing.  There is a huge Ford plant in St. Thomas.

So check out the official Day out with Thomas website for events near you;

http://events.hitentertainment.com/us/day-out-with-thomas/index.asp

 

How do I know this is love? A Daddy’s view on the Relationship of his 3 Children (under 6 yrs old).

My kids love each other!

Well, let me clarify this a little. My boys love their baby sister, and my boys love each other but the boys don’t like each other.

When my boys are together, they play so well together but every now and then my older one grows devil’s horns and provokes his little brother who them beats the shit out of him. But fear not, since both boys are in karate there is some self-defense in there and now that the older one has some courage, he hits back and they both come crying to us with their wounds.

When my younger son used to draw family pictures we would ask him who was in the picture;

“Me, mummy, daddy, baby, nanny, cat”.
“What about Linus?”
“I don’t like him so I didn’t draw him”.

So when my youngest son gets upset, he yells at my oldest boy, “I’m NOT going to draw you in my pictures!!!” Oh, yes he does!

But I am finding more and more that my oldest boy and baby girl have developed a special bond. Not that I’m surprised. When we had Stewie – at home – Linus, who had slept through the birth in his room, came into our room in the morning to see if we had the baby. When he saw newborn Stewie, he ran over, gave the baby a gentle hug and kiss and very proudly held him. He loves babies!

Sure, as Stewie got older, Linus would pick on him and knock him over, but Stewie got even by poking him in the eyes on day and that evened the score.

So now that Berry is around, Linus is all over her, hugging her, kissing her, talking to her, laughing at her and getting her to laugh back. Then, last week I saw Berry and Linus share a laugh followed quickly by Berry smacking herslef in the side of the head. She hit herself three times then laughed, why??? because Linus had taught her this. He was encouraging her to do it, and after 8 or 9 smacks she began pulling her hair and then crying.

Now, he has taught her to make some silly mouth noises and he can get her to do them – including raspberries – by mouthing the action and smiling at her to encourage her to continue when we race to get her to stop. She usually tries the mouth stuff during dinner.

Like I said… My kids love each other.

I’m dreading the day the unite against us. LOL.

A trip to the dentist – Big eye opener!

I have a confession to make…  I love to floss my teeth.  I’m kind of addicted to it, but I was not always like that.

When I was 26 years old I got my first cavity.  Two of them actually.  They were in between my back two molars, where the teeth are very tight together and were the result of not flossing regularly.

Having them filled hurt – even though my dentist gave me laughing gas to help out, so I swore to not let that happen again and started flossing my teeth. 

I had containers of dental tape all over the house – and would floss in bed, in the bathroom, in front of the TV… It was never ending. 

So I made sure that I got my wife and kids to the dentist as soon as they needed to be there to have their teeth cleaned, get that toy from the toy chest and let the family know that going to the dentist is a positive experience. For the better part of 20+ years, I have been going to Bayview Hill Dental Centre (way up at Major Mackenzie and Bayview Avenue in Richmond Hill) and it’s been a long time since anyone in my family has been nervous going to the dentist.

What I did not know, however, was that my 5-year-old son had tight back molars like I do (he’s lost 3 teeth already and another on the way so his teeth are shifting around) and that he needed to floss his teeth at 5 years old.

But boy, do we all know that now!

His first trip to the dentist in a year had a shocking twist as he has 6 cavities! 6. Of those six, only one is a serious cavity that needs to be filled right away, but there are 3 others which have broken through the enamel and will probably be done too. The last two are to be watched as they are in his back molars which don’t fall out until he is 12 years old.

I wonder how he is going to handle this filling of the cavities as he doesn’t even really understand what it means to have a cavity. At least he will now learn how to floss his teeth, and the importance of brushing twice a day and not eating sweets before bed (not that he does that, like ever).

The hygenist tought him how to floss with this little sticks and with the dento-tape / floss and now he’s a pro. He is scheduled to have his teeth filled next week – 4 of he can handle it and at least 2. He will get laughing gas.

The first thing he did whenever he saw anyone was to tell them about the 6 cavities. Geez. But this is a kid that does not eat sweets in a household where we do not eat sweets. It’s just a result of food getting stuck and rotting…

On the bright side, we now floss as a family every night…

It’s actually quite fun.

And now I know why his breath was slightly off for the better part of a year…

Duh!

Update:

He had 2 teeth filled and the other 2 are on the watch radar for now. We all continue to floss and brush as a family every night.

Watching him in the dentist chair was funny. He asked a TON of questions and even after the nitrous oxide mask was put on his nose, he still took it off to speak. Once the gas was on, he was giggling and laughing, it made me laugh so I had to leave him there with his mummy.

After the dentist him and mummy went out for dinner – just the 2 of them – and she let him order. He LOVED it! They even brought me some leftovers for my dinner (yummy Chinese).

I think this whole experience and the dinner with mummy is a good way to teach him that as he approaches 6-years-old, he needs to be accountable for his actions and if he’s good, he gets special treats like a date with his mummy.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful night full of surprises.

Our almost one month old baby girl had the biggest poo of her little life.  Poo flew right out of her diaper, her 3 layers of clothes, right through my shirt to my skin.  We were not at home.  We were invited to some friends for the first time and this will forever be their memory of me / us.   Our hosts had to get me a t-shirt and sweater to wear.  Not pretty.

What could top that event off?  How about both my boys going to the bathroom to poo there too.  Huge poo’s.

So poo aside, the food was delish, as was the company.  Had a great time. 

For dessert our host made rice krispy squares but instead of using marshmallows, she used 8 mars bars… WOW. It was wicked!!!

We talked about Santa. And the tooth fairy.

But all everyone will remember is the poo…