Choo choo

No, I haven’t gone mad – yet. Choo choo is all I hear ALL. DAY. LONG. I’m not sure when it happened but my son is obsessed with trains. It’s the one constant in our day. He may not want breakfast, he may fight a nappy change, he might not let me wipe his runny nose, but we will play trains.

We were lucky to be given a Brio train set last year. We weren’t sure when he would be ready for it so saved it until the summer. He understood it straight away and none of us ever looked back. The trains and track are quite simple, the track easily fits together and the pieces are easy to grasp for small hands. It helps that the sets are all compatible and interchangeable so, although we have a couple of sets, every piece gets used. Sometimes I surprise myself with the complexities of the tracks I build! Oh yes, I was a bit of a train geek when I was younger, as was my husband, so not really surprising that Big Brother likes it too.

Wooden toys tick all the right boxes for us; environmentally friendly, easy to keep clean, simple to use and easy to add to so BB never gets bored. Over the last few months I’ve noticed him getting more absorbed in the train set, from merely pushing trains along the track to having boisterous ‘crashes’, moving the track around and, best of all, learning whilst having fun. It’s also the first thing to get packed in my bag when we go out. I find a wooden engine in my handbag, the bottom of the buggy or tucked away in the car door.

His second birthday is coming up soon, there’s no doubt what’s already been bought and wrapped for him!