Last weekend, Julian and I were going to head down to my dad’s house, about 250 miles south of here, via Amtrak. What a perfect adventure for a 2.5 year old boy, and the timing was going to be just right — an 8.20 am departure that would get us in around 1.40 pm. I planned to convince him to nap at noon, and brought his carseat, thinking we’d have a few hours of enjoying the train and then I’d have more than an hour to relax while he slept in strapped-down security.
Ryan drove us to the train station and was going to make sure we got on. I planned to phone my parents when we were a few minutes away and tell them what train car we were in so they could help me get us off the train. I felt proud that I had arranged this situation where all I had to do was sit with Julian on the train for hours. No carrying carseats or strollers for this prego mom!
The whole trip got even more exciting when Linda from FamilyTravelGear.com offered to send me a travel tray to test. The tray arrived in time for the trip, and I saved it, thinking that the novelty of it would buy me a few minutes of peace. And ultimately, the utility of it would allow us to color and play a game called “What’s Missing?” which is where I line up cars and figurines and then ask Julian to close his eyes while I hide one so that he can guess what’s missing.
The travel tray comes in a zipper package that keeps it very compact. It fit easily into my backpack. I was very much looking forward to using it. And we set off for the train station in Emeryville.
Upon arrival, I learned that the train was running 5 hours late and wouldn’t be there to pick us up until 2 pm. It was 8 am. “I’ll take a refund,” I told the ticket agent. The travel tray looked like fun, but not enough fun to entertain us at a train station for 5 hours and then on the train for 5 hours.
I immediately planned in my mind a fun day for Julian that included taking our local public transportation and going to the kid’s play area of our gym. Now Ryan and I faced the task of telling Julian we weren’t getting on a train, but would go instead to our local BArt Train. Even though we hadn’t told him about the train trip until one day before, it was clear that he fully understood and was excited about it. This was the first time ever, that I had to explain to him a disappointment that was beyond my control. He was so sad, in a quiet mournful way, and I felt terrible. “I want to get on that train,” he said. Ryan tried to turn his attention toward the station door to leave. “I want to just look at the train,” Julian negotiated. My heart was broken, too.
We ended up having a nice day, although my parents were disappointed and tried to think up ten different ways to get me to their house before Ryan got home from work. All of them involved me driving at least a few hours, and not being able to man the travel tray as in my fantasy trip.
We did try the travel tray later that day during the long drive, but I concluded that without my sitting next to Julian, he is just too young for it. He wanted it on and off repeatedly, and I couldn’t deal with that from the front seat. He is also unable to use what seem like very handy side-pockets by himself. I put some cars in there for him, but he couldn’t get them in and out without frustration. Linda says that her kids like using it at home, loaded up with snacks for movie time on the couch. Sounds good to me; we simply aren’t at that stage of life yet.
Hopefully, there is another train trip in my future.
{ 0 comments… add one now }
Leave a Comment