Day with Dad

Last Tuesday, there was a scheduling issue in the morning, and my only option to get to a morning doctor appointment on time was to take Alex with me instead of taking him to school. So we had a fun day…

He got a lollipop at the Doctor’s office. (Oh yeah, routine checkup, nothing exciting.)

Then he went to work with me, which was very exciting. He got an SES sticker.

He got a snack and got to look out the windows from the ninth floor at the traffic. This was fun and he spent quite a few minutes just looking out the window.

One of the things he saw was the “Purple Train“. He’s been asking to come ride the Purple Train since he first saw it months ago on a previous visit to the city. Once he saw the train, he was ready to go, and specifically wanted to go ride the train as soon as possible.

He had to wait through a couple hours of me working first though. Including going with me to a meeting with some coworkers. He was very good, sitting in the corner for most of the meeting playing with Lego.

I had told him that when the meeting was over we could leave and go ride the train. So as the meeting was breaking up, he makes a big gesture to all the people at the meeting and says “Me go ride purple train. You friends come ride purple train too?” My colleagues at the meeting politely declined his offer. But he thought it was important to invite them.

The streetcar actually comes in several colors. The green train came first, but Alex didn’t want to ride the green train, so we waited another 15 minutes or so for the purple train.

It was very exciting. We rode from one end of the line to the other. Then rather than just ride back on the same train, Alex wanted to get off. He wanted to wait to ride the green train back. But it was a bit chilly, and he was getting cold, so he settled for the red train. Half way through the ride back, we needed to stop for a potty break, so we ended up catching the green train for the last bit anyway. So three colors!

When we got back, he pointed out that the Monorail was right there too, and that we really should ride on that too. So after a quick stop for another snack, we got onboard the Monorail and headed to Seattle Center. Once there, instead of just getting right back on to head back, we decided to wander a little first.

An older man with a long Santa beard heard me talking to Alex about the train, and came over and mentioned that there was a model train exhibit right now in the Armory… about 100 feet from where we were standing. So…

Alex was enthralled. He stood and watched the trains. And watched the trains. And watched the trains.

And he watched and watched…

And then he realized that he could follow the trains! So he followed the trains around and around and around…

Until the man running the trains asked Alex if he wanted to come DRIVE one of the trains. Alex was a little unsure at first, but then when he realized what was going on, he bravely got up and listened carefully to the instructions.

And then he drove a train!! Alex got to drive for several minutes. It was very exciting.

After we were done, we rode the monorail back to the other end, and were going to head back to my office to get in my car and drive home, but Alex begged for one more ride on the purple train. So we waited for it (in the rain) and took one more ride. Except it was the green train.

It was a dark now though, and so a bit less to see. And Alex was getting tired.

Then one time when the train stopped Alex lost his balance and bumped his face on the chair in front of us. He wasn’t happy about that.

After a few more minutes, as the train was gliding along, Alex put his head down and fell asleep.

It was a good day.