If There Was Any Doubt . . .

If there was any doubt in my mind that selling Zane's 9 month old train table on Craig's was the wrong thing to do, as perhaps, one day, he would show interest in the thing, that doubt has vanished.

Harper adored her train table. We purchased a make it yourself table frame kit and the train set off of Ebay when she was just nearing 3 years old. For the actual train board, we made our own out of a board purchased from Home Depot on which George painted valleys, lakes, and greenery. It was a family project. We glued all the track and extras down on the board on Christmas Eve. Her response Christmas morning was, simply, "WOW!". We snapped a photo of the very moment. She immediately began playing with it and continued to do so everyday. She knew the names of the trains, made up her own stories, and re-created Thomas dvd stories using her own trains. To this day, she can still tell you the story of the morning she received her train table. At 4 she was still playing with it. At 4 1/2, her little brother climbed on top of the thing and literally tore the gorilla-glued tracks clear off of the board.

This should have been a sign.

We repaired the table time and time again, until finally, it could be repaired no more. Harper admitted that she had moved on, and yet we salvaged the tracks, extra fixtures (roundhouse, windmill, etc.), and the trains, of course, to be played with on the floor.

Christmas 2007 came, and I just KNEW that Zane would love a train table. Afterall, Harper did, right?

On Christmas morning, Harper played with the train table.

We kept trying.

The train table became a place for robots to stomp, cars to drive, and super-hero figures to pile up. We moved the table up to Zane's room, thinking that perhaps this would jump start his enthusiasm.

It was a nice place to lay his clothes.

I will take a moment to pat ourselves on the back here, as George and I are very good purger's. We could take you through your home and convince you that you don't need half the stuff you own. We cringe upon entering homes which have an entire playroom full of children's toys. We just don't like "stuff". It was time to purge the table. No doubt about it.

Craig's List to the rescue. And while the new table, board, train set, extra track, extra pieces, and extra cars (we removed Harper's favorite trains for "memory" as she puts it), didn't sell in 4 hours like our Camry, it did sell in 3 days.

Zane was all for "giving it to another baby to play with".

So today, during a visit to Hot Mama to pick up an isABelt, I noticed a train table in the back of the store. Zane wandered over and began playing. My heart sank. A little.

I purchased the item that is destined to help my waist issues with pants, without the use of a clunky belt buckle which ruins the smooth line of my outfit (plug for product), and returned to Zane who, to my delight, was NOT playing with the train table as I had thought, but rather the little wooden people that came with the set. The firefighters were talking to the policemen about something. Zane had gathered all the wooden buildings from the set to one corner: the firehouse, the hospital, etc. and had set the "scene" with the wooden people talking at these locations.

Trains, shrains. He cared less about the track and the trains. No, what was really important was getting the little wooden dog some help for an injury.

And this is when I look around my home and hunt for more items to sell.

There's still that WWI sword.

But, I think the kids are still playing with that one.

Relax. Relax.