The Durbin Rocket

"It's a train.  It's a train."  This is one of Bobby's new mantra's.  He says it daily and it means, "I want you to take me to the mall so that I can ride the train."  If I would take him, he would ride this kiddie train every day.  There is one huge problem with this plan, there is not always a conductor on duty giving train rides.

We decided that it was time to take Bobby on a real train ride.  Luckily there are quite a few options in our home state of West Virginia.  I figured that he would probably like an open air train the best, and I found the perfect option in Durbin, WV.  The fall foliage is almost at peak color in this part of the mountains and the weather forecast for the weekend was perfect, so on Friday I called and got our tickets for Sunday.

We didn't tell Bobby where we were going.  We stopped and picked up Grandma Carolyn and off we went.  Bobby knows every road that he has previously traveled and he gets excited when we turn on to an undiscovered direction.

When we pulled up to the train depot, Bobby was super excited.  He got right out and was ready to go.  First we had to walk across the street and get out tickets at a little store.

We had 15 minutes to wait until we could board the train.  Plenty of time for me to give in to my obsession....taking pictures of Bobby!!!

 Bobby immediately picked out which train car that he wanted to ride in, the yellow one....aka, "school bus."

 Waiting is NO fun!!!

 Handed off the camera to Grandma, so I made it into a picture!!!

Taking his place to be first in line to get onto the train......

ALL ABOARD!!!!  The most beautiful words of the day!

 Not sure how many times I got out a plastic bag because I was worried that Bobby had motion sickness and was going to vomit because he kept this position throughout most of the ride with this look on his face.  Never got sick and once we were finally home, he was bouncing around the house like he had just had the best day of his life.  So, this must have been his Zen position!!

The fall foliage was beautiful and made this ride even better!!!  Just wish that the sky would have been bright blue instead of overcast....oh well, you can't have everything!!

The train made a stop and all of the passengers could get off and walk around.  Well Mr. Bobby who had been watching a creek for most of the ride was up and out of his seat like the Flash.  He grabbed hold of Daddy's hand to take him down into the creek bed, which was super dry from the lack of rain over the past couple of weeks.  Bobby took his shoes off and was getting in!!  He wanted nothing more than to sit down in the water and play.  If there wouldn't have been other kids on this train ride we would have probably let him, I had a change of clothes for him, but I'm sure that the other moms would have HATED us!!  "Why can't we go swimming, that boy is!!"  So, no "swimming" for Bobby. He complied pretty well.

 A Daddy photobomb!!!!!

I walked back with Grandma Carolyn while Bobby and Daddy went ahead.  When we got back to the train I couldn't find the boys.  Bobby wanted to walk around the train and found out that the solid red train car had an "upstairs."  He enjoyed climbing the ladder, sitting up high and looking out the window.

Finally we went back to our seats and the train was heading back.  Not long into the second part of our trip the train once again stopped, this time to get some water from the creek for the steam engine. We went out to the open top car to watch the process.

 They put a hose over into the creek and pumped water up into the engine tank. Then this poor guy had to get up and shovel coal into the engine.

 Bobby wanted to get back into the creek and tried to get Daddy to open the gate for him.

 Time to walk back to our seats.....

When we pulled back up to the sweet little town of Durbin, I had to snap a few more pictures.

It was a lovely day and I'm sure that we will have more train ride adventures in our future!!!

Fourth Grade Back To School Tales

Bobby's in the 4th grade!!  Not sure how it happened this fast.  Where did my little baby boy go?  I see him in the hallways with the new class of pre-K kids and I just can't believe that he was ever that small.   He walked into the school two weeks ago for his first day of 4th grade like a seasoned pro. He is so grown up!!

 Because Bobby's school situation is different than typical kids, I go into his classroom with him on his first day and talk with Ms. Kim about Bobby's summer and what we worked on and what we didn't.  However, now that Bobby is one of the older kids, he went right in like he had only been off for a couple of days.  Ms. Kim had to go off and help some of the younger kids get to their classrooms and get situated.

 I took advantage of the situation of being alone in the classroom with Bobby and took tons of pictures.  He went right over to his cubby, unpacked his backpack and put all of his things away.

 When his things were put away he went to the play area and found some of his favorites.  His speech therapist came in and hung out with us for a while.

Then he went over to his computer and waited for us to put in his ID and password so that he could have all of his favorite programs.....too bad we didn't know his ID and password!!  We have to wait for Ms. Kim for that information.

 Ms. Kim made it back to the autism classroom after the other kids were all in their classrooms.  As soon as we started talking the morning bell rang.  Time for Ms. Kim to take Bobby to his regular ed. 4th grade classroom for morning meeting.

Off they went.  Of course I took a couple of more pictures as I was leaving the building.  Next year he will be taller than his beloved Ms. Kim!!!!

When I picked up Bobby from his first day, he received glowing remarks.  He transitioned back to school like he had been off for the weekend.  All of the summer school and daily therapy kept him right on track so that he could just continue without weeks of reviewing what he had learned last school year.

 Bobby and one of his aides, Ms. Deb

 I picked Bobby up later in the week and we had to run upstairs to get some paperwork out of his desk.  I asked Ms. Kim if I could tag along and just peek in the window of his regular ed. classroom. I just wanted to see inside.  When we got there the rest of the class was out of the room so I got to go in and see Bobby's desk.  As you know, I have a sickness that is only made better by taking too many pictures!!  Ok Bobby, sit in your desk so Mommy can take a picture!!!

 A new issue has appeared in Bobby's school world.  An issue that I could have never imagined!!  Ms. Kim is working with Bobby and a classmate on group work in the afternoon when I arrive to pick him up to take him to his therapy session.  The problem.....Bobby wants to give all of the answers.  He is having difficulty sitting quietly and waiting for his turn, he is just blurting out the answers for his classmate.

 I will take this problem over past problems any day of the week!!!!!  He is sitting nicely and actually paying attention to what is going on all of the time during the work session.  I'm jumping up and down on the inside.....he knows the answers, he knows the answers!!!  Way to go Bobby!!  But on the outside holding my finger up to my mouth with the universal "be quiet" signal!!

Of course it is not all work.  It is still only August, plenty of time for after school water fun.

Bobby,  Natalie and another friend have been having fun during a weekly after school swim session at Stepping Stones.  They absolutely love this after school activity!!

Zoi for one could not be more excited that the regular school year has begun.  I got out my tennis shoes and she started running circles around the kitchen.....she knew that she was going for a walk with her BFF Ellie!!  Zoi was jumping for joy, literally, as I hooked her leash to her collar.

 We had to stop at school and drop Bobby off....Zoi waited patiently in the back.  However, as soon as we started driving through the park that houses the walking trail, Zoi started jumping around the back of the car!!!

 BFF's together again......

 Running off into the sun........

 After we walked our mile and a half back to the car, Zoi jumped in and drank up a bottle of water!!!

We've made it through the first two weeks of school with flying colors.  I think we all like our routine.....not just Bobby!!!  It's a holiday weekend, the unofficial end of summer, Daddy will probably close the pool next week so Bobby is enjoying it as much as he can.

One more exciting thing begins this weekend, at least exciting for Daddy.......football season begins!  This time of year in Morgantown, you need to end each conversation with "Let's Go Mountaineers!"  So, LET'S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!