Soooooo,

Do you remember that train table Ben has so desperately wanted for two years that we finally caved in and purchased from Craigslist, I mean asked Santa Clause for and he dropped it by early? Remember how Ben played obsessively with it for 3 days straight? Well, now he could hardly be bothered with the table itself - but he plays with the various pieces that came with the table (bridge, sheds, tunnels, mountains, hills, etc) all over the house just as he used to (and still does) with his old tracks. It turns out it wasn't so much the TABLE he wanted but the GOODIES that he always played with ON THE TABLE. I could probably sell the table and keep the goods and he wouldn't even notice! (See pic below)

But I won't ditch the table just yet. Our play dates love it and Emma gets a lot of enjoyment out if it - believe it or not - designing new tracks and making up fun stories. It cracks me that I didn't figure this out before purchasing the table. I really should have understood his request. Whenever we went to a store that sold the goodies, he would always request one - but they are like $25 bucks a pop, so I was like, NOPE. Needless to say, we absolutely feel we got an incredible bargain with the fancy table and all the goods for $75.

Mr.Conductor on the FLOOR!