Planes, Trains and Automobiles

When my son was about two and a half I took him on his first train ride. Here we have BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit

and we were taking a short trip to the store, this little plaza two cities over from where we lived. At the time my son loved wearing baseball hats and so he had quite a little collection of them. He had a lot of the local baseball teams hats that were toddler size to fit his head. His grandmother brought the bulk of them and so I got him all dressed up in his little jeans and matching jean jacket and shoes and a matching baseball cap.

We took the short walk to the BART Station which was probably about ten blocks from our house back then and he was more excited riding the escalator then anything I thought. So, luckily it was in the middle of a work day so not many people were at the station coming and going and I for one was glad. I am holding on to his chubby little hand telling him things about the sights and the sounds of the train and the train station and looking at the few people that were there and then it happened. We could see the train coming out of the tunnel down the tracks getting closer and closer and he was getting more excited by the minute laughing and talking and then he did something that was so unexpected as most things that he did at that time were and sometimes still to this day. He took off his hat and he tossed it on the tracks and laughed and laughed. I was thinking for a minute, oh no, how am I going to tell his grandma that he lost the favorite hat she had looked all over the mall to find. I know this because she told me that story every time she saw him wearing it. So, I knew that story by heart about how she  looked in about twenty million zillion kid stores to find just the right hat for him and about how she was in the mall for so long she forgot where she parked her car and it took her another 15 minutes to find it but it was all worth it to find the right hat for her youngest grandson and  to see how happy he was once he wore it.

Needless to say I was not looking forward to breaking the news to her that her favorite hat was thrown on the train tracks by her favorite little grandson. But, I laughed right along with Josh and the rest of the people there. It was something that we definitely could not get back so either we had to laugh or cry and we chose to laugh.  He kind of reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore show when she twirls around and throws her hat up in the air. Well, similar to what he did but minus the music and the opening credits.

So, we had fun at the little plaza and got a few things we could carry on the train for the ride home and even got a new hat that stayed safely in the bag until we got home. The next train ride I made sure he stayed hatless until we were safely off of the train.

When I told my mom the story about that hat a few days later I thought she would be mad at me for letting him throw it on the tracks. I was all ready for my come back speech on the way the 2 year old act sometimes and especially my 2 year old but she didn't say anything she only laughed like we did and then proceeded to hand him another hat.