Thwee!

Ezra is finally at the age when he knows that it is his birthday and, more importantly, he knows that a celebration is in order! For weeks he practiced putting his three middle fingers up and "kissing" his thumb and pinky together when asked, "How old are you?" And his response? "Thwee!" Ezra is in love with trains. He prefers Thomas the Train and all of Thomas' friends, but any train will do. So on his big day I zipped him into his coat and jumped in the car with him and anyone who was interested in celebrating with us. We drove an hour north up the coast to Wenham, a tiny town on Cape Ann. I had read about a quaint museum that housed one model train after another. The trains were interactive, the guide book said, so I knew that this was the museum for us! As soon as we entered, Ezra's eyes grew big and he headed to a miniature track with a freighter running back and forth between tunnels. Ezra pushed his chubby thumb on the buttons and watched the train back up and run the track again, this time with a loud whistle.

Ezra soon discovered entire rooms filled with trains that he could control! We spent the afternoon listening to whistles, watching passenger trains and box cars wind up mountains and pushing control buttons.

As Ezra was consumed with the trains, one by one the kids bought train gifts for him in the train toy shop. We then ate lunch at Bertuccis' pizzeria and headed home to open presents and eat cake and ice cream with Steve and Mia.

Ezra opened Thomas movies, a conductor outfit and James from Thomas the Train, which he held up and exclaimed, "This is special!" He unwrapped a train whistle, a freighter and a Thomas Lego set.

(Jonathan picked up a little something for himself in the train gift shop!)

According to Ezra, this was the best birthday ever!