Hello from Papa

My Grandfather (known as Papa) passed away in October. This past Saturday the family gathered again at Nana and Papa's house to celebrate (snow-delayed) Christmas. Nana asked each of us to take at least one thing out of Papa's basement. He boasted an impressive collection of clocks, electronics, and... well, many, MANY other things.

As Anna has been very much into trains lately, I chose to take a Lionel train alarm clock for her. It's really a mini Lionel set. A little train runs in circles through a mountain tunnel and a small town scene. We didn't get it running at the time - we weren't sure how!

Yesterday I was fixing something in the kitchen and Chris was watching Anna in the living room. I heard this weird rhythmic noise and just figured that Chris was watching some weird video on his laptop, probably something viral forwarded by one of his buddies. After it continued for a little while I realized it wasn't him and asked him what was going on. It took him a moment to figure out that the train clock's alarm was going off!

I went into our office and got it, then brought it to the living room to show Anna. She was nothing short of ENTRANCED. She just stared at it with delight, completely defying all toddler attention span norms.

I'm sure Papa was laughing when we were trying to figure out that weird noise and smiling brightly at Anna's joy from this mainstay of his creative clock collection.