Trains and castles

Isabelle and Aidan get a lot of use out of their train set. Here is Aidan, taking Henry the Green Engine over the bridge, while Isabelle helps Lady pull the milk tanker. Today's set up has been improved by the addition of a rather grand station or two in the form of a castle that Isabelle got for Christmas. She painted it (with Daddy's help) pink, orange and green.

It is lovely to listen in to their play (which is usually co-operative) and to watch as they learn to manipulate the tracks, trains and accessories and devise new layouts of their own.

Emily's debut

Emily was Isabelle's Christmas present from Father Christmas. She is a very special tender engine - dark green with brass trimmings. She was so precious that Isabelle did not remove her from her box, but kept her untouched and perfect, up high on her chest of drawers out of little brother's reach.

However, a couple of days ago (while Aidan was sleeping), Emily made her debut! Since then, Emily has been brought out of hiding a couple more times. Aidan was even able to touch her (briefly).

Emily is an interesting character. She is relatively new on the scene, replacing Duck in the "top 8" line-up of engines on the British television series. I imagine that this was for gender reasons (all the main engines being male in the original books). Now it is easy to roll your eyes at this, but Isabelle really does respond to female characters in her books, tv programmes and play. Lately it has been very important to her if this or that is a girl or a boy (which has coincided with her heightened interest in traditionally "girly" things like pink, pretty clothes and Barbie). She is especially fond of her three female engines, which are pictured below. Emily is in the middle, flanked by Lady on the left, and Mavis on the right.