Irrational?

So the Indiana State Fair ended yesterday.  All I have to say is THANK GOD.  I could usually care less...I mean, I like going to the fair and all, if for nothing else but the digustingly yummy food, but the dern Fair Train rumbles right past my neighborhood.  And again, I could usually care less, after all, I grew up right next to a train track and used to love hearing the trains roll by.  But that was all before I had a (soon-to-be) 3 year old. 

Last year, Steven didn't mind the train at all, which thankfully only runs for the week and a half during the fair.  Every time the whistle blew, he'd stop whatever he was doing, pop his head up and look at me with a perfectly formed "O" mouth....a la Eddie Murphy in Mr Robinson's neighborhood...and that would be it.  But this year was different.  If we were outside when that whistle blew, utter panic would ensue.  He could not run in the house fast enough, yelling "come on Mommy, come on Mommy!!"...as if the train was going to rumble right up our driveway and mow him down in his tracks. 

And it only got worse at night.   When Steven heard the whistle, you'd think monsters were crawling out from under his bed and grabbing his ankles.  I'd sit with him until the Evil Fair Train "went to bed," and eventually, he'd believe me that it was really done for the night and then could release me to go to bed.  I tried everything to convince him that the fair train was a nice train, "like Thomas!", but most people know there is no convincing a toddler of anything rational.

But even more irrational, through all this terror, Steven kept insisting that he wanted to ride on the fair train.  He didn't want to see it or hear it, but by gum, he wanted to ride it.  So, I thought I'd test him on the last day of the fair.  We were going to march up to that station and put his money where his mouth is. I was fully expecting to simply turn around and go home, and he would quit bothering me about wanting to ride the train.  

Low and behold, he not only marched right up the stairs of that train (even while the whistle was blowing loud enough to wake up Terre Haute), but he rode on that train like a champ--waving at everything along the way.

I thought, "Hooray!  He's over his Fair Train fear!  I did it!  I'm Supermom!"....but the second we got home from the fair and opened up our car doors, the train was departing from the station and of course blowing its obnoxious whistle, and YEP, Steven was LAUNCHING out of his car seat and into the house, his little legs looking like Road Runner blur, screaming "come on Mommy, come on Mommy!!!"

I'm just going to stop trying to figure it out.  Until next year.