it’s thomas’ world; we just peep-peep around in it

Oh Thomas. How quickly you overtook our lives.

It started innocently enough with a seeming affinity to train tables at the play spaces and toy stores.

We could have gone Brio. Thought briefly about the Brio; Brio would have been cheaper. But didn’t. Not particularly tempted by the Nuchi or the Melissa and Doug.

And then there was this one day when we were at a used toy store in Alameda, and they had a bunch of used Thomas series engines and such, plus gallon ziplock bags full of used track. And we just went for it. Two bags of track and five cars: Rusty, Salty, Cement Mixer, Handcar, and of course, Thomas. Oddly, this Thomas doesn’t have stripes on it. A detail that becomes slightly relevant later in this accounting of our Thomas-infused lives.

Soon after, Leila gave us a hand-me-down Push-and-Go Thomas.

And then there was the discovery of the Thomas ride-on toy at the park.

And then Laura gave us an oval track set with another Thomas (this one has stripes) and a Baggage Car, and Kevin, a crane with a magnet “hook” that Jonah discovered works great for rescuing trains that have been in an accident.

And then we started getting books. First a board book, Go Train Go, then a GIANT board book of poems, Railway Rhymes. And we began learning about the characters and their mythologies. I have to admit, this is where I started to get hooked. The illustrations and rhymes work for me.

More recently, I caved and bought one of the photo-book style Thomas books (the “pictureback” series). I had been avoiding them. I am not a fan. The writing is terrible. They barely make sense. Whoever was hired to try to translate the TV show into book form was not adept. But Jonah loves them. So we have since checked out four more from the library.

But the truly fateful day was when Jonah got Hiro. Because Hiro was the first brand new engine in its own small package, inside of which Jonah discovered… A CATALOG.

If anyone is wondering if toy collecting might be genetic, check out Scott’s hobby website that he founded in 1998 and get back to me on that.

So Jonah studied the catalog day and night and learned all the names and started making lists of which trains he wanted. And the fun thing about a 2-year-old who makes lists is you can please him so easily. So we got high off of that feeling for a bit. We ordered Molly, and the Aquarium Cars off eBay. (He just said to me yesterday, “The Uh-KWAyerR-Ee-ummm cars came in a MA-YULL packet,” a.k.a Priority Mail envelope.)

We went to a birthday party at a play space where they had a train table and he became besotted with Mavis. So Mavis, we bought.

And somewhere in there Nana and Pop Pop came to visit and brought “Easter Thomas” which came with a peeping carload of eggs and chicks. (And then there were three wooden Thomases, and one Push-Go.)

By this time, everywhere Jonah goes, he has to have train cars in his hands. Molly got to go on a few car rides but then Thomas-without-the-stripes (he is careful to differentiate) and Mavis became the away team for a good solid week or so.

Until he fell in love with Billy at Rockridge Kids. So in love that he talked about “him” frequently. “We SHOULD GO to RAW-KK-ridge KIDZ and PLAY wiff BIL-LEEyuh.” On one occasion, he left the store with the sample-not-for-sale Billy in his hands and I didn’t notice until halfway through lunch. (We took it back.)

And then Nana and Pop Pop came to visit again. And by the end of three days, Billy, the Musical Caboose, and “wind-up” (a.k.a. Battery Operated) James had joined the party. Now, the away team is comprised of the four engines, if we let him carry them all: James, Billy, Mavis, and Thomas.

After the grandparents’ visit, Jonah continually suggested that we “go downstairs” and “check the white bag” to see if there are more trains in it. Since one came out of it every day his grandparents were here. It’s a magic bag.

The trains aren’t just for going around the track (which dominated our dining room floor until just a few days ago when in a fit of genius parenting/toy management Scott turned a small round coffee table in Jonah’s room into a train table — and dining room sounds innocuous until you realize that we have to walk through the dining room in order to get to the majority of the rooms in our house).

They also dine with us. Jonah will assign plate mates. I usually get Molly, and Scott gets Hiro. The others (from the away team – see above) watch Jonah eat. Or he puts one train engine on each chair, and pushes all the chairs together side by side, leaving nowhere for us to sit.

Of course he likes to bring the trains onto mommy and daddy’s bed, too. He lines them up near the pillows and tucks them in under the covers and they all pretend to nap.

In addition to the ongoing catalog reading and reportage, Jonah’s clocking inventory at various stores and friends’ houses. He knows Billy is on the train table at RK, that Mighty Mac is en table at The Ark on Fourth Street. He reminisces about Mavis being at Play Cafe. He tells me every time he sees one in a shop that Zenn has Stanley. He remembers that he fought with Flann over who got to play with Hank. He is well aware that Schuyler has a wind-up Thomas AND a wind-up Lady.

Jonah wants more wind-up trains. We’ve told him he can’t have them until his birthday.

He asks to call Nana. He tells her, “I’m getting wind-up Percy and wind-up Lady for my birthday, in November. It’s May, now.”

Yesterday, Scott and Jonah went to Toys R Us because we need a sandbox with a cover on it. This is the chickens’ fault. Their profligate pooping has made Jonah’s play-digging in our yard hazardous.

Of course there’s a Thomas display at the store. Thomas of the gods. Thomas on retail steroids.

Because certain particular items are on sale and the boy seems to like them so much, Scott decides Jonah can have two miniature trains which make peep-peep noises when you press a button: Thomas and Percy.

As they are walking to the parking lot, Scott is thinking to himself that perhaps for the same amount of money he should have just gotten the one wind-up Percy. Only he says this to himself out loud, while buckling Jonah into his car seat (Scott has a tendency to mutter). Jonah hears and a negotiation ensues which involves going back into TRU, returning the two little trains and getting the beloved wind-up Percy.

He loves his new Percy. But in the late afternoon, it dawns on him that he BRIEFLY owned two smaller trains and now he NEEDS them. He cries about this with Scott, calms down, and then cries again to me when I walk in. We keep trying to explain that he made a choice, but it’s no use. He’s desolate.

He still loves his new Percy. He sleeps with it. And this morning he’s desolate again. He demands to go outside. Puts his shoes on himself (MILESTONE!) – on the wrong feet but no matter. We start down the front stairs. I’m thinking maybe he wants to look for snails. But no. He wants to check the car and see if his tiny trains are in there. He wants to get in the car and go back to the store. Tears again.

But here’s the thing. And this finally sinks us. He has a temperature of 103 and a croupy cough.

How could we not?

So, after a morning of ibuprofen, juice, and multiple viewings of Thomas videos on YouTube (yes, we still try to keep him away from TV/videos, but he’s almost 3 – which was our end date for avoiding such media – and the rules don’t apply when he’s sick – and I actually like those weird little videos, especially the season Ringo Starr narrates)…

We bundle him into the car and drive back to TRU. And now he has a tiny Thomas (and then there were five). We’re hiding the tiny Percy in the hopes that it might be a good Potty Training celebration gift, if we ever get to THAT milestone. Which might require the purchase of Thomas underwear?

Also got him a Thomas and Friends toothbrush today, which led to an extended happy tooth brushing session before bedtime. (No, this was not the one that plays the Thomas theme for two minutes in order to get them to brush that long. I’d rather he have gingivitis than have to hear that song on repeat for two minutes straight even one night, much less every night. Even just typing this has the earworm wiggling through my brain – they’re two, they’re four, they’re six, they’re eight, shunting trucks and hauling freight…).