All Boy

I never liked pegging my kids as one type or another.  Neither girl could be described as a tomboy, and while they have both had brief infatuations with the color pink, I would not say either one was overly girly.  They are happy to play outside in dirt, sand, puddles, glaciers, and can make amazing playsets from sticks and stone.  When they were younger, play included both trucks and trains, and G.I. Joe (the D.S. Special Agent version) still hangs out in Kelsey's room, though he usually wears a pink skirt and has long since lost his agent accoutrement (don't tell Pete).

Then Nicholas came along, and it was pretty much the same deal:  one day he was wearing a pink ballet skirt, the next he wanted a Spiderman lunchbox and notebook (he grabbed the last two items during back to school shopping, as he felt left out).  Blocks one day, Joe in his purple parachute pants the next.  He seemed to go back and forth with ease, and could live with or without any type of toy.  Then something clicked inside him…

The day before Peter left for UNGA, Nicholas started screaming "Dada" whenever he saw Peter's car.  I assumed he meant Peter, however, as we later figured out, he was actually referring to the car.  It was quite easy to follow once he started shouting and pointing to everything from SUVs to Safeway trucks.

A week or so after Pete got back, we were relaxing in the kids section of Barnes & Noble.  Cait was busy spending her college money on books that were read before we left the store, Peter was off reading Latin, Kelsey was browsing, and I decided to let Nicholas play with the trains.  Well, that was it. 

"Choo-choo, choo-choo!" he shouted. 

Again, and again, and again.  Can you sense where this is heading?  He could not get enough of the brightly colored trains, or their table.  Up and down, all around, he pushed, pulled, and banged the trains together. While I could eventually pull him away, you could almost see the pain in his eyes.  I must say, not terribly different from the expression on Caitlin's face when she is forced to put away the book at dinner, and (horrors) have a conversation with her family at the dinner table.  However, I don't remember either of the girls having such a strong association with a particular type of toy at that age (insert reminder here, Shannon). 

Since then he has trains and he has dadas.  He talks about them incessantly, points them out everywhere, and simply can't get enough. I started to wonder if we should get him a train set (and the accompanying table due to our lack of non-carpeted flooring).  I even caved, against my better judgment, and bought him a tiny little Thomas the Tank Engine.  Not because it was a particular brand, simply because he recognized it as a train.

We wandered out of the store, ambled up the street, and headed to the car.  He held the train and talked to it the entire ride home, and I wondered if I had done the right thing.  Was I just encouraging the very consumerism we really want to avoid?  Was I complicating things more by getting this toy? He is young, but scary how fast they learn.

The fascination continued, but as I learned, it was not all about the toy, but became more about the machine.  He managed to find a video at Target while I was shopping for another child, I bought it (yes, I know, you sense a trend…), and he has watched it several times (insert wordy-dird about what a bad parent I am here).  It is some sort of Christmas/snow/Thomas (and other characters) story.  He is in love with train part.  Could probably watch it for hours if you let him.

Then he solved the problem for me.  He didn't have a train to play with while watching it, (the Thomas choo-choo has disappeared), so he made his own.  He took 4 boxes that were in the family room, and lined them up.  He covered them with a blanket, and said, "Choo-choo"!  Later while he was playing in the bedroom with his box of toys (random puzzles and legos), he lined up the pieces of a block puzzle and said, "choo-choo!"

No tracks, no trains, no signs, or fake trees.  Perfectly happy simply using what he has to create his own train and station.  It looks nothing like the Island of Sodor or wherever it is Thomas lives, but it makes him just as happy.  Very similar to when I thought he might like a clubhouse, and then he and Cait built one from two overstuffed kiddie chairs and a blanket.  Who am I to mess with perfection?