Nostalgia

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My Life Is Currently A Thomas The Train Wreck

October 9, 2012 at 10:18 pm , by 

22 months.

“Whoo-whoo. Whoo-whoo. Crash!”

That’s Jack’s understanding of what trains are supposed to do, thanks to his current obsession, Thomas & Friends.

It’s the first TV show that he will watch for more than 3 minutes at a time.

I have to admit—it took some getting used to: It’s a weird format consisting of puppetry and storytelling, perfectly narrated by Alec Baldwin, of all people.

As an American, it become obvious to me from the beginning that Thomas & Friends is based off of a British book series.

The first thing that gave it away was how it seems that in every episode one of the trains gets “cross” with another, puffing away perturbed. (Though he eventually apologizes for his uncivilized behavior.)

I also laughed out loud one time when Alec Baldwin, who gives voice to all the different characters, including the rare female ones, told two of the other trains, “Stop gossiping!”

In modern American culture, for one man to tell two other men to stop gossiping would be like calling them girls, to put it mildly.

So this is basically my impression of my son’s new favorite TV show: Every episode consists of trains getting “cross” at each other about the loads they are hauling and then gossiping with each other, or one of the trains gets too prideful and crashes off a cliff. Then apologizes to Sir Topham Hatt about it.

And that explains why when Jack plays with his Sir Handel and Percy trains, he says, “Whoo-whoo. Whoo-whoo. Crash!”

I dig it, though. I do.

In fact, maybe I dig it a little too much:

These days I’m a tad bit distracted thinking about Jack’s die cast metal Thomas the Train collection; the ones designed for the Take-n-Play sets. For his 2nd birthday next month, we bought him a Rumbling Gold Mine set, which comes with the actual Thomas train.

So that means Jack will have Sir Handel, Percy, and Thomas. But now Jack’s favorite character seems to be the ever-so-moody Gordon.

Plus, there’s a character called Jack. How can I not get him Jack?

Not to mention, Jack is enthralled by fire trucks, and there is character called Flynn, who is a fire truck.

I care way too much about my son’s growing die cast metal Thomas & Friends collection.

This weekend I asked him, “Jack, do you want Harold the Helicopter?”

He instantly replied, “No.”

Bummer. For me.

With that being said, it should be no surprise that my wife and I have the same ring tone for when we call each other. You guessed it:

The theme song to Thomas & Friends.

Yes, we really are that cool.

(My wife even made a “practice birthday cake” in the form of a train this past weekend. When you look at it upside down, it sort of looks like a bear.)

Without a doubt, Jack’s birthday will be saturated in the Thomas & Friends theme.

Good thing he’s a boy. It seems like there’s no cool girl equivalent to Thomas the Train.

At least, there’s not one quite as obsessive.

2 Comments Posted on Nostalgia, parenting

The Importance Of A Boy Owning A Fire Engine Truck

September 23, 2012 at 9:31 pm , by 

22 months.

My wife and I joke about the fact we hardly ever by our son any new toys.

He has six caddies full of toys that mainly consist of gifts A) from his birthday party nearly a year ago and B) from when he was first born nearly two years ago.

Between his regular daycare and his church daycare and his friends’ toys when he has play dates, Jack has daily access to several toy communities.

For the past couple of months now, Jack has had the same amount of love in his heart for fire trucks as Elmo, which is saying a lot.

The flames of his fascination are flamed even more every day at his daycare, which happens to be located right across the street from the local fire station.

Jack can do a pretty incredible impression of a fire truck by now.

I’ll be driving him home and from the back seat I’ll  hear, “Wwwwhheeeaaahhhllllwwwhhh!”

(Yes, that’s the official spelling of the sound of a fire engine.)

However, it was only just today that we finally got him his very own fire truck. You’d think it be pretty easy to find a Matchbox or Hot Wheels fire truck, but no…

Either you pay at least 7 bucks for a goofy, cartoonish-looking one, or you pay at least $25 for a giant fire truck that your son wouldn’t be able to carry around with him everywhere he goes.

Well fortunately, we were able to find the right sized and the right priced fire engine truck today at Walmart. It’s made by a brand called Maisto and the thing only cost 72 cents!

Now granted, Jack’s new fire truck is also unintentionally (?) a lowrider. And it could also pass for some weird tank thing if the ladder were a canon instead.

But hey, Jack couldn’t be more excited! All he knows is, he finally has his very own fire truck.

He is so proud of it.

When he got home, he lined it up as the leader of a parade consisting of his two Thomas the Train cars and two of my old Stomper cars from McDonald’s Happy Meals back in 1985.

Oh, and a horse and a goat. They were also part of the joyous celebration.

With Jack’s 2nd birthday coming up on November 16th, I know my parents have already hinted that they got him areal fire truck toy.

I imagine it is the kind he can roll around on the floor with the big Tonka truck they got Jack for his birthday last year.

He will be so excited to get it, too; I’m sure of it.

Something he’s been doing here recently is when he has both a small and large version of toy, one becomes the baby and the other becomes the Dada.

In other words, today we bought Jack his “baby fire truck.” His “Dada fire truck” will be arriving within the next 60 days.

 

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Help! I’m Being Targeted By Rebooted 1980′s Toy Characters

September 22, 2012 at 2:37 pm , by 

22 months.

I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m a little flattered.

When I step into any toy aisle in pointless attempts to find a small fire engine truck under $3 for my son, my eyes are instantly drawn by the rebooted 1980′s toys I played with myself.

I mean, it’s so deliberate: Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, Star Wars, Smurfs, Ghostbusters, and even a new Nickelodeon version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that cost $8.99 per action figure.

(Ninja Turtles were only $3.89 when I was growing up.)

Even Disney is getting in on the rebooted nostalgic action. The next time you go to a Target, take a look in the clothing aisle for their “Disney Artist Collection,” featuring classic characters like The Cheshire Cat, The Big Bad Wolf, and even Mickey Mouse.

Oh yeah, remember that guy?

There’s actually talk of Mickey Mouse getting his very own movie, for the first time ever; in the likeness of the low-key, classic feel of the Winnie The Pooh movie in 2011.

To be honest, and possibly offensive, if you ask me, Winnie the Pooh needed a make-over anyway, so I applaud the fact that Pooh was brought back with class.

It seems like shortly after I stopped being a kid, Winnie the Pooh became this uncool mascot who I identified with those tacky oversized “nighty” t-shirts at Wal-Mart in the 1990′s.

So go ahead, toy and clothing companies, hit me with your best shot. See if you can convince me, the casual consumer, to buy your nostalgic product based on my own warm and fuzzy memories.

The funny thing is, all I have to do is go to my parents’ house, upstairs to my old bedroom, and pull out the bottom drawer of my dresser.

From there I can unleash on my son all the glory of every action figure I ever owned.

But not yet, the time has not yet come. He’s not ready for all that American splendor.

With that being said, so far I’ve yet to give in to the pressure and buy my son a kick-awesome Lion-O action figure.

But just give it time…

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Mall Toddlers: My Idea For A Straight-To-DVD Kids Movie

September 17, 2012 at 11:59 pm , by 

22 months.

So maybe the “In Theaters March 2013″ part is just wishful thinking. Hey, I’ll settle for straight-to-DVD.

It’s not easy reuniting your toddler with his two best friends from daycare for weekend plans. You’re dealing with three different napping schedules… enough said.

The plan was for Jack, Henry, and Sophie to hang out at a park playground, but then a random thunderstorm showed up.

By 3:45 on a Sunday afternoon, it was difficult to justify paying to get into one of those indoor playgrounds, knowing we would all just need to get our kids home for dinner after about an hour and a half anyway.

So by default, the mall became our play date destination.

I admit, I really had no expectations on how things would go. I mean, normally, I would have low expectations in regards to meeting fellow parents and their kids at a place I haven’t really tried out myself.

Turns out, it was a good gamble. Our German-looking kids found plenty of activities to keep themselves entertained.

All we had to do was follow them around and keep up with them like a camera crew on any given TLC reality show.

The more we chased them, though, the less necessary I felt. I don’t mean that in a sad way, though.

Instead, I could easily imagine it like some straight-to-DVD movie about three toddlers who take over the mall after hours.

Like all those goofy Air Bud movies, the toddlers would have computer-animated mouths and they would talk like adults.

So it would sort of be like Look Who’s Talking meets Air Bud if Air Bud revolved around toddlers instead of athletic dogs.

I suppose the plot line would involve a kooky Croatian villain named Mr. Stincovic who coincidentally happens to sneak into the mall at the same time in order to sabotage Santa’s upcoming visit the next day, by bringing in potato sacks full of skunks.

Does that sound lame enough for a straight-to-DVD kids movie? It doesn’t take much.

In the likeness of Home Alone, the three toddlers would use the mall itself to torture Mr. Stincovic with booby trapped obstacles:

They would pour out Dippin’ Dots in a trail leading from the food court to the carousel, which happens to be running at all times, unmanned.

Once Mr. Stincovic, who goes by “Mr. Stinky” for short,as if the pun wasn’t obvious enough for 4 year-old viewers, lands conveniently on the carousel horse, Henry would pull the lever from “slow” to “turbo power,” causing Mr. Stinky to fly up into the rafters.

There, Mr. Stinky is pestered by a dozen remote controlled mini-helicopters until either A) the police arrive or B) he decides not to sabotage Santa’s visit, but instead becomes an elf, as Mr. Stinky learns the true meaning of Christmas.

So yeah, that’s pretty much what Mall Toddlers would consist of. You would be able to find it the very bottom selection of DVD’s on the Redbox panel screen.

Or instead of waiting for the anticipated world-wide release of Mall Toddlers, you could just check out some more pictures of when Jack, Henry, and Sophie took over the mall. Click here to check them out on The Dadabase‘s Facebook wall.

 

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5 Reasons To Play Chess With Your Child

September 15, 2012 at 11:48 pm , by 

21 months.

I predict that the classic game of chess is about to get real relevant in American pop culture, especially for children.

The book Microtrends explains that as a norm is established in modern society, a complimentary archaic version of that trend begins to surface to counter it.

Some of us, who don’t have nor want Internet on our phones, want to further unplug our lives from all the collective over-stimulation.

Therefore, chess is officially becoming cool. And it’s perfect for kids, despite any preconceived ideas you might have about it being as difficult as a child having to memorize their multiplication tables.

I can’t play Angry Birds nor can I tweet about a boring day at any given moment because I’m part of the counterculture of Generation Y that doesn’t have Internet on my phone, but I can find organic entertainment by pulling out my chess set with someone who is cool enough to play it with me.

It used to be that chess was a game for nerds and Russians, thanks to that “lucky beret” episode ofSaved By The Bell from 1991 entitled “Check Your Mate.”

Well, look at me: I’m not a nerd and I’m definitely not Russian. So let me tell you my 5 reasons to play chess with your child. Chess promotes the following:

1. Uninterrupted quality time: Turn off the TV. Put your phone on silent. Make a chess date with your child. The game of chess has been around for centuries, and once you begin to play it, you catch a sense of simpler, yet still challenging times. Playing chess with your child gives you legitimate and yet nonchalant excuse to make time for your child.

2. Good conversations and laughter. I promise, chess leads to interesting conversations as well as unsuspecting humor. The game causes a person to interact with another human being in an activity with endless possibilities of how the winner will win, unlike many “roll the dice because it’s really just about chance anyway” types of predictable board games.

3. Problem-solving skills. A Kindergartner can definitely learn how to play chess and have fun doing it. I think the key to making this happen is just a willing parent inviting a child to play.

The game of chess forces its players to multi-task, plan ahead, and making real-time executive decisions. Chess disciplines the mind, which I say is ideal for children, as they are constantly yearning for fun new ways to be challenged..

4. Cheap, easy entertainment. Depending on whether the chess pieces are made from plastic, glass, or wood, you’ll probably spend somewhere from 9 to 30 bucks on a decent set. That’s not bad at all considering the monthly prices of satellite TV, which in the process of entertaining a family, often mutes out real communication between its members.

5.  Healthy, addicting habit. The best kind of habit you can help create for your child is one that encourages a bond between the two of you. Whether you’re a mom or a dad and whether your child is a boy or a girl, I believe that if you play a nightly or weekly game of chess with them, your kid will feel pretty darn special.

My own son isn’t even 2 years-old yet, so I still have a couple of years before chess can become “our thing” together. But for those parents whose kid is a little bit older, I invite you to take the “chess challenge.”

Become your child’s chess partner and see what grows of it. And remember, chess isn’t for nerds anymore! It’s for cool parents and cool kids.

Top image: Boy looking at a piece of chess, via Shutterstock.

Bottom image: Father and son playing chess, via Shutterstock.