November 3, 2012 at 1:40 pm , by Nick Shell

23 months.

A train museum is Disneyland for a nearly 2-year-old boy.

I’m all for Disney theme parks and I’m really looking forward to the day my son Jack will be old enough to remember and appreciate a magical experience like that.

But for now, as he nears his 2nd birthday, a trip to the California State Railroad Museum was all he needed.

From seeing giant automatic train villages, to touring 1930′s train cars, to hanging out at the elaborate Thomas the Train play station, this was one museum that my squirmy son could not get enough of.

I’m seriously having trouble understanding what it would be like to have an American toddler son in the year 2012 who is not obsessed with trains.

What theme is your son infatuated with if not for everything locomotive?

If Thomas the Train and his die cast metal friends aren’t the theme of your son’s birthday party, and if he didn’t dress up as a train or a conductor for Halloween, and if he doesn’t have to carry out toy trains everywhere he goes, including to bed, well… what is he into?

This is all I know: Trains.

If this were the year 1995, Jack would have a t-shirt with a train on the front and the writing would read, in big letters:

“Life is trains. The rest is just details.”

The truth is, before my son got into trains, my preconceived idea about little boys liking trains is that it was sort of… nerdy.

But now I have been converted to the rough and tumble world of trains.

With all the soot and metal and crashing and American history, not to mention that most of the cast of Thomas and Friends is male, I no longer think trains are a dorky theme for my son.

So this election season, please know where I stand on this issue. I strongly support my son and his enthrallment of locomotives.

My best advice for anyone making travel plans for this upcoming holiday season, see where the closest train museum is and take your toddler son there.

If he has not yet been introduced to the world of trains, then make today the day.

Can I get a woot-woot?

 

 

October 9, 2012 at 10:18 pm , by Nick Shell

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.