Ben is three and a half years old. When he turned three and got his new big boys bed, I bought him Thomas the Tank Engine sheets, pillow case, and framed posters on his wall of Thomas and his friends on the tracks. We put a big Thomas train on his dresser for decoration. At that time, he took out his train tracks every day and road those trains on them for a good part of the day. He would say, ”Mom, make me a cool train track”. We watched Thomas videos over and over and over. We replayed the song "Let's Have a Race" until they were tired of racing around the house. Sometimes I got sick of it. Sick of the tracks all over the floor...sick of trying to clean them up only to have them protest....sick of building the "cool train tracks" for him. But despite all of that, I love the trains. I loved watching Sam go through the Thomas phase too. It was such a pleasure to see Ben love them as much. Christmas is easy when your child loves Thomas. A new train, accessories, or tracks, bring huge delight...without fail.
Sometime after we got our basement finished and PlayStation 2 was reconnected on the downstairs TV, Ben started spending more time downstairs watching Sam play. Then he wanted to play himself. Then, even when Sam went to school, Ben would go downstairs, by himself, to play SSX Tricky, or race with a race car game. The trains weren't brought out as much. I can’t even tell you that I was totally aware this was happening. I remember my focus was more on the shock that he would go downstairs to play by himself. I did not focus on what he was leaving behind. He stopped wanting Thomas songs sung to him (I knew all the words), and started wanting me to sing race car songs. I didn't know any (except for the one Anne Margaret sings in Viva Las Vegas). I decided to make them up every night and I still do this. His language changed from talking about Thomas and his friends, their names, their colors and numbers…to talking about what courses he wanted to race on SSX tricky. I've been down there and watched him. Even though he can’t read, he knows every course in a list of about 10. He can identify them by memory. He learned to operate the PS2 all by himself. I can tell you, I’m not exactly proud of this. My child is three and a half. Sam was still way into Thomas at his age and continued on that track until he was five...at least. What happened to my baby? I guess when Sam was little, he didn't have an older brother to look up to. He didn't see PlayStation until later when his cousins got one. It felt like he grew up slower. Not Ben. He’s already fully adept at a game that most kids don’t play until they can read.
When I shopped for his Christmas presents this year, I caved in and got a video game that was more for his age, “Cars” by Disney. As a last ditch effort, I also bought a Geo Tracks train track. He doesn't seem interested in it. When he’s downstairs, he’d rather play PlayStation. Tonight when I tucked Ben into bed and looked around his room, I realized that the Thomas pictures really don’t fit him anymore. I decided I should change them with race car pictures. I asked him if he would like that. He was enthusiastic about saying, "Yes!". The Thomas decor only lasted six months. Who knows what will come after this? Maybe I’ll be wishing for race cars when he has moved on to girls. Since he’s my last boy and there is no one in arrears to pick up where he left off, I feel like I’m saying a final goodbye to Thomas. But I won’t get rid of them. After all, I’ll have grand kids someday…
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