My toddler, like almost any young boy you'll find today, was completely enraptured with Thomas the Tank Engine in all his wonderful, stop-motion glory. For 15 minutes at a time, he would sit in silent awe, only daring to gently mouth the word "Thomas" with severe reverence lest he somehow disturb the characters on the television. He would grip his tiny hands around his two favorite trains: Thomas (natch), and Percy (though, try having your two year old say THAT name to you and not want to cringe/giggle/ask him to say it again. Say it out loud in your best two-year-old voice. AH, now you get it.). He was so excited about wearing his Thomas T-shirt, or using his Thomas blanket in his bed that had Thomas sheets...he was quite the fanatic.
Then he started to lean towards Caillou, lovable, whiny, bald Caillou. Caillou and his little sister Rosie. Caillou and his frequently missing cat, Gilbert. Caillou and his gimmie-whatever-drugs-she's-on Mama. Etc, etc. Maybe two months go by where Caillou is the top entertainment dog, not Thomas.
This brings us to last month, where I unearth the "Hero of the Rails" Thomas DVD that I'd misplaced. I was really happy to have found it and was so sure that he would be, too, that I popped it in the DVD player immediately and proclaimed it MOVIE TIIIIIIMMMMEEEE!
Why did my toddler run into his room and hide behind the door?
All of a sudden, he's terrified of Thomas. He won't watch it on TV, won't use his blanket, and most certainly won't go near that DVD. I tried showing him an old Thomas DVD that he had liked but I was met with cries of "NO THOMAS!"
"Hero of the Rails" is a CGI movie; Thomas is generally stop action. I vaguely recall a couple of girlfriends saying that their toddlers, all Thomas freaks, were scared of the HOTR movie...but how could my guy watch it several times and THEN develop a fear of it? Is this a phenomenon? Do your kids fear the CGI Thomas?
It's sad that he's letting this go, because we had fun as a family playing and watching Thomas. We will mourn him. I will mourn him especially while watching Caillou DVDs on repeat.
OMG! That's crazy, I so wish Owen would be come afraid of Thomas.lol he's gotten better but he still loves it!!.O likes the CGI better then the old school kind!! SO when ever you need a break from Caillou (which I KNOW you will.lls) call me and we can trade boys for a bit ;)
ReplyDeleteHoller! I'm all over it!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA! I can't believe that annoying Caillou is still around. I can STILL hear his whiny little voice saying "Ro-SIE!" after his sister did something to annoy him, yet again, for the fifth time in the episode. I also thought that it was extremely realistic and fun to watch the mom who never seemed to get upset or the kids' antics. Yeah, whatever lady!
ReplyDeleteOops. I think I deleted my last comment. It basically said that your story made me laugh out loud and I almost fell out of my chair. I hope you don't mind that I'm putting you as the comment of the day on my blog.
ReplyDeleteps If the last comment went through, feel free to erase this one.