The Winner is...Lightning McQueen

I never thought I'd see the day when Dallin chose something over Thomas the Tank Engine. Not only that, but I didn't realize how sad I would be over it. Dallin's love of Thomas started when he was 20 months. I worked at the YMCA and his favorite thing to play with was the train table. When Costco had their train tables on sale for Christmas in September, I did not wait to buy it. I pictured Dallin quietly playing, while I did whatever I wanted. :-) He wouldn't go near it at first, and I was so surprised and disappointed. I finally figured out it was because the train table came with "generic" trains. I had never heard of Thomas, and here my 1 1/2 year old is a "Thomas snob!" I bought Dallin's first Thomas train off of someone whose kids had grown out of it, and from there on, Dallin was hooked. He wouldn't go anywhere without Thomas. Before he was 2 he could name about 20 trains and their colors and numbers. He could recognize them by their faces and was constantly correcting me. (Still one of his favorite things to do. :-)) Over the next 3 years,
he collected many trains, and built many tracks. He would spend hours building and rebuilding cool tracks. Lately, he has been "designing" the track on paper and then building it. That has been fun to watch. We went to "Day Out with Thomas" for the past 3 summers and he was in heaven.
Thomas trains were the expensive prize for potty training, and grandma had fun buying Thomas trains for 40% off at Michael's. Everyone loved adding to his collection and he was easy to buy for. He really did learn a lot from Thomas. His first words he could spell were the names of the trains. M-u-r-d-o-c-h was a particularly fun one to hear a 3 year old spell! We have had some good times.

Well, move over Thomas! Now there is a fast, red car by the name of Lightning. Maybe Thomas is too slow for Dallin. Who knows? All I know, is Dallin is in love with Disney Cars. He doesn't ask for Thomas shirts anymore, but he wants a Cars shirt. He doesn't want a Thomas room anymore- he wants a Cars room. He still played with his trains for a while, but the other day I was shocked when his friend came over and said, "Can we go upstairs and play trains?" Dallin said no. But the big shocker came when we had our preschool gift exchange. Dallin's gift to give was a Lightning McQueen car that says things when you drop it like, "I was built for speed, not slammin!" When he opened the gift from his old Thomas buddy, Ethan, he had a disappointed look when he saw it was a James (Thomas train) pull train. I couldn't believe it. Luckily, Ethan was equally disappointed by Lightning McQueen, so they traded back and went home with their own gifts.

So, that is the end of my tale. Thomas has provided us with many memories. Emily likes to play with Thomas. And hopefully Baby #3 will love Thomas as well.