Sunday, March 30, 2008

Watch with Mother

Whoa, is that the date? Somehow this week has totally disappeared. I say ‘somehow’ but really I know exactly what’s happened and I’ve been dreading this week for ages. A combination of out-of-town meetings and in-town social engagements with good friends meant that this was always going to be a week where I spent less time with my little bundle of fatness than I would have liked and more time roaming out and about like a real human. Luckily for my Motherhood brain, the Frog has been working all the hours in the world and so spud and I have had weekends together. All this loveliness in the state of my working, social and home lives however does mean that anything involving my own personal life, such as, oh, I don’t know, brushing my hair, paying my bills, er, blogging, has been pushed into the cupboard under the stairs with the ghost of Harry Potter.

So, here I am. Today was quite a good day, not least because it marked the end of all the busy-ness but partly because me and my spud had some tickets to Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends live on stage. A very clever friend of mine has put this show together with the proper Thomas people and it was really rather good. Hordes of screaming boys - and I think the audience was mainly boys – hordes of little, sticky, screaming boys waving lit-up Thomases on sticks and tugging giant Thomas balloons were shouting ‘toot toot’ on command and standing on their seats so that they could better see the trains.

I showed up with three friends, two of whom had boys of the Thomas age who already have all the Thomas books and half the toys and one with a small Einstein aged as the spud – a year and a half. And speaking 81 words.

Now, I must confess that I have not introduced the spud to Thomas the tank engine as yet, mainly because I don’t think he’d be that interested and partly because I am hesitant to introduce that level of pester power to my life given the alarming number of Thomas-brand toys on the market.

Given that the spud is therefore a Thomas-free zone and that he is, as I believe I may have said, only 18 months old and still formulating early relationships with things like stuffed toys and books, it rather seemed to me as though I may have wasted our tickets and that all that singing and dancing and giant train content might just be so much noise to him. My vision of the day went something along the lines of ‘find seat, spend fifteen minutes restraining the spud, lights go down, spend half an hour stopping the spud from tearing out the hair of the person in front and then slink out accompanied by Einsein’s Mum and her equally uninterested infant and head somewhere sane for coffee.'

Not to be. He loved it. He was transfixed the entire show – both halves he sat in my lap absolutely enthralled, munching on his cheese and raisins and watching everything intently – even struggling to stand up in my lap when someone in front blocked his view.

Well well well. There we have it – I have underestimated my little pomme de terre and I perhaps owe him an apology. I may have to wrap it in Thomas the tank engine wrapping paper however that will have to wait for another, less busy day.

9 comments:

Ms Anonymous said...

Oooh one of my besty's has 2 little boys, one is nearly 4 and the other is 16 months old. Mr 4 has hearted Thomas the Tank for forever cause his dad works at the train station and they live across the road from a train track. Mr 16m loves Thomas cause Mr 4 loves Thomas. I love Thomas. I love red wine. I love it a little too much. Sorry I'm leaving that scar all over your blog.

Anonymous said...

Is Thomas the Tank the blue one? I think we have one of those, bought at a flea market, but not sure. Don't know the story at all. Must learn more!

Very sympathetic on the time thing. Don't have much against not paying bills except for those nasty extra fees that accumulate. And every two weeks or so I have to spend an hour brushing the big knot that once was a head of luscious pantene worthy curls. And I really have to devise some method for me to check if I've actually had a bad within the last three days or not. Good thing my blog buddies can't smell me...

Sparx said...

Ms Anonymous - yes, I heart red wine too... never mind the scar, I'm sure it'll come out with some salt.

Jennie - you don't know Thomas? Man, you are one lucky person. And really, I can't smell you. Which is good, because you can't smell me either. Deal?

Jen said...

I have heard other people talk about taking their toddler to a show of some sort, but the visions I have in my head are much scarier than yours. They would have to be free tickets for me to attempt it. I'm glad the Spud enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

Jonathan is starting to get into Thomas the Train a little bit. I don't how he would do at a live show, but I'd be willing to try it some time. That is awesome that you got the chance.
I don't know if you watch the show over there and who narrates it but over here it is either George Carlin or Alec Baldwin. Both creep me out a bit and the fact they are doing a children's program creeps me out a little more. But still, I enjoy it because Jonathan does. NOt as much as Max and Ruby, but he still likes it.

Anna K. said...

boondockramblings let me know that you were blogging about Thomas and I had to stop by. My son LOVES Thomas. Last summer we went to a train depot that had a Day Out With Thomas event. I don't know when I've ever seen my son quite that excited! We all had a blast and he still talks about getting to meet Thomas and his first train ride.
I love that you're watchful over which toys/characters your son is interested in. Wish more parents did that. Overall, I like Thomas. It has done wonders to promote his vocabulary and it's not obnoxiously mind-numbing like so many cartoons can be these days.

DJ Kirkby said...

Oh N3S would have loved this sooooo much, why does nothing on this scale of interesting happen down our end of south?

Sparx said...

Jen - you know, it wasn't actually that bad, I bet Dylan would love it!

Jonny's Mommy - I haven't seen the show over here but I'm sure it exists... I'm not avoiding it or anything, it's just not on Ceebeebies, or at least not any time we watch and that's the only channel for kids that we can get.

Anna K - nice to meet you! I'm not really anti-Thomas, I just worry about having to buy all the kit. I had Thomas books when I was a kid and I remember loving them so will definitely read them to him at some point.

DJ - it might happen to you, I think it's doing a tour! I bet N3S would really love it. Google it, you might find out where the tour is heading.

Michelle said...

Hi Sparx! Yes, it's just Michelle here. My 4 year old son loved watching the Thomas shows and reading the books but has since left Thomas behind for race cars and drawing. I live in such a small town that shows like the one you described are an hour's drive away. But after reading your description, I just might try attending with kids in tow.