Percy Really Does Go Backwards!

One evening, CJ told me that 'dcolemanh' (his favorite YouTube creator) made his battery-powered Hank go backwards by putting tin foil between the battery and the connector, where the battery goes is backward.

Now, remember that I'm a liberal arts mommy. Making trains go backwards is not my specialty. But I wanted to try this out with CJ so I dutifully took a tiny piece of tin foil, folded it carefully and put it behind the battery. You guessed it. It didn't work. CJ and I were really disappointed.

That evening, I told Maki about our misadventure and he just looked at me funny. I asked him if putting tin foil would really make the train go backward and his computer science self gave me an "I can't believe you don't know this stuff" look. He took a piece of tin foil, carefully folded it so that it fit neatly into the back contact area. Then he put the battery in backward and explained that by reversing the battery in a DC motor, you CAN make it go backward.

My liberal arts self was dumbfounded when CJ turned on Percy and the train indeed went backwards! CJ squealed in delight and I realized again how lucky CJ is to have a liberal arts mommy and a computer science daddy. :-) I swear, I'm just in awe of what Maki knows.

Thomas at Rolling River Bridge with Annie and Clarabel

CJ and Maki have been creating ever more elaborate track sets.  This week, they made rolling river bridge in our kitchen.  Check out the video of Thomas pulling Annie and Clarabel, his trusty coaches.

Santa Claus

This is the first year that CJ is really excited about Santa Claus.  We've been taking him to see Santa Claus for the past three Christmases, watching Polar Express and talking about Santa Claus, but this is the first year that CJ has talked about Santa, asked questions about him, thought about what it means to be bad and not get presents, etc.

We've seen two Santas this holiday season.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to the mall with my sister and niece to see Santa.  We went early so the mall wasn't packed.  CJ was less nervous about sitting on a stranger's lap than in years past and he knew just what to say when Santa asked him what he wanted: Trackmaster Thomas and battery-powered Percy.

At CJ's holiday party at school last week, Santa arrived and once again, the kids lined up to sit on St. Nick's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas.  It's interesting that CJ did not note that Santa looked different, nor wonder why Santa needed to hear from him twice about what he wants for the holidays.

We even have CJ's Christmas wish list on our fridge.  As expected, the list is full of Thomas gear.  So I've lined up the entire family to get CJ the various trains and tracks that he wants.  Our living room and hall closet are now filled with four sets of trains and tracks:

• grey plastic tracks and take along trains
• wooden tracks and what CJ calls lead along trains
• grey tracks and battery-powered trains
• Lego tracks and trains

I just hope that CJ's fascination with trains doesn't wane to soon because we have a small fortune locked up in trains. 

CJ's Terrific Tracks

Yesterday, CJ made some amazing train tracks, the best he's ever done. He made a track that went around the carpet and coffee tables, as well as inside tracks with lots of curves.

CJ is still just crazy about Thomas the Tank Engine and making tracks. He calls it "playing trains." So now, we have: wooden tracks, brown tracks and Lego tracks AND take along trains, wooden trains (CJ calls them lead alongs), battery-powered trains and Lego trains.

CJ has asked for more trains for Christmas. He's even asked me to make this Christmas list and put it on the fridge.

CJ is Making Train Tracks by Himself

Just recently, CJ started making large and complex train tracks all by himself.  This is new.  In the past, Maki or I would help him with the Y pieces and the connections through the turntable.  But now, he knows how to insert junctions, make the tracks curve around the table or couch, and create parallel tracks.  Very impressive!

CJ still likes it when people "play trains" with him, but proudly reports to me that he "made the tracks all by himself."

Thomas Movies on YouTube

If you've met CJ, you know that he loves Thomas the Tank Engine.  He has several types of trains (battery-powered, take alongs and lead alongs), books, CDs, DVDs, and clothing.  CJ prefers Thomas episodes over any other show.  I don't mind because the episodes are short, they are easy to follow, and they always have life lessons.  When I need CJ to behave, I tell him that I need him to be a "really useful big boy" and that almost always works. :-)

We have an Apple TV, which lets us surf YouTube on our large screen TV.  For fun one day, we searched for Thomas and boy were we surprised to find thousands (yes, thousands) of Thomas movies.  People rip episodes and put them online.  I'm surprised they stay up coz some of them are really good quality and are clearly illegal uploads.  Here's Percy's Seaside Trip.

Other people take the original shows and dub them with their own voices, or use their own trains but use the original narrator.  There are even episodes created using Microsoft train simulator - here's Thomas visits the Main Line.

Yet other people create their own original Thomas episodes.  And some of them are really good!  Here's a cute original - Thomas wants to pull the Christmas tree.  This kid obviously has a large collection and room to setup the tracks!

What all this means is an endless supply of Thomas episodes for CJ.  He knows how to use the remote to get on AppleTV and navigate around.  He even knows how to spell Thomas and can do his own searches -- I was stunned when he did this for the first time a couple of months ago.  Just shows to show you what a kid is capable of when motivated.

CJ and Thomas

If you have met CJ, you know that he is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends.  Our friend Emi started us on this odyssey when she handed down a huge tub of engines and tracks to CJ.

CJ LOVES Thomas.  We have take along trains, lead along trains (CJ made up that name for the trains that go on the wooden tracks) and battery-powered trains.  We have a huge collection of tracks, as well as books and DVDs.

It turns out that YouTube has a gigantic collection of Thomas movies as well.  On most nights, we let CJ watch a few Thomas movies that have been uploaded by Thomas fans.  There are real episodes (surely illegal), and homemade movies using CGI and real Thomas trains and tracks.  It's obvious that adults and kids alike have gotten into the game of creating their own Thomas episodes.  Some episodes are less than a minute, while some are 8-10 minutes long and quite extravagant in their plot and effects.

Now CJ wants to make his own Thomas movie and "watch it on TV."  Stay tuned for a Thomas movie by CJ and mommy.

Happy Birthday CJ!

CJ celebrated a very happy birthday yesterday.  My older sister and brother are in town so he got extra attention from a doting aunt and uncle.

He woke up to kisses from mommy and daddy, then was given the green light to open some presents.  Big surprise, he got some new Thomas trains (Rusty, James, Henry), a Thomas poetry book, and some chocolate.

At lunchtime, CJ celebrated with kids from the neighborhood.  My nanny called around 12:30 to say there were 7 nannies and 9 kids visiting our house.  I'm sure CJ was in heaven.

For dinner, CJ wanted sushi so that is what he got.  He actually woke up that morning saying, "Mama, I have a little cough.  Sushi will make it go away."  Hilarious.  He wolfed down 11 pieces of salmon sushi so I guess despite the pizza at lunch time, he was ravenous for sushi.  He also had a bit of shrimp tempura and some edamame (he calls it adamama).

Here is a video of CJ introducing his collection of battery-powered trains.

My favorite part of the day was when CJ woke up asking for kisses.  For months, he had been saying, "no kisses until my birthday" and thank goodness he didn't really mean it.  Yesterday morning, he snuggled up to me and said, "I want kisses for my birthday."  When I planted a few kisses on his check, he said, "more kisses, please" then promptly asked Maki for kisses.  Moments you live for as a mom.

CJ and the big boy Thomas bike

Check out CJ on his new, big boy Thomas bike.  His old tricycle from Jessie was getting too small, so this is his birthday present from mama and dada.  CJ was a natural; he even biked around in the store since the bike was too cumbersome to carry.  Thank goodness it fit in my trunk.

The Toys R Us man recommended a size 14 bike, but CJ felt really unsteady on the larger bike, AND, perhaps most importantly, the Thomas bike only went up to size 12.  So, for $59, I made my son happy.  I can always get a new bike next year.

Here is a video of CJ on his new bike!

There's No One Quite Like Emily

CJ loves to sing.  The Emily song is his current favorite; he sings it a lot.  I think he learned it from YouTube, of all places!