Boys and their toys!

Being a Mommy to 2 boys has opened up a whole new section of the toy store for me. I wouldn't say that I was a very "girly" girl growing up, but I did love my Barbies and dollhouse. I also enjoyed construction toys like Legos and Tinkertoys, but otherwise I generally avoided the "boy" section of toy store. All the cars, trains, and action figures really didn't interest me at all.

My how times have changed! I couldn't tell you what Barbie or Princess stuff is all the rage since I haven't set foot in the pink section of the toy store in ages. I hear about things like Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pockets from my friends who have girls, but I don't really know what they are. My area of expertise now lies squarely in the Thomas the Tank Engine section. I know the names of all the Thomas trains and keep a running mental catalog of exactly which trains we own, and those we do not, to avoid the dreaded repeat purchase. I've become quite skilled at constructing elaborate tracks and know many adventures from the Island of Sodor by heart. I never quite understood why the boys were so fascinated since the stories seemed boring to me, but I loved their wide-eyed wonder. Now the boys seem to be growing out of their Thomas devotion. They still play trains several times a week, but for shorter and shorter periods. And I really miss it! I guess investing all that time and energy made me a Thomas fan too, even though I didn't realize it.

Over the last 9 months, the boys' growing new obsession has been the characters from the Disney CARS movie. O is devoted to all things Lightning McQueen (the hero) but C favors Chick Hicks (the bad guy) because he loves "smashing and bashing". As an only child, these were two words that never entered my play vocabulary. But the boys have a constant playmate to wrestle, smash, and bash with, so I guess it makes sense. However, even beyond smashing and bashing, their absolute favorite activity is to race cars. They will run endless laps around the couch and never seem to tire. I too have now become a fan of CARS. Knowing all the characters, as well as the incorrect names that O calls them (Fred instead of Frank, Zippity instead of Sheriff, etc) is a must. After all, who else can translate their letters to Santa to make sure he brings the right toys?

Of course, now that I've finally got all the CARS characters down pat, the boys are branching out to all kinds of cars. One of their favorite Santa gifts was some Hot Wheels Trick Tracks. Luckily C & O don't seem that interested in the actual cars themselves; they just enjoy launching them. Which is a good thing, because the hot wheels come 5-10 to a box! In this endless game of catch up, there's just no way this mommy's brain can handle keeping track of those!

1 year ago...

And now...