We bought tickets months ago to the “A Day With Thomas” event that comes to Calera once a year (although it is next weekend as well, if you want to head on over for yourself). Ali has never been, and with her unbelievable love obsession with Thomas, we knew that it would be a dream come true for her.
We’ve hyped it for weeks, and this week it has been a constant source of conversation. Every day we talk about the Thomas countdown, and she has been elated with the upcoming event.
I’m not going to lie. . . when we were walking up, just thinking about how unbelievable this must be for Ali, I got a bit choked up.
I know.
Totally cheesy.
But you know – I get all into living life through Ali’s eyes, and then I start to feel what it must feel like to see a “celebrity” whom you adore with all your being.
So we got up to Thomas, and. . .
Who are you and what have you done with my child??!!!?!? Let’s try again. . . aren’t you excited??
No smiles, AND she didn’t want to go up to him, AND wanted to move away as fast as she could, Thankyouverymuch.
In fact, she was acting rather “I woke up on the wrong side of the crib” all around.
IN FACT, she wasn’t too excited at all. Until she found a PUDDLE to splash in.
Oh yes, and a “balance beam”.
And this is one of those moments that you have to accept the fact that you are a parent of a two year old, and two year olds don’t always do what you expect them to. I mean, I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed that she seemed moody on the day that we had been anticipating for months, but I really tried to get over it and try and help her get out of her funk.
And, of course, in the back of my mind, I also over-analyzed what in the world caused this odd streak of moodiness.
Was it because we woke her up to get here in time? I mean, it WAS 9:20 – how sleepy could she have been??
Was she cold? It was chillier than I expected. . . maybe I should have put her in long sleeves.
Oh, the constantly spinning mind of a mother.
At any rate, she managed to rise above her mood after a while and settled into having a good time (although STILL insisting that splashing in all of the puddles was much more fun than any of the countless fun Thomas options). So here was the rest of our Day with Thomas:
She enjoyed playing “old timey railroad”. . .
And of course, so did Daddy:
The “big top” of Thomas merchandise really excited her. It was crazy:
But she loved it. And, thank goodness for two years old, she doesn’t quite yet get the concept of asking us to buy everything for her. She just likes looking.
We waited expectantly in line for our 30 minute train ride. She declared that we would be riding on Annie.
She didn’t let go of her ticket the whole ride.
And, of course, the heating vents with the “CAUTION: VERY HOT. DO NOT TOUCH” signs on them were MUCH more fun to sit on than the seats.
So we rode on the seats, and she rode on the heater vent. Where she couldn’t see anything. Go figure.
The conductor came around and handed out Junior Engineer Certificates. She couldn’t have been prouder of her accomplishments:
Daddy “Fell Asleep”, which bothered her. She decided that he must need a kiss to wake up. So she laboriously climbed up and stood up while the train rocked back and forth and took her time trying to figure out how to get over to Daddy. . .
And then only to be surprise-attack-kissed by Daddy right before waking him up!
That helped the moodiness too.
As did taking Mommy and Daddy’s umbrella and sitting on the OTHER heating vent across the aisle (apparently we were unattractive people to sit next to – we had 10 seats to ourselves)
She was a bit suspicious of the conductor. I think that she, like her Mommy, was confused as to why he had a hairnet over his Conductor’s hat:
We waited in line to meet Sir Topham Hatt. I was a bit put off that he only came out once an hour. I mean, why can’t the man sit there and see children? How hard could it be? THEN I realized why. Out came this lumbering, cartoonish, apparently-completely-blinded-by-his-outfit character (because he had to be escorted and stood where he was supposed to stand by THREE people). It was quite shocking. As it was to Ali also:
Yeah. She would NOT stand near, touch, hug, or in general take her eyes off of that suspicious character.
And this was as close of a photo-op that she was going to give us, as she was quickly running away from him:
And then, of course, we ended our Day with Thomas by . . .
splashing in puddles.
She is such a doll! I love all the outfits you put her in! I can’t wait for spring…we’re supposed to get three inches (of snow) tonight here in the great Northwest so enjoy your warm temperatures!
We’re going next Friday, if you care to try again with all the fun stuff. Maybe having some familiar faces with her might help her enjoy it more? We’re riding the train at 10:30 (our first year to ride the Thomas train), so we will be doing the fun stuff by 11:15 or so. (Yes, I am taking Harris out of school to ride Thomas. Does that make me very cool or very irresponsible?)
The weather is always unpredictable on the weekends that Thomas is in town. Usually rainy, with flucuating periods of warm and cool temps. And then there was the year that severe weather was threatening at any moment. Has any of that stopped us? Nope. ‘Cuz we’re crazie like that. :)
Maybe it was just too overwhelming seeing Thomas “in person.” She looks so cute in that outfit though.
We took Tyler to see Thomas for his third birthday and invited some friends to come. I tried to make a Thomas cake and oh, the tears that flowed, (from me) because it did not turn out right.
Of course the kids did not even notice.
I am still laughing about the hairnet!! That whole experience seemed so funny and I am loving you have all of it recorded! Ali will appreciate it one day.
LOVED the suprise attack kiss! Too cute!!
i always wanted to take my DS to see him, but it always landed on a weekend that didn’t work for us. now he’s too old. you just never know what toddler’s are thinking. :)
Well, she looked adorable! And I have to side with Ali…that Hatt guy is prrrretty creepy (you can tell I’m not a Thomas the Train fan.)
It sure looks like you had a great time seeing Thomas despite the “moodiness”. She was really perking up as the day went on.
That is so funny about her reaction. Mia went when she was 2 with my mom and Jon’s mom (I had just come home from the hospital with Averi) and it was the SAME way. We had hyped her up for weeks and she liked did like it, but it wasn’t quite the reaction we had hoped for from a Thomas lover. Averi on the other hand couldn’t care less about Thomas right now:)
I love Ali’s face when she’s looking at the hairnet guy. Love her dress and her hair is getting so long and pretty too!
Jackson would love that, but the only times on Saturday that we could go are already full. I’ll have to remember that for next year.
Ok, I exaggerated I guess b/c I am obviously the first commenter on this one. HAHAHA. I loved reading this post again. This post is one of the reason we decided to wait and do Disney until K is older! This would probably be exactly what would happen.
And I just noticed that we have the same outfit Ali is wearing in this picture! I got it on sale in a big size so maybe K can wear in this year.
And yes, those were K's jammies on S! They were always some of my favorites. I loved the sweet pattern.
Okay.
I'm done talking now. :)