...says Thomas! Click-clack, down the track! Thomas and Friends! I'm huffing and puffing up the hill! I'm shunting, Mommy. Thomas needs my help! Where's your freight? Clear the tracks!
These are the things we hear all day long, from our little Train-Lover, RJ. He talks in Thomas-talk. Phrases from that wacky, British television show about trains. RJ doesn't get mad, he gets Cross. Heading up the stairs? "No, I'm going up the hill." Dropped something on the floor? "Flatten my Funnel!" he exclaims. Have you ever noticed just how much Thomas and his friends curse? "Cinders and Ashes!" they shout when things don't go their way. "Bust my Buffers!" "Fizzling Fireboxes!" and more. If I could just re-habit my potty mouth with all Thomas phrases... But, back to RJ. He speaks in appropriately-timed Thomas talk for just about any situation. Just the other day he farted, and happily shouted that he "Pumped his Pistons." Now that one had us all rolling with laughter.
Does it sound like we watch too much TV? It might. Until we clarify that we still don't have cable, and we use Netflix sparingly for shows, and that we have gotten run over by not one, but two entirely different stomach bugs, since Christmas Eve, in this house, grabbing ahold of each of us with explicit timing. So, yeah, the Boob Tube has been on a bit more than usual for whatever sickies happen to be on the couch. Which means we've watched a lot of Thomas. Thankfully Netflix has about 20 Thomas the Train episode collections, compared to the ONE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode. And for some reason, even the big kids like watching Thomas.
Outside play has been still available this winter for us, with an occasional measly couple inches of snow. The local forecasters screwed up big with the first storm forecast, and are now just walking around in circles with their heads still completely up their asses, so we don't even listen to them anymore. We never did get the 2 feet of snow they promised, which also shut down the town, the state, and the local schools for 2 days. Sometimes it starts to snow, but no one gets too excited. Once we got about 5 inches, and it was good sticky snow, and Riley made her first snowman of the season.
The kids bundled up and went out to play for hours, enjoying what little was there and playing with our fleet of trucks. They sledded down our back hill until the snow was gone and the leaves wouldn't let the sleds slide down anymore.
Trucks and buckets!
This guy likes his "pockets."
Then it rained. And rained, and rained. For about a day and a half. And turned our snow into MUD.
There's that nice, big, low spot in the backyard where the neighborhood's water collects when it rains.
Roger decided the warmer weather meant it was time to clean up the driveway side of the house a little bit, which eventually meant I had to come and help move something heavy. So, the inevitable time had come, and we dressed the kids up in their snow clothes, and sent them outside.
We half-heartedly said, "Stay away from the mud puddle..." full well knowing that it wouldn't really happen.
RJ, of course, was first in. One of his favorite Thomas episodes is 30 minutes of trains splashing through mud puddles... so it was not very long before we heard a little voice yelling, "Splish, Splash, Sploosh!" just like Thomas.
He does not even care that his face is crusted with mud and boogers.
At least I had put on a crockpot of homemade Beef Stew, a perfect end to our Muddy Day outside.
