Cousin Alex and the Thomas Catalog

Cousin Alex is still one of the most wonderfully energetic people I’ve ever met.  He bounces all of his waking hours.  One day while we were visiting  Grandma Kathy, I happened to notice him sitting very still on the couch.  This is kind of a rare moment, so I crept closer to investigate.  It turns out he had located the Thomas the Train catalog.  You might remember from last summer that Alex’s catalog reading habits debuted at the cabin with just such a Thomas the Train Catalog.  It is truly remarkable how transfixed he becomes with the catalog.

I snuggled right up next to him on the couch and together we closely examined pages and pages of train engines and other Thomas vehicles.  We scrutinized track layouts and accessories.  I was not surprised that my brilliant nephew knew the name of almost every Thomas the Train vehicle in the catalog.  Eventually we came to the ultra deluxe track set, the biggest and best track set in the catalog.

“Auntie Rachel!  I like THIS one!” he excitedly pointed.  “I take this one to my house and play with it.”

“That would be fun, wouldn’t it!”  I said.

“Auntie Rachel!  You get this for me now!”

“Oh, I wish I could.  We would have a lot of fun driving trains on that track, wouldn’t we.”

“Yes.  You get it out of the book now.”

“Hmmm.  Well, it doesn’t really work that way.  It’s just a picture on a page.”

“Yes.  You take it out of the page and we play with it.”

“Well, I could try, I guess.”  I pause and scoop my hand over the track set.  “See, it doesn’t come out.   It’s stuck on the page.”

“Auntie Rachel!  Why track stuck on page?  You get it out of book.  I want to take it home.  It shouldn’t be stuck.”

Grandma Kathy and I tried really hard to talk him through the fact that we really just couldn’t get the track out of the book.  He ended up rather disgusted with us.  He totally cracks me up, that persistent nephew of mine.