Tommy
Where Are All the Girls?
Jan 27th
This evening, before going to bed, Tommy was looking through a little Geotrax pamphlet, which lists all the available Geotrax trains (which include a driver) that the company makes. As he was admiring the trains, he stops for a second and asks me, “Hey… where are all the girls?”
Hmm. Good question. Apparently Geotrax has no female trains or drivers. Which makes sense, given that the line is largely marketed to boys. Still, I find it interesting that Tommy seemed to think it strange that there were no Geotrax girls. I guess even at his tender young age, he realizes that girls make the world a whole lot more interesting. 
Good for you, Tommy. Good for you.
The Little Engine That Couldn’t?
Jan 25th
A favorite book of Tommy’s these days is The Little Engine That Could. Every night he has us read that to him, and then he in return reads it back to us. (If you are unfamiliar with the story, essentially an engine has broken down and needs another engine to take its trains over the mountain. It stops 3 engines– a passenger engine, a freight engine, and a rusty old engine– all of which refuse to help. Finally a little engine, one that is only used to switch trains in the yard, appears and offers to take the trains over the mountain. And, of course, it repeatedly says, “I think I can”– demonstrating the power of positive thinking.)
However, Tommy seems to have gotten entirely the wrong message from that book. Rather than coming away with “I think I can”, he seems most riveted by the phrase used by the rusty old engine: “I can not, I can not, I can not.”
If he doesn’t want to do something– be it eat, brush his teeth, or put on his clothes– he tells me, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” I try to tell him that the rusty old engine wasn’t nice, because he didn’t even try. Doesn’t matter. He likes that phrase better, it seems.
Today, his retelling of the story was a bit different. He was doing really well, right up until he got to the rusty old engine. After that, every page became, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” The little blue engine that came to help instead said, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” ….The end. Sad story. 
Come on, books shouldn’t use such a catchy bad phrase! Tommy couldn’t possibly be the only kid over the last 80 years to take away this message instead… could he?
Elevator Adventures
Jan 24th
Today we had a bit of a mishap with the elevator. Tommy got on by himself, and wound up on another floor all alone.
Here’s the story as told by each of the players in this drama:
Toby’s version:
We had been cooped up in the house all day, so I decided to take Tommy out and get some fresh air. We set off ahead of Meighan and Athena and made our way towards the elevators. By the time we got there, I realized that Meighan and Athena were still not ready, so I leaned over to look at the street below as I waited for them.
The next thing I know is I hear what sounds like an elevator closing and sound of “clang” as if someone had hit a door with a scooter… it took me a moment to realize what happened… and when I turned around, sure enough, Tommy was missing. Oh snap!
I looked over at our apartment and saw Meighan exiting. I shouted, “Tommy left in the elevators without us!” and proceeded to call another elevator.
Of course as luck would have it, I get the other one, so I got in and tried to think where he might have gone… he knows how to press “2″, so I tried for that as my first option. As I passed around floor 7, I hear a “waaaAAAAAAAAAAaaa…aaa…h..”. Ok, I passed him… Yay…
When I reach the second floor, I’m greeted by our surprised neighbor wondering why I haven’t left the elevator yet… she gets on and I press the button to our floor (she’s in the unit next to us), explaining Tommy got in the elevators by himself… when suddenly I hear “wwwwwAaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHh….h…h…..” as I pass floor 3… oh great… he moved… (Our building’s elevators stop at 3 and 7, so I suspect it cycled the elevators when I sent the elevator back up…).
I drop her off then head back down to floor 3 and find… nothing. Greeaaat… Ok, I run up the stairs to 4… 5… no Tommy. Hmm, at this point I hear no crying, so I figure I should try going back to second floor. When I get there, to my surprise, I see Meighan, Athena, AND Tommy. Wee…
He explains to me he got lost and cried. So I explained to him my story of passing him in the elevators and hearing him cry. I try to ask him what his side of the story was and what I got was…
“So, what happened Tommy?” (Me)
“I cried.” (Tommy)“Ok… um, before the crying, you pushed a button… and?” (Me)
“Then I cried!” (Tommy)“Err… but before that, you got in the elevator, did you try holding it open?” (Me)
“Yes.” (Tommy)“I guess you might have pushed close instead, then you tried tho hold it with your scooter.” (Me)
“Yes, but then I got lost. And cried. Then you found me.” (Tommy)Well, you could say it makes up for being stuck in the house all day. If anything, I didn’t have any trouble with him not wanting to hold my hand on the walk to Burger King.
Meighan’s version:
I was trying to get myself and Athena ready. Toby was at the end of the hallway, by the elevators, and I was just heading out the door. Toby called out something to me. I assumed he was telling me that he and Tommy were going to wait for us downstairs, so I started heading towards the elevators. They were of course already gone by the time I got there, as expected, though oddly the doors opened as soon as we arrived at the elevator without us needing to press the button. We got in, and along the way, the elevator stopped at the 3rd floor. I heard a kid crying and assumed it was some kid with his mother about to get on; however, a hysterical Tommy got on instead, saying that he had lost his mommy. I waited a few seconds for Toby to follow before realizing that Tommy had been alone on that floor. We got out on the 2nd floor and I comforted him while waiting for Toby.
Tommy’s version:
I got off alone. I cried when I got off alone. Daddy went past me, and [Mommy] found me.
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