Thomas' Train Stories

I don't remember which happened first - did we do something that made Luffy interested in trains or was he interested in trains and we reinforced by buying him railway-themed books and toys. We did travel a few times via train when he was younger though so maybe that was how the fascination with trains started.

That naturally led to us (likely Preeti) buying him a Thomas' Train Stories book and luckily for him, one of Preetis' friends gifted Luffy a Thomas & Percy train set. We never ever put the entire toy railway set together - he is more than hapy playing with the Thomas and Percy engines.

And it's surprising how relevant this book still is to our lives. The book has been around for more than an year, if i remember correctly, but even as early as last week, we were going through it and reading through some of the stories.

And for Preeti and me, some of our funniest memories with Luffy are linked to this book. Like for example the "Thomas and Percy and the Dragon" story which Luffy loved reading through - and he would pronounce "Dragon" as "dadon". Every flip of the page, he would call out "dadon". Or the "James Goes Buzz, Buzz" story because of which James became known in our family as "James Katawala" which roughly translates to "James with the sting" when it should actually be "James who got stung".

P.S. As I write this, "The Close Shave" is our current favorite because he now shaves me. Today morning, he pointed out that my beard was too long (4 days old) and that I should shave. And after I applied my shaving cream, he came over and started shaving me. Preeti was aghast, especially because of how quickly Luffy was moving the razor and how much pressure he seemed to be applying to my face. No cuts. This time.

P.P.S. And how could I forget that this book was probably what started Luffys' fascination with stickers. To the point that we sometimes bribe him with stickers to get him to eat lunch.