The Thomas Collection Begins...

I just can't believe that in 14 days, he'll be a year old. This year has flown by! That footed sleeper that he's wearing in these pics is an 18-month size! He just loves this little car thing that his Uncle Mattias let him have. Daddy pushes him in it all over the house and he just thinks that it's the best thing there is.

Right now, we're in the process of moving some of the things that he's outgrown (like the baby swing) into the guest room and we're starting to fix up his baby room to be more suited to a toddler.

We've also decided on his Christmas and Birthday presents. Over the weekend, we went to Target and got the Thomas take along tracks & some trains for his birthday....and for Christmas, we got another set of 'elevation' tracks and some more trains. All we need now is a train table and he'll be set. Thanks to my boss Stan's educational & extensive discussion on Thomas stuff, he was the one that told me the difference between 'take-a-long' Thomas and the regular Thomas.

From what I've seen in the stores, the take-a-long Thomas stuff is a little smaller and the tracks are a little narrower. It also appears to be much cheaper than the metal die-cast full size Thomas trains as well, which is a bonus. On the box, it says "exclusively for Target".....does that mean that from now on, we can only shop at Target to buy these trains? If so, that's a great marketing gimmick since new parents are the ones that are inclined (or have to) buy new toys for their toddlers since we don't have anybody to hand me down any toys.

Seeing the amount of stuff available for Thomas train collectors at Target, this will give us something easy to choose for all future presents until he figures out what he really likes and what he's really into. (At least that's what I'm hoping ...)