A Child At Play

I’ve been spending my days with my grandson, Jayden while my daughter works. Spending my days with a 3 year-old can be quite the challenge. It can be filled with so much fun and laughter and Jayden is quite the character.

Jayden, like any other 3-year-old, loves Thomas the Train. He has several, all having different names; Thomas, Percy, James, Gordon, Neville, the list goes on and on. I get scolded when I say the wrong name. “No Nana! That’s not James, that’s Percy!” Ok, Percy it is.

Last week while we were eating breakfast, Jayden says:

“Nana, I need to go to the fun store today!”

“You do? Why?”

“Because I need to play with Thomas.”

The fun store is Toys R Us. At Toys R Us they have a section with Thomas the Train set up on a play table for all 3-year-olds to fight over because there’s only 1 train to play with. I mean, if they’re going to have this table out, they need several trains out too!

So, I told Jayden after his nap, we’ll go to the fun store. I figured we’ll go when all the mommies are out there picking up their other kids and Toys R Us will be empty! I remembered the last time we went there one of the employees mentioned that this particular time, 3:00, was her favorite time because all the kids are getting out of school and the little ones are with the mommies picking them up. But at 4:00 the rush will start over, times 4.

After Jayden’s nap, we head over to the ‘fun store’.And the search is on to find Thomas!

He searches and searches.



And finds Thomas!

I find a place on the floor to sit and watch, and he spends an hour and a half playing continently with his friend, Thomas.





I just love his busy little hands hard at work.

Watching him play just cracks me up. I try to talk to him, but most of the time he doesn’t’ hear me. Sometimes he’ll answer, but mostly he’ll just keep playing like I don’t exist.

“Jayden, are you having fun?”

“Jayden, that is such a cool train, huh?”

“Hey, that bridge looks like the Golden Gate Bridge in California! Do you like that bridge?”

“Jayden, what’s that train’s name again?” – he responds with “Choo Cheeeeewwwwwwww” I don’t think he heard my question!

So, I sit and I watch and just enjoy how content he is playing with Thomas.

I mean, there’s some serious playing going on here!

Then finally, Jayden speaks! “Nana, I’m almost done. I need to park Thomas.” Oh good! He’s done! But what I didn’t know was parking Thomas was a time consuming effort as well!

Once Thomas was parked, Jayden wanted to go home and play with his Thomas train set. I’m amazed at how a child can be so content playing with a toy for hours upon hours.

Thank you Thomas for entertaining Jayden at the fun store! Looks like you had a good time too!