To my biggest surprise, Renzo started telling me stories, based on the episodes of his favorite "Thomas and Friends" he's been watching on and off, for the past 2 years.
He started off with "Emily the late engine, Emily the late engine!!", which is what the troublesome trucks sang when Emily was having a bad day and being late with transporting flours. So I asked him a few questions and led him to explain the entire plot of "Emily's new route". It's a story about how Emily discovers that the "Black Loch Monster" along the Black Loch branch, described by James, is really a family of seals.
Then he went on to tell me the 2nd story: "Don't tell Thomas!"
This is the first episode on the DVD so he remembers it in great details. This time, he almost recited the entire story about how the engines planned a surprise party for Thomas to thank him for his work clearing the lines of snow, but kept the details away from Thomas. He spent at least 20 - 25 minutes on this one.
I thought he would "briefly tell the story in his own words", like what he did with his first story.. Boy, was I so wrong!!!
"Thomas didn't like the winter because there was always lots and lots of snow.."
"So Thomas worked hard all day keeping the lines open.."
"Don't tell Thomas about the surprise, then Harold fly away.."
"Thomas likes surprises.."
"Percy's trucks were loaded with brightly colored boxes.."
"Thomas saw something strange on Emily's truck, it was long and pointy, but it was covered up.."
"Suddenly, Emily turned down one of the branch lines, Thomas raced to the branch line, the signalman changed the points, Thomas had to go straight ahead, 'Cinders and ashes!' Thomas said.."
"'I can't wait,' chuffed Edward, 'He'll love it, ' puffed Percy.. then, Thomas arrived, 'shhhhh,' said James.."
"Everyone knew what the surprise is except for Thomas.."
"It's time for you to collect the children and to see the surprise! It's a special surprise to thank you for keeping the line clear of snow. The children are waiting for you at Wellsworth station.."
"There's a huge Christmas tree, and at the bottom of the tree, there were lots of presents, it's like my Christmas tree, right mummy??..."
These are just some of the sentences he used while telling the story. I couldn't even remember them all, and had to re-watch the DVD to believe how accurate he was, from station names, to conversation among trains, to verbs he used. You would think a four years old could barely say something like, "Thomas is angry and he go away...", but Renzo exclaimed: "He then raced down the track, Thomas is cross!"
I almost burst into laughter when he finished the story with, "Then, next, the music.. 'They're two they're four they're six they're eight; Shunting trucks and hauling freight'.", well yes after each episode, the "Thomas and friends" song is played. He could sing that since he was 2+. I was pleasantly surprised with how much details he could remember from the story, he even used the correct tenses throughout, probably because he was simply reciting the whole script. And now I know why he suddenly likes to use the word "except for" recently, though he always pronounces it as "expect", instead of "except"..
Lastly, Renzo said, let me tell you one last story, it is "Chickens to School"..This story is about how tired Thomas get confused and messed up three jobs, instead of sending "Chickens to market, Sheep to farm, Children to school", he unloaded sheep at the market, sent chickens to school and delivered children to the farm. He then got some much needed help from Edward and Percy to put things right finally.
He finished this story a little faster than the previous one, but this time, all in his own words. And I noticed that he's been using transition words frequently, such as "firstly", "later", "and then", "after that", "finally", etc.. Probably because in this story, Thomas has to do a few things in sequence step by step. And he has introduced a new word "embarrassed" into his vocabulary, when he talked about how Edward makes Gordon blush with embarrassment by telling others that he's always been helping Gordon up the hill. Although this time he didn't amuse me with long, complex and elaborate sentences, he still impressed me with all the details in absolutely perfect sequence. I could never remember where should Thomas deliver the chickens, sheep and children, he could tell that easily, and he could also remember how tired Thomas messed things up and sent them to wrong places. He even remembers the grey and red carriages added to carry chicken and sheep, on top of "Annie" and "Clarabel", the two carriages Thomas loves dearly for carrying passengers. Of course the color of these carriages is never mentioned in the episode, but solely based on Renzo's observation and memory.
It must have been the best one hour I've ever spent with my lovely boy, and I was swept off my feet by his beautiful stories. Renzo said he's going to tell me a new story tomorrow night, a long story called "Thomas and the sticky toffee", which is what he read from his story book. No words can describe how mesmerized I am and hopefully Daddy gets to hear his story too this time!
