Ears Like a Bat

So this week the Mother of the Gremlin and I have been eagerly awaiting the Thomas Talking Railway Station (and by eagerly, I mean we've been wondering how long it would take us to injure ourselves or him after hearing the same Thomas phrase repeated 50 million times) that I foolishly purchased off woot.com because I'm an impulse buyer for almost anything they have.

Anyway, Grandma came up this week, so the Gremlin was ecstatic right up until we put him to bed. Once we finally got the little darling down (and I promise, I didn't use duct tape. This time), we were showing Grandma the recent purchase. Well, as any curious person would, she pushed THE BIG RED LEVER.


THE BIG RED LEVER inevitably kicks off a display of lights and sounds that will become indelibly imprinted on your brain over the next few days, and is set to a specific frequency that not only causes children to become addicted, but is also capable of causing migraine-level pain in adults. The Talking Railway Station is no different, with Sir Toppam Hat coming out and talking to the person who will be flayed for touching THE BIG RED LEVER.

A few minutes after we'd looked at it (and the two talking trains that came with it - Molly and Billy, of which we already have 2), we heard the Gremlin up and about. Going into see why he couldn't sleep, the Gremlin greeted us before we even got to his bed.

"I want to play with the train."
"Uh, what train, buddy?"
"The Thomas train you and Mommy and Grandma were playing with."
"Buddy, you need to go to sleep. It's bed time now." Not being able to argue this, the Gremlin laid down, but had one last shot to get in.
"You think I don't know, but I do. I know."

He had heard half a second of one little child's-toy speaker across the entire house while the TV was on, and knew it was a Thomas Train.