As a very young toddler Tony was a quiet and shy boy.  His special interests were Duplo's, Matchbox cars, Thomas the Tank and Brio tracks and puzzles. Tony loved playing quietly for hours lining up his cars, building things with Duplo's, and setting up all his Thomas the Tank trains on the Brio track and creating little scenarios.  By 3 years old he loved playing pre-school.  By that, I mean pulling out all his Scholastic Learning books with stay-at-home Mom, Pegi, and practicing letters, numbers and pick the different object, face or shape.  He loved sitting down to have a book read to him by Dad and Mom and sometimes at sleepovers with "Dietsch" reading to him before bed. Tony enjoyed his little pool in our backyard in San Diego, CA.  He enjoyed play-dough, playing in the sand and going down the slide at the parks.  When Tony was three years old he gained a little brother, Dominick, who he loved having around.  Actually, he loved being an instigator, putting funny clothes on his little brother, giving him toys and quickly taking them away. Tony had boxes of Color-Forms and sometimes "decorated" his brother's face with them so Mommy would laugh.  They became best buds as they grew older.  

Tony did very well in grammar school and loved his teachers and classmates. He had a handful of friends who had the same interests and often had them to the house and loved to go visit them.  Most of his little friends were quiet and shy just like him.  He joined the Cub Scouts and played soccer but didn't hold an interest. He preferred a smaller group where he could build things, play with science kits, remote control Monster Trucks and dinosaurs.  Tony loved reading and spent a lot of time reading The Boxcar Children,  The Hardy Boys, Goosebumps and later on Harry Potter.  Mom thought it was cool when the teacher in the next grade up brought her 4th graders' new Scholastic order form over to Tony as he was an advanced reader.  He was sent to Gifted and Talented classes but didn't last long because it was in the High School and he had to be bussed over in the middle of the day. He was too intimidated and didn't quite understand why his reading/learning time with his schoolmates was interrupted.