Firefighter Day... January 27, 2008

Oh boy.  We did something so fun this week that Noah has been talking about it ever since.  He will be sitting in his car seat,  my lap, or any place where he has a minute to just sit and think and then he will chuckle a little and say, "Firefighter Day."  Then he tells me, "backpack"  and "whoo, whoo!" 

A few days ago I called our local fire station and told them I had a little two year old who loved firefighters and asked if I could bring him into the station for a little tour.  They were so nice about it and said I could bring him in.  I invited Linda, Mason, and Kim and they gave us a full blown tour which lasted an entire hour.  They kids were so fascinated!  Noah loved every second of it.  It was like he had gotten the secret desire of his heart.  He was so into it!  When we first got there he was running around with so much excitement oozing out of him that he couldn't contain his energy.  Linda said it was the most excited she had ever seen him.  I would have to agree. 

I was so impressed with the firefighters.  They were able to tell the kids about fire saftey on their level and in a way that didn't seem overly scary.  The whole presentation came across like they wanted the kids to be familiar with everything there so that if they ever needed help, the equipment, vehicles, and even uniforms wouldn't be something to be afraid of.  They went all out for the tour.  We got to see the ambulance, walk through it, and hear them explain about the special bed and the equipment used to help sick people.  One of the firefighters put on his entire uniform, gas mask and everything, to show the kids that a firefighter might sound scary, but really he's not; he just needs the mask to help him breath.  They showed us the fire engines, all the tools in the cabinets on the sides of the engines, where the hoses are, the special seats the firefighters sit in that are like huge carseats for grownups.  I can tell from what Noah has been telling me that he loved seeing their backpacks.  The firefighter went into a story about how they are in such a hurry to get dressed that their backpacks are built into their seats in the firetruck so they can sit in their seats and put their backpacks on at the same time.  Then he showed us how that worked and how cool it was.  He turned the lights and sirens on for us.  (Hence the "Whoo, whoo".)  It scared Noah.  His face turned into a major frown and he cried.  Good thing I was holding him for that part.  I was a little afraid he would be so scared from that he wouldn't like firefighters anymore, but it turns out he's braver than I thought.  He's been talking about this experience ever since and I can tell he loves to think about it.  He's wanted to play with his toy fire engine and wear his hat a lot. 

The fire station was a BIG hit.  Move over Superman!  Noah's got a new super-hero!