Kids and Firetrucks

Maybe it's the noise they make or the whole mystery surrounding who's inside and where they're going, but kids love firetrucks. Shaun's fascinated by them. Firetrucks take second place only to 'diggers' so they're a big thing in his life. This evening there was an Open House at the local fire station and I made a whole outing out of it. It didn't go off without a hitch but we had fun anyway.

I decided I would take the city bus with Shaun instead of drive the van because it's been ages since we took the bus somewhere. But I forgot to grab money out of the van before Craig left for work. I had to scrounge throughout the house looking for $5. Not easy when the biggest denomination of money is a quarter; only one. The rest was made up with dimes and nickels. I'm sure I looked like a real winner when I clambored on the bus with a handful of small change.

I also forgot to grab the stroller out of the van. No worries, I thought, I'll just put Ian in the Snugli. I ended up having to switch diaper bags to the backpack style so I had one less thing to worry about keeping track of since I didn't have the stroller. As a result I also forgot to transfer snacks for Shaun. I did remember to pack him a cup of milk, thank goodness for that because the BBQ that I thought was free, wasn't. Poor Shaun didn't eat lunch because he was being a stinker, was refused snack after his nap because he didn't eat lunch, and didn't get 'free' dinner at the fire station because, well, I didn't have money. If I had bought him a hamburger there then we would have been walking home. So he starved. When we finally got home just after 7PM he was delirious. I made him a peanut butter and jam sandwich because that was the quickest thing available. Then he had a handful of summer sausage, a yogurt, a pickle and a gigantic cup of milk. I felt terrible that he was so hungry. Maybe next time he'll eat his lunch when it's lunchtime!

All in all he had a terrific time. I'd post pictures but the battery on the camera was dead. Silly me left it on when I was uploading pictures last. He was able to sit in the cab of a truck and try on a fire fighters boots. They had a demonstration there of what happens when you pour water on a grease fire; he thought that he explosion was 'super cool' to use his words. Then he went inside a child-sized house that teaches children what to do in the event of a fire - crawl close to the floor, touch the door before opening it, climb out a window if you have to (are you remembering your fire safety week in elementary school now?). They even had a smoke machine in there that simulated a real fire. While he was scared in the beginning he was reassured by the (cute) firefighter (oh, did I just say that??) that it was only make believe and there wasn't a real fire. Then the ladder truck extended the ladder and we were able to watch them rappel from the end. On the way home Shaun said that he doesn't want to drive an excavator anymore when he's bigger. He wants to drive a fire truck. Whatever he wants is fine by me! Anything would be better than the operator for the kiddie helicopter ride that he wanted to be after we went to the fair on Sunday!