Fire Station Tour!

We may or may not have mentioned before, here on the blog, that Bentley is nuts about fire trucks. Being the diligent mother that I am (or at least try to be) I thought he might enjoy a tour of the fire station - so I set one up with a local playgroup we belong to. We went to check out Fire Station #9. It's a good thing we went on Tuesday, because Wednesday most all the fire trucks in Anchorage were out working to contain a brush fire that started here in town.

Bentley listened quite intently, and took everything in, but he wasn't in an adventurous mood. Everytime I put him down I got this face:

Those outstreched arms are reaching up to me, and if there was audio you would hear "hold me, mommy, hold me"!

I convinced him that Daddy would like to see a picture of him and the fire truck, this is what I got:

A helpful fire fighter opened up the side of the vehicle for him so he could check out the tools they carry (not too surprisingly the truck seemed to specialize in hoses, more hoses, and more hoses - all different types!).

One of the fire fighters put on all his gear so the kids could see that it's still him, the friendly fire fighter, and not a space alien under that Darth Vadar sounding mask! Apparently that's a big issue they face - children are scared of them in their full gear, and hide from them instead of coming to them during fires. Obviously this makes the situation more dangerous for both kids and the firefighters.

We had a tour of the fire house - we saw where they eat, sleep, and hang out. The kids had a chance to climb on up into the fire truck, but Bentley wasn't a taker. The kids did some stop, drop, and roll practice - but Bentley wasn't a taker. We ended with a group photo - but, you guessed it, Bentley wasn't a taker!


The take aways? Make sure your kids know what fully suited up fire fighters look (& sound like) so they aren't scared of them if they ever have need of one. Practice what to do in smoke filled rooms (crawl) and what to do if you catch on fire (stop, drop, and roll). Even with kids Bentley's age, I learned it's a good idea to practice fire drills and teach them where our family meet up point is outside if they get seperated for any reason.

Despite Bentley's hands off approach to the tour he clutched his stickers and chattered about the fire station the entire way home. My Mother tells me I was also a hands off child with some new situations, so I suppose I can't complain too much about his attitude! I think the trip was a hit and I'm sure we'll try another tour in a year with the twins in tow. I predict Genevieve will NOT be the hands off type, that Bentley will have gotten over the hands off part due to this trial run, and that Jackson may or may not jump in and have fun - it depends on if he's a follower of his sister's lead or if the desire to hang back is greater.

Check back in a year to see if my Mommy predictions were on target or not!