The Saminator has been obsessed with fire engines since before he could walk, but now it is at a whole new level. For the past couple of weeks, Sam has worn his red plastic fire helmet everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE! He wears it to school, church, the grocery store, in the crib, and even in the bathtub. And during the bathtub scrub-down, you have to cajole him to take it off for a quick minute to wash his oh-so-sweaty and matted hair. Craziness abounding!
In the middle of the night last night, I went into his room because he was yelling about losing his “baby” (pacifier) somewhere within the crib. Lo and behold, there he was a 3 AM sitting in the crib wearing his hat. A fireman’s gotta be ready at all times because you never know when a fearsome blaze will strike! And the night before that not long after he went to bed, we could fire engine sirens at a distance. Within seconds, we heard him exclaiming through the monitor, “Fireman Sam hears a fire engine! Fireman Sam needs to go to the fire!”
And it gets better, or worse, depending on how you look at it. He watches nothing but the PBS show “Fireman Sam” on TV, and refers to himself as, not so surprisingly, Fireman Sam. (See above.) We take the red wagon to the local hydrants daily to pump water from them, and we have been stalking, I mean, visiting, the firehouse quite frequently. We sure have gotten the value out of our tax dollars! Let’s see, we have seen the firehouse several times over, upstairs and down — including the firefighters’ various lockers, sleeping quarters, living area, and kitchen. Sam has also explored every crevice of the two pumper trucks, right down to the axes stored in a secure compartment. (See, even I have learned what a “pumper” is.) And everyone seems to know his name, just like “Cheers.”
One of the firemen showed Sam how to turn on the blinking lights in the engine the other day, so he has that notch in his belt as well. We also have this rather creative game of his going. I go inside the little room in the plastic jungle gym thing in our yard, and he climbs up the side to “rescue” me from the burning building. Then we switch roles, and I save him as he calls me “Fire Mommy.” You just can’t make this stuff up. For one, I just don’t have that good of an imagination, but Fireman Sam sure does!
So you can sleep a little bit easier, knowing that Fireman Sam is at the ready to save you from a burning building wherever you may be! Maybe Santa will bring him a pager next Christmas…
LibbY
Awww, Fireman Sam! You’re our hero!