What do I blog about?

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Facing Her Fears

Although we can't see it for all the trees, we do live right off a highway and it is noisy! We are constantly hearing sirens sound their hurried, "wee-woo, wee- woo" calls as they drive by. It is very fitting then that our daughter, age 2, has nicknamed all emergency vehicles, wee-woos. Baby has a shirt with a fire engine on it, and bibs with fire engines and police cars; our daughter calls them his wee-woo clothes. She points out emergency vehicles everywhere we go and when we hear them at home she runs to the window and calls out, "Wee-woo! Where are you? Come here- wee-woo!"

Last week, a friend from church organized a play date at the local fire station; I just knew we had to attend! There was quite a crowd of moms and children who showed up to tour the building and admire the vehicles. The crowd, the firemen gear, and those huge trucks and ambulances made our daughter extremely nervous. Mostly, she stood by me wide eyed and shaking. I'm learning not to push our introverted daughter into new circumstances, so I let her hang back and take it all in but gave her opportunities to explore by asking her questions about the inside of the trucks or about all their gear. She was clearly terrified and fascinated at the same time.

Afraid that my daughter would burst into tears when the trucks pulled out of the station and sounded their sirens, I scooped her up ready to distract and comfort her. (Can I just get a nod here for my super mom strength holding 50+ pounds between my two kids in that hot, humid garage. Honestly, they're giving medals to all the wrong people... Well, maybe not. I am grateful to the men and women who work to save our lives...) Anyway, the huge garage doors went up, little girl kept shaking. The fire truck pulled out, tears shown in her eyes. And then those lights flashed and the loud sirens wailed, and do you know what she did? She leaned forward in my arms toward those big, scary trucks and she roared! Yes, she roared like a lion at that truck and when she turned to face me she was wearing a big ol' grin! As the truck disappeared down the street, she called out, "Go that way, wee-woo!" Then, she stuck her tongue between her lips and blew a slobbery raspberry in its direction. Fears conquered.

*Thank you so much, friend, for putting this play date together for us! Thank you Dear Husband, for finding a ride to work that morning so we could have the car and attend the fire station tour.  And thanks to the awesome firemen who did a really great job engaging the kiddos and showing off all the cool features!


Here's a classic fire engine that was actually used in our town back in the day!
Kind of checking out the ambulance.
Interested, but hanging back for the fire truck presentation.



1 comment:

  1. I remember those one car days. I rode a bike every where. I would put oldest in a bike seat and ride her to sitter. Then ride to college, then ride to work, then ride to college, then ride to pick up child at sitter, stop and get a few groceries on the way home. Of course weight dropped to about 98lbs. Could not get pregnant again too thin. Yeah really too thin! Hard to believe but 28 years ago I was too thin!

    ReplyDelete