Fire Station Field Trip

Last Wednesday, Keira and I accompanied Eli to his final field trip of the year to the fire station. On Tuesday night, I said to Scott, "I'm taking two children to the fire station tomorrow who are terrified of fire trucks and fire fighters. What am I doing?!?" Fortunately, we survived. In fact, Eli did exceptionally well. Despite being somewhat timid when we first arrived, once he settled in with "his person" Mandy, he was good to go. One of my favorite things about his preschool is the ratio, with all the highschool helpers, it's nearly one on one. On field trips, specifically, it is one on one. Each high schooler signs up for one of the preschoolers. It's amazing, and particularly helpful in a situation like the fire station. Here's Eli with his "person" Mandy at the beginning of the tour.



Thank goodness for Mandy! Keira was miserable the entire time at the fire station, which left me very little time to make sure Eli was okay. When we first arrived, she was overwhelmed with the amount of people (probably around fifty) in a small room. Then, once the fire fighter started to speak she was done. I tried stepping outside a few times, but with Eli being in a place he's always been terrified of, I felt like I couldn't abandon him. The best I could do for Keira was to try to stay a few paces away from the huge group, keep her safely tucked into the sling and try to soothe her the best that I could. Once again, I'm so grateful for the sling! After about twenty minutes she was so exhausted she fell fast asleep in the sling and slept for the duration of the tour.

As I said before, I was extremely impressed with Eli. He stayed with Mandy the whole tour, but didn't talk about being scared at all. Yet, he wasn't enthusiastic about the tour either. After the fire station, the kids were heading to Jump To It. Eli was VERY eager to leave, and move on to the enjoyable part of the field trip. Here are a few pictures of my brave boy at the fire station.