My three-year-old is a firefighter. I may have mentioned this a time or two.
He wears his fire gear everywhere. He has an unbridled confidence while wearing his gear, too. He is not pretending to be a firefighter. He is a firefighter. He knows he's cute and when people tell him he's cute, he blushes, turns away, and says, "I know."
I told him the other day that he was part Indian and he said, "No, Mom, I'm a firefighter."
Glad he cleared that up.
Of course I had to mess with him because I enjoy seeing the thought process of a very intense, passionate three-year-old firefighter. "You know, you're Irish, too."
"No I'm not! I'm a firefighter!"
"Did you know you could be an Indian firefighter?"
"No! I'M A FIREFIGHTER! YOU be the Indian!"
"OK! Well I AM an Indian. And so are you, just ask Mamnee!" (That's his name for "Grandma".)
So he goes on about his business (the topic was apparently exhausted and he had rendered it useless and moved on.) Five minutes later he's in the living room playing firefighters and indians with his 1 1/2 year old brother. Well that's a new one.
Over the year and a half that he's had his firefighter gear -- which consists of the outfit we bought last Halloween, the nearly unused boots he inherited from his cousin, and the really cool black fire chief hat with plastic eye maskguard thing -- you can imagine with daily wear and tear that it has all gone through the wringer.
It's all now in a sad state.
The pants have been pooped in (they are actually MIA right now, we've been searching for days...), the jacket's been in the mud on the playground at school because he's worn it to school, and the boots. Note to self: child must wear socks with boots or you will eventually see a green smoke (like from the cartoons) rising from the boot itself; the stench that is hours upon hours of sweaty three-year-old feet taking its toll upon it. Oh yes, it was bad.
Oh and the hat. My God the poor hat. It is scratched and the flimsy plastic film in the eyemask is in shambles with tape barely holding it all together. But he wears it proudly nonetheless. He puts it away in his closet along with the boots before bed and he wakes up in the morning and he already has on his hat and his boots as I hear him clunking through our bedroom door to say "Good Morning!"
So we're on round two of the firefighter gear. But it's not easy to find these things and it's not easy to live with them while they're all in shambles either! I swear with each rip of the hat's plastic, a little firefighter's soul rips and that is really hard to watch! Oh the agony he feels!
Finally after weeks of searching, I found new boots at Target and stinky boots are finally history. Thank God because if he wore them for just two minutes, a bath was required afterward. He is still thanking me for these new boots. He thanks me every day. Yeah, I'm a hero. (For once.)
And the fire hat is literally the coolest one in the world. And I'm not just saying that. I was hoping to replace it but I couldn't find it anywhere and the store where I bought it was closed.
Believe me, I've searched.
In true Mommy fashion, I searched for this hat online, for hours.
I finally found this thing through some store in Chicago which was selling it on Amazon and I bought TWO. One for Poops and one for the Mini. And by the way Poops asked me to officially stop calling him Poops. He was wondering if it was because he poops his pants.
Now I feel bad.
Anyhoo, I'm pretty excited to see the look on his face when he sees the new hat. He tries to make Mini into a firefighter but Mini has no interest. He uses whatever we're using for a firehose at the time (yesterday it was the pole from a stop sign) as a microphone. Try explaining to a three-year-old that being a firefighter isn't for everyone. His head almost exploded.
I have so many favorite things about my little firefighter, some of which are the following:
-Every day, he has to "save people."
-He has to get down from the dinner table "to save people." Not always convenient (for us) but funny as he looks across the room and finds something that needs saving.
-Before bed, we tell stories about him saving people. Last night, a roof fell in and crashed onto his hat, but he was ok and he still pulled people out of the house and got a huge cupcake from the town as a reward for his bravery. And then he became fire chief because the fire chief was retiring. "Mom, what does 'retiring' mean?"
-He has a motorcycle he rides around the house but it's really his "firetruck".
-He also has a "fire boat" and a "fire airplane" but those are some configuration of pillows and blankets on the couch.
-He sings a song about his firefighter self to the tune of "elmo's world."
-He loves Fireman Sam and his Nee-Nee (other grandma) even taped an episode of Design on a Dime (or something HGTVish) to show him how they spruced up a firehouse. He loved it.
-He will wear his firecoat out on the playground in 152 degree weather and he will fight anyone who tries to get him to take it off.
-Tip: Being a firefighter is especially helpful when you need him to take the nubulizer mask when he's sick. We call it the "firemask." Genius. Sheer genius.
Oh, I used to say "no" to him about wearing his fire gear out in public everywhere, but he just basks in every moment of wearing it and oozes with confidence and happiness that I just don't have the heart anymore. Even when he wants to wear the fireboots with shorts that look a little too short and he looks like he should be performing the YMCA. I mean, who am I to squash this imagination?
Now if he's still wearing this same getup and wonders why he can't get a girlfriend in a decade or so, I may have to intervene. But for now, I'm ok with it.
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Also posting over at the Sisterhood today.
