Health and Safety

When the kiddos question us about something like car seats or standing on furniture, we always say, "Mommies are in charge of health and safety." We've covered both in fun ways in the last week.

Safety
This weekend, we went to a local firefighter open house. Despite the rainy weather, the kids had a blast. Of course, climbing in the engines was their favorite activity, followed by seeing the firefighters cut open a car in a mock extrication. Of course, there were free plastic red fire hats and lots of coloring pages, plus informational packets (including a free children's DNA kit for your freezer--ugh, don't even want to think on needing that) for parents. It was even exciting to use the firehouse bathroom, past the room with all their gear. The firefighter in full gear and actually breathing oxygen through a mask was frightening but at least now is familiar (kids apparently and understandably freak out and then hide when fully-dressed firefighters enter their rooms. I guess it's good that there are not hiding places in Bud and Sis's room.) And they got to practice dialing 9-1-1 on a telephone during an emergency. I can just see Sis calling 9-1-1 if Bud takes a toy or vice versa.

But the most memorable part was the mock fire. They had a truck fitted out like a small house that you could enter. After a brief introduction it filled with smoke, the alarms went off, and you exited. It was designed to introduce people to what it might be like (minus the noxious fumes and heat, but complete with inability to see and fear). The only down-side: they split up the parents and the kids. I know this would be true life--if the alarm here goes off in the night (which studies show, kids almost never hear), we'll be in different rooms--but it was unsettling to all of us. Sis listened closely to the kids' presentation on "get low and go" and was proud to be the second person out the little window, where we were waiting (adults got to go out the door, thank goodness), but Bud got separated from her and pushed to the back of the pack, where it was the smokiest. He was a little rattled, but came out the window by himself. He repeatedly said he didn't like the smoky room, but we reassured him that now he knew what to do. He's been fine since. And we'll re-visit it all when we set off our house alarm and practice our drill next weekend (we would've done it last weekend but never got to it).

Health
We met the tooth fairy this week. She came to our library, fully dressed in a pink gown with little white applique molars all over. Her wings were even molar-shaped! She talked about good brushing habits with her puppet friend Oscar (who "spit" on the children and was put in time out--Sis's favorite part), thumb sucking with Silly Sally (don't suck on it, sit on it--Bud like the sitting on his thumb part. Sis called Sally "the sucker"), what it's like at the dentist's office with masks and gloves and tools and "Mr. Thirsty", and how her tooth fairy castle is completely made of teeth. She even had two real teeth to show the kiddos, one healthy and one with a cavity (collective ewwwwhhhh here).

And what did the kids remember most from this visit? A video about a giraffe with a new tooth who dreams of a scary "King Cavity" and then helps him get good dental care (all made by Crest, of course). This really unnerved Bud, who has had a close call with "King Cavity" and had to have some cracked baby enamel in two teeth (genetic? grinding? accident of birth?) repaired at the dentist a few weeks ago to prevent cavities. The tooth fairy kept blaming cavities on the kids' brushing and eating habits, which I thought was unfair and not entirely true, in Bud's case anyway. But I kept telling him it was okay. And also that he could still have his loveys since it wasn't the same as thumbsucking (he rarely actually sucks on them). In the end, at least, they seemed to remember, in addition to the scary video, that brushing your tongue prevents bad breath and that you shouldn't share toothbrushes.

Gotta be healthy and safe, you know.