Biscuit's day

Biscuit told me back in August that he wanted a firefighter birthday party. Even though it seems like every other word out of his mouth is "fire", I thought he would probably change his mind. After all, three months is an eternity to a kid his age.

But he never wavered.

I showed him three firefighter plates online and let him pick which one he wanted. Then I let him decide between a cake and cupcakes. And he chose the flavor.

We met five of his friends, their parents and some of our other friends at the fire station. Firefighter Tyler gave us a tour. He gave a safety lecture. Then he said, "Let's go look at the engine," and Biscuit was right on his heels. The firefighter books Biscuit has refer to the engines as pumper trucks. And he reminded me of that yesterday evening.

It's funny. He's been dropping facts that he learned yesterday. You can see the wheels turning in his little head, then he'll say something like, "Mom, firefighters wear their walkie-talkies in case they get a call," or "Mom, the firefighters cook their dinner at the fire station."

I hope the other boys learned some stuff, too.

The tour went a little long for kids their age, but I think everybody had fun anyway.

One little boy, who is 13 months younger than Biscuit, got ready to go before the tour was over. The firefighters had explained how they keep the floor so clean in the bays where the trucks are. And I'm glad they were clean because this little boy just laid down on his belly. He was done. No fit. No tantrum. He was just done.

So the firefighter leading our tour looked over and saw him. Then he pointed to him and said, "See? This is what you do if there's a fire with smoke in your house. You get down as low as you can and lay on the floor."

The little boys mom smiled and said, "Yeah, stop, drop and whine."

After the tour, we came back to our house for hot dogs, chips and cupcakes. We had a house full of people. I always love that.

Biscuit got lots of cool presents, too. I felt bad because I would hand him a present, let him open it, then as soon as he saw what it was and got excited, I had to take it away and say, "Yeah, that's really cool. You can play with it later." Then I'd hand him another present.

After everybody left, Biscuit and I sat down in the living room floor and went back through everything. We read all the cards and talked about who gave him what. We got all the toys out of their boxes and figured out how it all worked.

I have decided, though, that my eyesight isn't getting any better. Some of the toys he got that required assembly included tee-tiny little stickers that I had to apply. I think I might have to put a limit on those kinds of toys next year!

Anyway, when Biscuit and I were sitting in the living room floor last night, he put one hand on each of my cheeks and said, "Mom, I love you."

"I love you, too, baby," I said.

"No, Mom," Biscuit said, acting like he was getting mad. "I'm not done telling you yet."

"I'm sorry," I said. "Go ahead."

He grabbed my cheeks again and said, "I love you, Mom. And I had a good, good birthday and fire station trip."

I couldn't have asked for a better compliment.

Biscuit never got a nap yesterday, so he was out earlier than usual. I watched him for a little while as he slept. I think I manage to love that child more every day.

But enough sappy stuff, here are some photos from the day:

Firefighter Tyler explains the safety rules at the fire station.

He said let's go look at the truck, and Biscuit was right on his heels.

Firefighter Doug gets ready to step on the scale to weigh his
gear. We found out that his gear weighs about 50 pounds.

Biscuit and Firefighter Doug in his full gear.

Biscuit couldn't hold the hose nozzle for very long. It was pretty heavy.

I think Biscuit is standing there picturing his future career.

This ladder truck pulled in as we were looking at the pumper truck.

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing, per Biscuit's request.

Biscuit blows out the No. 4 candle he picked out. I had to take all the No. 4
candles off the rack to get to that red one. Red is his favorite color, you know.

Too bad Biscuit wasn't excited about this firetruck!

Biscuit checks out some Play-Doh he got.

Biscuit loved looking through all his presents last night. He said,
"I can't believe it, Mom. Everybody brought me presents!"