My New Wardrobe...Fire Department Clothing

I remember the wardrobe that I used to have before I met my husband.  I wore dress clothes to work and at home I either wore jeans, shorts or sweats.  Everything was basically color coordinated and stylish.  Somehow that seemed to change when I met my husband.  Slowly but surely I began to notice a lot of clothes in my wardrobe that had the maltese cross on them as well as the fire department patch.  I began to wear one of my Firefighter's extra fire department summer jackets, then I had some of his old uniform t-shirts that I would wear around the house for doing housework or yardwork.  I would also wear some of his fire department t-shirts when I was pregnant because they were so comfortable.  One year for Christmas one of the gifts that he gave me was a brand new sweatshirt and sweatpants with the maltese cross on them.  I loved the sweatshirt and sweatpants because they were warm and cozy and had the maltese cross on them.  They are pretty old now but I still have them and wear them occassionally on cold winter nights.  My parents each have the same set too.

When my brother began to work at his local fire department the wardrobe continued to expand.  Not only did I have clothing items from my Firefighter's department but now my brother was providing us with fire department clothing as well.

My parents have even gotten into the swing of things.  They just got back from their vacation last week and they brought my Firefighter back two fire department t-shirts from two different fire departments that they visited while on their vacation!

Now that my Firefighter and I have two kids the fire clothes that we have in our house is even greater!  Both of my boys were brought home from the hospital in a Little Fire Chief one piece outfit.

 This is M in his Little Chief fire outfit.  I liked the outfit so much when I was pregnant with G that I bought it in the newborn size and the 0-3 months size.  Both boys wore it a lot.

 We also had a lot of bibs.  This is a bib that I found before G was born.  It was still new in this picture.  By the time M was born this bib had seen better days!

This bib came with  a rescue pup one piece outfit.  It was so cute on G and then on M.  It was amazing to me how many fire department themed clothes I could find for a baby!

This is the Little Chief bib that I bought at JCPenny's.  When I was pregnant with G, JCPenny's happened to come out with these Little Chief outfits.  We had a one piece outfit, overalls, onesie, bib and shorts all with the Little Chief design on it and both boys got a lot of use out of them.  Those outfits were so cute!!

Grandparents, relatives and friends also helped us to keep a continuing supply of fire department themed clothes in our boys' closets.  It seemed that we received fire department themed clothing for every birthday and Christmas.  We still get excited when we find fire truck clothes in the stores.

Here is my Firefighter and G raking up the yard.  They are both sporting fire department wear.  Firefighter in his maltese cross sweatshirt and G in his fire department jacket.

This is a little better view of the jacket.  Both boys were able to wear this jacket too.

Now that the boys are getting a bit older I do not have as many fire themed clothes for them.  They seem to be harder to find in the toddler sizes.  However, I just found at JCPenny's the other day a t-shirt made by Okie Dokie and it looks just like a firefighter's jacket and it is a long-sleeved t-shirt.  I cannot wait for them to wear them to preschool.

So, in the years that I have been with my Firefighter, and since my brother has become a firefighter, the wardrobe for my entire family has changed.  It is not uncommon to go to my parent's house on a cold winter day and find pretty much all of us wearing some type of fire department sweatshirt, hat or sweatpants.  What can I say...we are a fire family!!

Touch A Truck

Well, we finally had a break in the fire schedule this weekend!  After another day of OT our Firefighter was able to spend the entire day with us today.  After Church we decided to take the boys to Touch A Truck in the Metroparks.  It was a free event where kids could come in and climb on the service trucks, learn about them and see how they work.  They had a food stand that was grilling hamburgers and hotdogs at reasonable prices.  They also brought in a lot of sand and dumped it in the center of the service garage for the kids to play in as well as providing sand toys too.

 G really liked the sandbox.

 I think that M liked the diggers the best.

Both boys were running from digger to digger and were just so excited to be able to crawl on all of the equipment.  At first it was a rough start because most of the vehicles had horns and most of the kids were blowing those horns!  It was pretty much non-stop the entire time but after awhile you blocked it out.  M did not like the noise at all but then all of a sudden he seemed fine with it so we were glad.

I think that Firefighter Dad had as much fun as the firefighter boys!

All in all, it was a great day.  It was so nice having Firefighter Dad home with us today.  Nice memories were created today to be cherished forever!

A Day at the Zoo

We finally had a break in the humidity today so the boys and I took advantage of it and spent the day at the zoo.  We wish our Firefighter could have gone with us but he was on shift.  On the days that he is on shift I try to do something fun with the boys that gets us out of the house for a little while otherwise shift days can get very long with two preschoolers.

We met some friends at the zoo around lunchtime.  Once everyone got together we ate our lunches outside.  Fortunately, the bees that seem to always be at the Zoo in August were not bad today.  During lunch we did have to take two potty breaks because we are still potty training our littlest firefighter.  He is doing so well with the potty training but this was our first adventure out of the house for the day and he didn't do too bad.  After lunch and some potty training we headed off to see the animals.

The boys love to feed the nectar to the birds at the zoo so we did that first.  I take a lot of pictures so that my Firefighter can see what we did and feel involved.  I usually text him pictures too so that he feels more in touch with us when he is on his shift.  After we fed the birds we met up with our friends again and road the train around the zoo and went to the animal petting area.  The boys just love being at the zoo and seeing the animals and exploring the different areas of the zoo.

As the day progressed, so did potty training.  Our littlest firefighter had a couple of accidents and ended up going through both sets of extra clothes that I brought for him and ended the day wearing his big brother's extra clothes.  I think that part of the potty training issue at the zoo was the fact that they have very loud hand dryers in the bathrooms.  Both of my little firefighters dislike the loud noise and cover up their ears.  I brought the potty seat with us so that my littlest firefighter would feel more comfortable but I think that he was afraid of the hand dryers.  Finally, towards the end of the day, we found a bathroom that was very quiet, was empty and had no hand dryers.  Then he went potty with no problem.  Looking back on it, maybe I should have put him in a diaper for the day but he has been doing so well with the potty training that I really did not want to take the chance that he would regress during the day so we tried it.  Overall, he did very well and I am very proud of my little guy.

I find that we go to the zoo a lot when our Firefighter is on shift.  Sometimes we will go for a couple of hours or sometimes for the whole day.  It gives us a chance to go somewhere that will not cost a lot of money but gets us out of the house, is educational and totally fun.  We usually pack our lunch and then get a snack at the zoo before we leave.  The boys were totally worn out at bedtime today so they should sleep real well tonight!

Date with a Firefighter

As most firewives could tell you, the firefighing schedule has its ups and downs. Today was an up day.  This morning was one of those rushed mornings where we just could not seem to get out of the house fast enough.  The boys had Vacation Bible School (VBS) and I had a date with my Firefighter for breakfast!  We managed to get the boys dressed and out the door and to VBS on time.  Then we were off to our breakfast date.  Having a breakfast date may seem odd to some people but on a firefighter's schedule it is perfectly normal.  My firefighter can sometimes work long hours on his shifts so it is so nice when he is home and we actually get to spend some quality time together.  Sometimes this happens in the evening, at lunch and even, some days, at breakfast.  Once we dropped the boys off at VBS we went out to a restaurant for our breakfast date.  It was very nice to be able to talk about things without interruptions from the kids, the phone and the radio pagers.  After a nice breakfast we were able to run a couple of errands and then go pick up our boys.

We love the days when our Firefighter is home.  It is nice to be able to spend an entire day with him.  The boys get some quality "Dad Time" and mom gets a chance to get some things done around the house.  We eat dinner as a family and do family things together.  We are very used to the firefighter schedule and we know that the schedule can change at any time.  That is why we appreciate the days when our Firefighter is home.  It can be a crazy life but such is the life of a fire family!