Station 5

This afternoon Kate, Drew, and I made a trip down to Battle Creek to visit Uncle Todd's fire station. He moved a while ago to station 5 in Battle Creek, and none of us had seen the station or the fire engine yet. All three kids (including myself there) were pretty hyped up about the trip. Kate chatted away in the back seat and was so cute that I had to risk a quick picture. Kate liked sitting in the back seat of the fire engine. She made sure to wear her fire jacket and helmet and pink boots for the occasion. The pink boots seem to be an essential right now for ANY occasion.

Kate had fun looking out the windows of the fire engine.

I rolled down the window and Drew said hi to me from inside the fire engine.

Todd is currently rotating as the driver of engine 5, so it is his responsibility to man the pump for the engine at a fire. Here he is showing Kate how it's done.

Drew was already familiar with the pump controls from his previous experience on engine 3 (engine 5's twin), so he moved right to the controls.

There are a fascinating number of gauges and things to push or pull.

Drew, Kate, and I perched on top of the fire engine. We had a blast!

Kate was a little wary about being placed on the front of the fire engine.

Drew got his picture taken with the thermal imaging camera (it didn't really take a picture, but just showed a live image). If you click on this picture below, it will blow up and you can see the thermal image better. It was pretty cool!

Todd drove the engine outside for us (the kids and I rode in the back while he drove it out) and once outside, Kate paused for a picture.

While the truck was outside with the lights going, Kate hopped in the driver's seat to take the engine for a spin. Todd also ran the siren and hit the horn for us. Drew found it to be very loud, yet couldn't stop talking about it later.

Both Drew and Kate loved holding a spanner wrench from the fire engine.

Drew was very excited about seeing all the tools on the fire engine. As I'm sure you've noted, both of them had a strong desire to wear their firefighter outfits during their visit with Uncle Todd.

This was Drew's favorite tool and he kept on repeating that it was a "Drew and Kate-sized tool." He made sure to tell Jana about it when we returned home.

I'll admit to being a little nervous (even as a dad) when Drew was waving this thing around. I think Jana would have made him put it down :)

I was trying to get Drew and Kate to look at me while riding on the back of engine 5 and finally semi-succeeded once I asked them to wave to me. They never both waved at the same time :(

I think Drew sometimes forgets just how big a fire engine is (and loud too), but this picture gives a reminder of the scale. Drew and Kate are tiny next to it!

As Uncle Todd showed off more equipment, both Drew and Kate were glued to the things he was showing them.

This is Todd's equipment locker, which Drew fits in quite nicely! Todd's stuff was on the engine, but usually it would be hanging in here while he's not on duty.

Kate was very proud of her sticker (on her pink shirt) and climbed all over the fire engine wearing it. Both Drew and Kate warm up slowly to the fire engine, then are climbing all over it by the end of the visit.

It was tough to get Drew off the fire engine after a while, even when we wanted to look at the rest of the fire station.

Here's another picture that gives the scale of the fire engine and shows Drew climbing up onto it. He scoots up and down onto the fire engine and off it over and over.

Kate was very excited about her visit to the fire station. This was the first time she was able to say much at the fire station and she had a great time.

This video (it's a little dark) shows Kate driving the fire engine outside.

In this video Todd is showing Drew and Kate the pumper controls.

This last video shows Drew looking at the fire engine after Todd pulled it outside. It was very loud!

tummy sleeper

Kate is almost always a honey after coming out of the bath, so Jana and I cast lots to see who gets to dress her after her bath (just kidding, but it is something we almost fight over!). Kate loves to play with toy cell phones. This is an old one we picked up for the kids a while ago, but she just got a new one that makes sounds. It is the height of excitement for her (almost as exciting as shoes :)

Drew and Kate have loved playing with this old camera. There is no film in it, but the flash still works, so they've been having fun going around the house pretending to take pictures. Drew decided to get silly for this picture and put the camera on his head.

I realized the other day that we don't have pictures or any sort of recorded evidence for this memory and it's one we don't want to forget. Every night we cover Kate with a blanket or two, and every night she scrunches them up and puts them under her tummy. She sleeps on her stomach with her legs hunched in and her little buns up in the air. It is both the weirdest and the cutest thing!Here Kate is from another angle. This happens EVERY night. I don't know how she would sleep if she didn't have a blanket to ball up under her.

Speaking of Kate and shoes, Jana wore a pair of heeled shoes lately and Kate was fascinated by them. There is a video a little further down of her moving through the house, but this picture captures some of the cuteness of Kate in the shoes.

Drew and Kate continue to get along very well. Earlier today things got really quiet (usually a bad sign) and when I went to check on them, they were playing cars together very nicely. It's so much fun to see them playing together!

Kate enjoyed prancing around in Jana's shoes. I think for Kate's birthday, her present will be lining up all of Jana's shoes and letting her try them on one-by-one :)

Christmas tree

Kate's obsession with footwear has been continuing and she's been very excited lately about her boots. She wears these all over the house. In the picture below she's got on her black tights, her skirt, and her boots. The other thing with Kate is that she's almost fully recovered from a bout with croup. After a late night visit to the ER because of difficulty breathing, Kate was originally diagnosed with bronchiolitis and possible croup. To help her breathe, we gave Kate breathing treatments every four hours. Jana and I took turns with treatments and we were both groggy for a few days with the weird schedule. We agreed that getting up during the night to do those treatments reaffirmed our decision that our family does not need any additional babies in the future! An uninterrupted night's sleep is wonderful.

Drew has been doing very well in school and just before Thanksgiving I got to visit his class for a Thanksgiving party. Jana was busy teaching that morning, so I joined some other parents for the party (almost all moms). I did some activities and crafts with Drew, and then two other dads and I led the kids in doing the motions during their singing time. I'm not sure what was a bigger hit with the moms in the class, watching their children do the motions or watching the dads doing the motions! :) We concluded the party by having a Thanksgiving "feast" of crackers, cheese, vegetables, and fruit. It was my first time being involved in a preschool class, and I had a great time being there to support Drew.

Kate likes to pose in the mirror after coming out of the bath, and the other night that posing led to a giggle-fest while playing with my face. No matter what their mood, it seems that Drew and Kate rally around bathtime and make it difficult to put them to bed.

This weekend we cut down our family Christmas tree. In preparation for the trip, Kate put on her overall snow pants, boots, and hat. Kate hadn't worn snow pants since being able to walk, so she had great fun wearing them.

Drew asked for a scarf to help keep him warm on the trip. Both kids were very excited about getting a Christmas tree.

Here I am with Drew and Kate getting ready to go cut down a tree. As usual, it was a nice cool day for cutting down a tree. Everyone was bundled up!

Here are my two beautiful ladies all set to go out and find a tree. We decided it would be easiest to carry Kate around the tree farm, and she loved it. She cuddled in and enjoyed taking turns being held by each of us.

Drew was fantastic at the tree farm and had many opinions on which tree should be cut down. He seemed fascinated by the tree choosing process. He ran all over and helped us evaluate each potential tree.

I am taking a turn holding Kate in the picture below. You can possibly see from the expression on Kate's face that the trip was fun, but a little bit cold.

While holding Kate was fun, we did let her down a couple times so that she could wander around (and so we could take her picture!!).

Back at home, both Drew and Kate were wound up and super-excited when we brought the Christmas tree into the house. They pulled their two stools in front of the Christmas tree to get a better view of it, and they were both scampering all over the living room watching me put on the lights.

You'll notice in several of these pictures that Drew and Kate were right next to each other and very observant of the process of putting lights on the tree.. They were mesmerized by watching me put the lights on the tree.

Kate and Drew got right in close to look at the Christmas tree. It was fun to watch the two of them playing together and getting excited.

We began the process of putting on ornaments, and Drew and Kate were big helpers. They put a few ornaments on themselves, and all the rest they helped unwrap and handed to me to put on (with Jana's supervision of their role in the process).

Jana supervised the unwrapping and selection of the ornaments, then they carried them (carefully) over to me and helped put them on the tree.

Kate was very excited about putting ornaments on the tree!

After finishing the tree, I posed with Kate for some pictures, which mostly didn't turn out. We're trying to get Kate and Drew used to taking pictures in front of the tree, but that's been meant with limited success so far.

I finally gave up on the picture taking and had to give my daughter a kiss!

Here is some video of Drew and Kate putting ornamanents on the tree that they made at daycare. There was a pinecone in our decorations, and they were both fascinated by it. Drew started calling it a "porcupine" and he cautions Kate about the dangers of eating it. Great fun! :)