Firehouse Fieldtrip

One of the things that I've been looking forward to since switching Abby to her new preschool has been her (and me!) going on field trips. Her first field trip was to the Burbank Fire Station. I thought it was a little weird that we were going to Burbank, a 20+ minute drive away, when their are numerous fire stations nearby. One fire station being less than a mile from her preschool. But after the Fire Chief introduced himself he mentioned that the fire station we were at was special because it was a fire training station! Fire fighters from all across our region go here to learn how to fight fires. Cool!

Abby listening to the Fire Chief and Firefighter Emily talk about what they'd be seeing and doing that day. The list of activities included seeing Firefighter Justin rappel down a building, watching a car fire be extinguished, putting our a room fire themselves, checking out a fire ambulance, looking at the tools from a fire rescue truck, seeing how far a fire hose could shoot water, and finally a Stop, Drop, and Roll demonstration.  

The classes getting in their lines (there were three classes there from her school this day). I was AMAZED at how well all the kids knew the routine. Ms. Amy and Ms. Jo (her teachers) have had to have been doing some serious line walking prep for this day!

Watching Firefighter Justin rappel down the wall.

The firefighters turned on the engine's siren so Abby promptly covered her ears and kept them covered during the entire demonstration of the car being lit on fire and then put out.

Lighting the car on fire.

And putting the car fire out.

Showing off all the gear that firefighters wear.

I thought this was the best part of the day. Abby got to go up and help put out a "room fire" herself!

Here's a view of the room on fire.

 

Getting an inside view of the Fire Ambulance (I'm sure it's called something else but I can't remember the official name and mine gets the point across). :-)

Having help going down the super big ambulance steps,

Checking out the machinery in the front of the ambulance.

Checking out how far the fire hose shoots water. Abby kept mentioning the big water rainbow.

A picture of "my" two girls this trip. This little girl is obviously one of Abby's friends in preschool as 1) as soon as she saw Abby upon entering the fire station grounds she yelled "my friend" and raced over to Abby to give her a hug, 2) at almost every station she and Abby were within arms distance from each other, and 3) she came over and asked if Abby's Mommy could hold her - and then when I said I'd sit down with both of the girls - she requested a picture of "me and my friend". 

Learning to Stop...

Drop...

Roll...

And crawl away from the fire.

This was a most fantastic field trip! I We are looking forward to next month's field trip to the Country Mercantile's Pumpkin Patch!

Abby Begins Her Second Year of Preschool

On Wednesday, Abby excitedly began her second year of preschool at her new school, Faith Assembly's Imagination Studios.

We decided to switch schools because, while I thought highly of Kids Express, her previous school was a 15 minute drive (each way) and was only for two hours fifteen minutes each day. This meant that by the time I dropped Abby off I had enough time to run an errand and then just enough leftover time for not much but to go and sit in the parking lot waiting for school to get out. Since Abby would be going to preschool M, W, F this year I finally decided that I'd rather not have my days spent driving around with little opportunity to get things done during her at school hours. Imagination Studios, which was highly recommended by a LOT of friends, is three hours each day and only a five minute drive away. Allowing for a little bit more time each day for Abby to have fun and learn something and for me to be able to get more than one errand finished before picking her up again. A win for both of us!

First Day of School picture! 

When we got to school I wanted a picture of her in front of her school, but Abby decided she'd rather have a picture of her new butterfly backpack.

With Nate off work this week he was able to come with us to celebrate her first day. I think he was a little surprised at the number of kids, how chaotic it was, and how easily Abby went into her classroom considering all the kids who were clinging tightly to their parents.

Abby did fabulous with her new teacher, Miss Amy, and fellow students, as expected. We walked her to the classroom door then had to remind her to give us hugs and kisses as she tried to race into the room. Here's to a great second year of preschool!

Abby's First Visit to the Dentist

This may come as a surprise, but Abby had her first dentist appointment this week. After talking to my Mom friends it appears that our dentist takes a much different approach to the age of seeing a child's teeth for the first time than other dentists. Most everyone I've talked to says that their dentist has them bring their kids in for a visit as soon as the first tooth pops through and then every six month onward. Abby didn't get her first tooth until after she turned a year old and when we asked about getting her in to be seen at our next semi-annual appointment we were told that unless there was an issue she didn't need to be seen until closer to three or four years of age. We asked another time or two if that was still true and it wasn't until she'd turned three that our dentist said he'd recommend she'd be seen. And even then it was more of a "if you want her seen bring her in, otherwise it's no biggie to wait" referral.

So at three and a half years Abby went to see the dentist.

She hopped right up into the chair and proudly waited to see what was going to happen. She knew the dentist would be checking her teeth to make sure they were growing big and strong, but otherwise didn't know much. I'd thought to read her the Little Critter's Book Just Going to the Dentist the night before, but I forgot that in the book Little Critter has a cavity and gets a filling. Let's just say I quickly turned the page before Abby could see the big needle going into Little Critter's mouth. Oops!

Abby thought the paper napkin was neat. Here's she's smiling and showing off her teeth.

And here she's counting them for the hygienist.

This photo is just hilarious. After laying down Abby promptly opened her mouth as widely as possible without being asked. :-)

She thought the sunglasses were pretty cool for a bit, but soon took them off.

Doing a great job holding her mouth open while the hygienist counted and touched her teeth.

I just couldn't resist this shot. Nate's off work for the week (a much deserved vacation after his crazy project schedule) but I think his idea of vacation was sleeping in and doing work projects around the house. Little did he know I had "projects" for him as well. One being an 8:30am dentist appointment. Mwah ha ha. :-)

 

After having her teeth looked at we moved on to showing off the various instruments that would be used while cleaning her teeth. This is where she started to get a little nervous. Abby did okay with the water being squirted into her mouth but the suction stick was a little on the scary side. I touched it with my finger to let her know it was okay and so she warily touched it with her finger and then allowed it to go into her mouth. We got her to shut her mouth around the stick so she could feel the suction but she just wasn't a fan.

The hygienist was brilliant with her next idea. She squirted water onto the seat cover and then had Abby use the suction stick to suction up the water. Abby got to see exactly what the stick was doing and became interested in it then instead of leery of it. 

Abby was doing so good with the tools that we decided to try our luck at actually cleaning her teeth. One tooth got a quick clean and then we asked Abby to get back on her back so we could try to clean more of her teeth.

It was at this point with multiple things in her mouth, including the aforementioned scary suction stick, that Abby decided she was done with her cleaning. She so sweetly sat up, said "All done", and that was that.

Thankfully Abby agreed to let the Dentist take a peek in her mouth before our appointment was over. I think she was excited to have someone else count her teeth and tell her how big and strong they were. :-)

Our visit ended with picking a toy from the toy box and getting a clean teeth bill of health. No cavities, great alignment, and an overall healthy mouth. Yay!