Day 7 - Conversations with Carter & some pictures

On Monday, Carter came home from school and was enjoying his usual after-school snack, when he started asking some peculiar questions. He asked first, "is the smoke alarm in my room going to go off when I'm asleep tonight?" I told him I didn't think so, but I inquired why he was asking that. I don't know was his first answer. Then he paused to take another bite and told me, "if your door is hot, you never open it!" A-ha - we're on to something. Time to reel this conversation in. Fire. They must have discussed fire at school. Sure enough, after asking him the question in several different ways, he told me that a Firefighter visited his class today and taught them what to do in case of a fire at his house.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately anyway, because one project in his Tiger Cub handbook that we need to work on is coming up with a fire plan for our family. I worry about this plan we come up with, because Carter is so literal. Whatever we tell him the first time, will be what he stands by. He doesn't stray far from what he's been taught, as far as trying to problem solve. So my gut is to tell him to stay in his room and go to his window if he smells smoke or sees fire and scream FIRE! Never try and come find Mommy & Daddy. What if for some crazy reason, the fire started in his room? I'm terrified that he would stay there if he had the chance to get out. Anyway, I think I need to contact the fire dept or something to help me gather a plan for our family. I mean, yes I could say meet us at the mailbox outside which is logical, but there's NO WAY I would ever leave my kids to fend for themselves if there was a fire in our home. Not an option. We would run through flames to keep them safe! Needless to say, we do need a plan to talk about - it's important. And I think we all do better in a situation if we've practiced the 'what ifs' and came up with some options together. Do you have an emergency plan?

He's so cute. During this conversation, he was a little apprehensive about if there was a fire at night, would we be standing outside at the mailbox in our pajamas? And how would the fireman know to come to our house - will he smell the smoke? He also told me that pets sometimes hide. And so I told him that he's right, but we don't have to worry about that because we don't have any pets. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mommy! Yes we do! We have fish!" So after I got my composure back from giggling, I explained that fire doesn't hurt water and so they would be pretty safe in their own home and we would not need to rescue them. He told me again that pets sometimes hide, and that "Oreo" and "Danny" (his fish's names) would probably hide near the filter or behind their rock.... Isn't that the cutest? Gosh, I want to bottle up these conversations sometimes because they are so precious! Anyway, he seemed satisfied with what we had talked about, and so the subject changed to if he could have some more graham crackers now.....

Which brings me to this picture below. I think he's officially sick of his Halloween candy! Yay! Now, what to do with it all. Time to send some in with Tom to work. Like I've mentioned before, I just let him eat it when he wants and pretty much how much he wants until he's tired of it. With the exception of after his teeth have been brushed of course. I haven't had the begging, whining, fussing and sneaking that a lot of parents go through when they ration out the candy. And it works. It's been a week and the tide has turned!

Here's a couple more cute shots I thought I'd share with you too. I think we have a Jr. Picasso on our hands. His latest art picture he brought home yesterday....

And here's my girl when I went to get her from her crib this morning. She was doing peek-a-boo with me through the slats.