Fire Safety

A few weeks ago it was Fire Safety Week at Curly's preschool. They met firefighters, looked at their equipment, learned how to stop, drop and roll. Normal stuff for a preschool class. They did the same thing last year. Last year, Curly loved it and had a great time. This year not so much. I think she has reached an age or maturity level where the severity of our house fire has sunk in deep. She remembers the fire. She was 2 1/2 when it happened. She can vividly recall almost every detail of that day. She even remembers things I don't, like what our neighbors gave her to eat and what color cup they put water in for her while we waited at their house for the firemen to put of the fire. I on the other hand, have no memory of her eating or drinking anything. Talking about the fire has never really been an issue for her. Until now. Fire safety week totally freaked her out. Since then, we have run many, many fire drills. Drills from every single room in the house. She wanted to be sure she knew what to do if a fire started while she was in her bedroom, the kitchen, her bathroom, the playroom, etc.... We've tested and retested every single fire alarm in our house. We've practiced calling 911 and pushing the fire button on our alarm system. We've located every single fire hydrant between our house and her school. Do you how often you pass fire hydrants on the road? Oh like every 50 feet! They are everywhere and we know about all of them. For most parents fire safety week is a non-issue. Their kid thinks fire is cool and that it won't happen to them. We can't. Curly knows a fire can and has happened. She fought going to sleep for about 2 weeks after fire safety week. Both day naps and dark naps (Curly lingo). The main reason being, she was taking a nap when we had our house fire. She remembers me running in and grabbing her our of bed. After many tears, talks, prayers, stories and fire alarm testing, she has improved on her sleeping this past week. She isn't fighting it much anymore, but she still is full of questions and concerns about fire. We are doing our absolute best to help her. We don't want her to be afraid. We want to know what to do in case of a fire and to put her trust in God. This week has definitely been much better and hopefully will continue to get better.

Curly and The Bear about a week after the fire. We were living with Aunt Jenna and Uncle Prem at the time. So little and so cute!