An hour at a Fire House

Yet another adventure to add to the books!
The girls and I planned to have a relaxing and fun Saturday. Chad had to work in Baltimore, so we thought Costco, Target and watching movies would be fun for the day. BUT, first things first, Lillian needed to be in her other car seat.
It all started last week when I kept complaining about my shoulder hurting. It took me all week to realize the pain was from lifting Lillian in and out of the new truck in her infant seat. UGH! After this epiphany I decided that Saturday would be the day to switch out the seats.
Back to today (Saturday).The girls and I had lunch and then we all piled into my truck and headed to Ft. Detrick. Why post you may ask. Well, Chad parks his truck there and gets into his government vehicle. His truck had Lillian's "new" seat or Hannah's "old" seat installed. I got it out of his truck, had Lillian's base taken out and thought, this is my third kid, this will be a BREEZE. HA! I can honestly laugh at myself. With each baby I feel like I am a first time mom. I could not get her seat tight at all. (Yes, I am freakish about the seats being PERFECT.) So I take a deep breath and thought to just drive SLOWLY to the fire department on Ft. Detrick. Of course, they were not there. Next option, panic. No really, head less than a mile OFF post to the independent "volunteer" fire station I know. I got there and they were just getting back from a call. The girls were so excited to see the truck getting parked.
As we pull up a fireman comes up to the truck and asks what we needed. I explained to him about the seat and he said he would try and tighten it. No such luck. So he pulls the HUGE fire truck out of the station and asks me to pull into the station. Seriously?!?!?!?! I said, do you want to hold a baby or move my truck. He took the first option of holding Lillian. :o) While I was pulling the truck into the station house Lillian pooped in the arms of the fireman. Yes, you read that right. Pooped while being held! :o) The fireman laughed and said she smelled like a firefighter. I said maybe she would be one someday. ;o)
At this point we are all unloaded from my truck and they decide since they do not have a person on duty to install the carseat properly they would have to call the downtown station to come out. (Why on earth did they not tell me this in the first place I still don't know.) One of the volunteers took the older two girls for a tour of the station and let them sit in the engines and wear some of their gear. All the while I waited for the "other firefighters" to get to the station.
Out of the blue here comes another fire engine with their lights ON pulling into the station. Yes, the other firefighters came with lights on to the fire station we were at just to "fix" my carseat. At this point all I can do is just laugh. I thought all of this would be short and simple, not complex, full of firefighters, tours of engines and the fire house and lights!!!
The new guys arrived and had hats, coloring books, pencils and "supplies" to install the seat. Within a 5 minute period he was able to get the seat installed properly. I felt like a first time mom totally embarrassed that I could not do it myself, but that is just life, right?
Finally we were loaded back into the truck, Lillian SAFELY in her new seat and the older two tickled pink with new stories and toys to talk about for months to come.
A simple "switch" of the carseat turned into an hour long fire house adventure for the English Girls.
Yes, we did make it to Costco. Lillian sat in the cart for the first time and did well for the first five minutes. Then it just went down hill. Being hungry and tired didn't help the situation. Target was a bust and we just headed home. Now it is cartoons and some "down time" for all the girls.
Got to love those unexpected adventures. Thankfully I keep the camera handy in my "mom purse."