And Then We Were Four: Fire Fighter to the Rescue!

Wyatt has gone through many phases this year, from being obsessed with trains to being obsessed with firefighters and ambulance guys (as he calls them), and of course trucks of all types and sizes (though the bigger the truck the better of course).

This year when we asked Wy what he wanted to be for Halloween he said without hesitation, "Fire fighter to the rescue!" This was his favorite thing to yell this fall as he ran through the house pretending to rescue people. The funniest part of this is that he didn't have a real grasp of what fire fighters do beyond driving in fire trucks and rescuing people from things. This meant that usually he was rescuing someone (me, the cat, his stuffed pig Oinky) from Pinkfoot. Pinkfoot is his imaginary monster a la Bigfoot. Pinkfoot is usually a bad guy, but occasionally needs rescuing himself. Watching Wyatt use his imagination in this way this year has been one of the best parts of parenting him.

Around this same time Wyatt became seriously obsessed with "The Three Mouseketeers", a retelling of the classic story with Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the main roles. This is a movie that we watch at least 3 times a week. We know the words to all the songs (Bad Guy Song!) and this is one of his favorite pretend games to play. For the most part he likes to play Mouseketeer by himself, with only a cardboard paper towel or wrapping paper tube for a sword and the lid to a small plastic container as his shield. Occasionally he wants me to play along and the best part? I always get to be the Princess. This means I can sit on the couch, stand in the kitchen doing dishes, or fold laundry in the bedroom and he can rescue me to his heart's delight - and I don't actually have to do anything! Terrible sounding I know, but by the time the Mouseketeer phase got into full swing I was 7 or 8 months pregnant and the thought of actively trying to chase Wy around made me cry with exhaustion and the creakiness of my poor pregnant joints.