Fire Truck, Fire Truck...

...I wanna ride on a Fire Truck!

Fire Truck, Fire Truck

I wanna ride on a Fire Truck

-Fire Truck, Ivan Ulz

Okay friends, I must admit that I had never heard this song before today. What? You haven't heard it either? Well, please take a listen.

Jay is so ready to be back at school. Because his INR has been too high since we got back to Raleigh, his cardiologist was uncomfortable with him being in a daycare setting. High INR means his blood takes too long to clot, so he's at much higher risk of bleeding from minor cuts and (more importantly) higher risk of head injury.

As much fun as he's been having with me, he loves kids his own age and loves the endless stream of song and dance that is a daycare setting. So we spend some time each morning hanging out in his new class. We drop off Luke with his buddies in the infant class, then head down the hall to see what kind of musical entertainment we'll find in the two's class. And almost every day, we find some two year olds with some funky dance moves.

Today, the twos were all sitting in a circle and singing when we arrived. Fantastic! Just in time for the music party. The teachers were taking requests, and the first was for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Jay's fave song up first?! Seriously - Jay is gonna LOVE this class! He even got in a request for "Down By The Station" between his friends' requests for the "ABC" song and "Baby Bumblebee."

Then, Grace wanted to sing a solo. While I was unfamiliar with her musical selection, I must say that she sang with great enthusiasm. Her performance was cheered by much clapping all around. And, of course, when one toddler gets a solo, they ALL want a solo. The teachers were happy to oblige, though I'm not sure whether it was encouraging the kids' confidence in front of a group, or just the chance to rest their weary voices. Either way...

The next solo was a little boy who sang the fire truck song above. (If you didn't listen earlier, you really must now!) Having never heard the song, I thought it was pretty cute, but the teachers gave each other a knowing look that I can only assume meant something like "Oh Brother. Here we go again." When he finished, the teacher asked, "Who wants to sing a DIFFERENT song?!"

There were many willing volunteers, each promising to sing something else. But when their moment in the spotlight came, every single one of them opted to sing "Fire Truck." Yes, each and every kid. Each of the ELEVEN renditions of "Fire Truck" was belted out with increasing gusto, and some of them even included jumping up and down. By about version 7, I was absolutely cracking up.

Then, this afternoon, Uncle John came by the center to provide some musical accompaniment for the fall festival. He sang a song or two, then opened it up to requests. Big mistake, Uncle John. Of course, having had "Fire Truck" stuck in their heads since the morning, you can imagine what the twos class wanted to hear.

When I tell you it was like a baby rave, I am not at all kidding. There were kids of all sizes jumping up and down in a big mass, crowding around Uncle John, screaming at the top of their lungs. "Fire Truck! Fire Truck! I want to ride on a FIRE TRUCK!!!!!!" All we needed was some crowd surfing, and it would have been quite the dance club scene. Just don't let Jay do any crowd surfing. You know, blood thinners and head injuries and all...