Today Luke brought home his turnout gear that he will use in his firefighter training. Patrick was of course in heaven. The two of them went through it all piece by piece as Ben and I watched. Patrick enthusiastically tried on everything. He thought the helmet and the mask were the coolest, especially since the mask has a speaker on the side of it so the firefighters can talk to each other and hear what the other is saying more clearly. Patrick knows a lot about turnout gear from watching his firefighting videos, but this speaker was a new development for him, and he very much appreciated it.
After that, Patrick and I both said we wanted to see Luke in full gear, so he gamely put it all on for us. The helmet, mask and boots are his, but this is a used pair of pants and jacket. He will get his own by the time he starts his shifts. I thought Ben would get scared, but he was okay as long as I held him in my lap, though he never took his eyes off Luke for even a second. Patrick helpfully reminded us that "it's not scary--it's a just a friendly firefighter coming to help!" That's the video again.
