Thursday, October 9, 2008

Grant strikes again!

It seems that it is fire prevention week (maybe month) as Grant was taught how to dial 911 this week in preschool. Now, if I had had my head on straight I, I would have gone ahead and laid the ground rules down about 911 by saying something to the effect of, "You can only dial 911 in an emergency. We are not going to call them for fun," because this is Grant we are talking about; you gotta stay waaaaaaay ahead of the game with the child. Let's review his track record, shall we? This is the same kid who stuck a pea up his nose last year for the heck of it - took two doctors (including an ER visit) to get it out. This is the same kid who pulled the fire alarm at church one Sunday morning when he was two just because it was within his reach and it was red. (am I right, Bryan and Shaye?) This is the same kid who pushed the "P" button on our house's alarm system when he was three because the button looked cool, so therefore the police came. Which means... this is the SAME kid who called 911 tonight!!!! Why am I not surprised? And if you know Grant at all, you are most likely not batting an eye at this story!


The lowdown: Grant came running into my bathroom around 7:30 tonight crying hysterically and saying, "I am soooooooooo sorry, Momma. I did not mean to call the emergency people! I am sooooooo sorry!" You guessed it: "emergency people" meant "911". I immediately raced to the phone hoping someone was still on the line. Nope. I hit "redial" to see if 911 would come up on the screen. Yep - it did. This meant he really did call 911. I called 911 back and told them it was a mistake and everything was okay, however they still had to send a policeman to our home to check things out. In the meantime, Grant was beside himself. He was sure he was going to be arrested or maybe get a ticket, so he hid in his closet (because I am sure you are all aware that if you hide in your closet you can not get arrested or be given a ticket...). At that moment, the policeman shows up. I open the door and quickly began to tell (you know how fast I can talk) him that we are so sorry for causing this problem; that Grant had learned how to dial 911 in school this week and for some reason he had decided to give it a try. I invited him in (thank goodness I had just picked up the house) and told him that Grant was going to need to apologize for what he had done. To my surprise, the policeman was soooooo VERY kind about the whole thing. I mean, I figured he would be annoyed at yet another obnoxious kid who dialed 911! But I am so thankful to say that he proved me quite wrong. As a matter of fact, he followed me to Grant's room (where Grant was hiding) - I think the officer came in and followed me to take a look around the place to make sure everything really was okay - and spoke so sweetly to Grant. Grant was in awe that he was getting to talk to a REAL policeman in his OWN room -his facial expression was one that said, "I am the luckiest kid on the planet to get to be talking to a policeman right now." Too cute. Anyways, Grant apologized a million times to the officer, and the two became best buds faster than I can eat a Hershey's Kiss. Grant told him how he was going to be a policeman for Halloween, and the officer took Grant out to his truck and let him sit in his truck, turn on the lights (I got a video of this, but I 'm having a hard time downloading it.), the siren, and he even gave Grant a little badge. (Grant is sleeping with it tonight. He thinks it's pretty neat.)

I very much appreciated the way the man handled it as he told Grant he was so glad he knew how to dial 911, but that he should only do so in an emergency. Of course, I had already told Grant that, but I think it was good for Grant to hear it from the officer as well. So what was Grant's response to this? He looked at me and said, "Okay, Momma. I will only call 911 if Rhett is drowning in the pool (we don't have a pool) or if you are dead." I am sure something about that is supposed to give me comfort...

Pictures of the event:
Grant following the officer out to his truck to get his "surprise".
The officer giving Grant the little badge.

Best buds!


On a side note:
We all wore our Halloween shirts today. They got great reviews.

My little toots. (I mean, my sweet pumpkins.)