An Ordinary Fireman: It's Been A Busy Summer For This Ordinary Fireman!

On Valentine's Day, Amy & I announced we were expecting a baby. (Click HERE to see.) We even posted a picture, to get votes on a boy or girl:

Well, on July 2nd, 2012, at 0610hrs, our daughter Gracie was born! Mom & baby did great! Gracie was nineteen inches long, and weighed in at an even six pounds. After a standard forty-eight hour admit, I had the honor of taking my wife and our baby home on July 4th. Gracie got fireworks! (She slept right through them).

Amy knitted this hat for Gracie! It fit perfectly!

Awesome! It's the only way to describe it!

I took a month off from work (thanks to the FMLA). I would like to say that gave me more time to blog and do recreational activities, but, alas, no, it did not. This being a daddy for a newborn thing... How did I do it with my other two kids??? Oh yeah, I was 23 & 24 when they were born... now I'm 41 (I turned 41 a few weeks after she was born, but what's age at this point anyway?)

She is doing quite well. She can now sit up (sorta) in a seat, and she recognizes things, like the stuff in her room, our dogs, and of course, her mom and I! As of this writing, she is nine weeks old. Today she got her first round of shots. It wasn't pleasant, but we got through it.

So I mentioned that I took a month off work. During that time, I was able to grow a goatee, which is pretty common for me when I take a vacation, but I was off for a total of five weeks, so I was pretty impressed with it myself! Not at all anything like ZZ Top grows, but for me, it's as good as it'll be until I'm retired from firefighting! This shot was taken about two minutes before I shaved it off. Gracie helped me with the photo, but I took care of the actual shaving!

It doesn't even look like me!

Once back at work, well, it was pretty much the same thing, except the secretaries have been hounding me for pictures and chances to hold the baby! I work with a great group of people, and it really is an honor to call them friends.

I did a shift on the ambulance, a shift behind the wheel, even rode backwards for a shift (that's tailboard firefighting for those of you old enough to remember what that is!) and spent the rest of the time riding the seat, as our captain was on vacation. Most of the calls were routine, run of the mill type calls.

We also caught a job at a local care center. The staff there did a GREAT JOB in evacuating the residents. I truely give them a tip o' the ol' leather for their job well done. They saved a lot of lives, and frankly, saved us a lot of work. The system worked. The alarm activated, and the alarm company called us. So did the staff. They evacuated and isolated, as per their training and protocols. They even were able to dump an ABC on the fire, which significantly slowed it down to where we put it out with less than the equivilent of a pan of water. We did have to ventilate, but that comes with it. The sprinkler system didn't activate, but I credit the staff's quick actions in ensuring it did not get hot enough to activate. Again, a job well done!

For those of you who like baby pictures, here's a few more: