Bracken's Ambulance

One day Bracken said, “When I’m big, I’m going to take hard tests, work on an ambulance, and be a doctor like Daddy.” (That makes for a proud Daddy).

So Bracken decided to be an EMT for Halloween. Brian and I were excited to help him with his costume. Brian brought extra patches home from work that I sewed on Bracken’s shirt, and we found all sorts of medical paraphernalia like a pen light, scissors, band-aids, tape, pager(walkie-talkie), stethoscope and a name badge for Bracken to use(and Bracken’s additions of a hammer and wrench). Our big project was making him an ambulance. Brian brought a freezer box home from Sear’s, and we cut, taped, painted, and decorated it to be an ambulance—complete with a siren from our emergency radio.

The morning after we finished his ambulance, Bracken came out of his room still rubbing his eyes and saw the ambulance on our living room floor. He was immediately wide awake, “Look! We need to take puppy to the hospital. He’s hurt.” He started loading all his stuffed animals in the back of the ambulance and pretended to drive them to the hospital. We didn’t eat breakfast until an hour and a half later, we were too busy playing.

We dressed up for our ward Halloween party. Bracken and Brian were EMTs, Chandra was an injured ballerina, and I was Bracken’s patient (my costume was simple: Bracken put a band-aid on my forehead). Bracken’s ambulance was a hit, and after trunk-or-treating, he and Brian gave all the little kids rides in the back of his ambulance.

I love that Bracken loves and admires Brian so much. Bracken tries to be just like his dad, from the things he laughs at, to the way he treats Chandra and me, to what he wants to do when he grows up. Even though I’m sure he’ll change his mind about what profession he wants to have a hundred times before he’s grown, I hope he’ll never stop looking up to and wanting to be like his dad.

Happy Halloween!

Chandra and Bracken putting band-aids on his stuffed animals.



Our Little EMT

This is how Brian got the freezer box home...

Chandra and Bracken had lots of fun with the box even before we turned it into an ambulance. It was a bear cave, a house, a fort, and a mountain. We'll need to bring big boxes home to play in again sometime!

Daddy and Bracken carving our pumpkin. We had a little family party with pizza, a movie and pumpkin carving. (We couldn't invite friends over since Chandra wasn't quite over the chicken pox yet.)