Taking advantage of some great fall weather, my mom and dad and I took the boys out to "Move It, Dig It Do It!" an event at the Johnson County Fairgrounds that essentially involved a big field full of garbage trucks, buses, cranes, firetrucks and every other imaginable big vehicle or piece of equipment that fuels Edward's obsession. His cousin, Sean, in Phoenix, had attended a fair like this last year, and Ed was jealous of the photos of Sean with various big trucks and such. So, we knew this would be a hit.

It would have been a bigger hit if not for one thing: horns. Every machine had a horn, some louder than others, and the kids in attendance were happy to honk them at every opportunity. Seems harmless enough, but Ed has a thing about loud noises. Ever since a day at day care earlier this summer when they tested the fire alarms, Ed has been terrified of loud noises. Just the threat of a loud noise has him clapping his hands over his ears and cowering. So, when we walked up to the first thing at this event, a big semi truck, the few seconds of bliss at being that close to a big rig were cut short when the kid in the cab pulled the cord that set off the horn. It startled me, and stopped Ed dead in his tracks. I feared we'd need to leave right then, but he toughed it out and walked around looking at things. He passed on the chance to get in the semi because of the hornophobia, but did climb in several other vehicles. I convinced him that the horns wouldn't go off if he was the one in the cab, because only he could set off the horn. This admonition came after he had climbed into the cab of a giant crane and honked the horn, scaring himself in the process. It seems some buttons are just too tempting not to push.

Along the way, he had the chance to sit behind the wheel of all kinds of things, including two fire trucks, a city bus, a tractor or two and more. He also saw some animals, including a pony, two cows (to which he gave a hearty greeting of "mooooo!") and some bunnies. They even had some old bi-planes fly over, which also captivated him.

The firetrucks were among his favorites. For some reason, at our new house he has deemed one particular wall to be a firetruck. He and I sit against the wall wearing backward baseball caps to approximate firefighter helmets, and then he spins his hands to turn the wheel and makes engine noises as we drive. When he had the chance to get behind the wheel of one truck today, I told him as we left it that he forgot to turn his cap around to drive it. He pointed to another truck and we headed off. There, a firefighter let Ed try on the turnout coat, which was so big it practically stood on its own. Ed then somberly turned his hat around. When offered a real helmet to wear he passed, pointing to his cap. Imagination trumps reality, I guess. He then turned to the firefighter and said, "I want to drive it." We climbed up and he grabbed the wheel.

His little brother didn't get much out of it, not that I expected much. He enjoyed riding in the stroller and getting attention from Grandma and Grandpa, but about halfway through he just slumped against the side of the stroller and took a nap.