So, last night at about 9pm there is an ear splitting noise that suddenly starts coming from my house. Quickly realize that it's our home security system's fire alarm going off.

House does not appear to be on fire. Wife and I are staring at each other, each thinking that the other might know how to turn off the alarm, when our four year old son bursts out of his room with a look of panic on his face. He runs down the stairs to the front door and says, "Fire alarm, we have to go outside!"

I look at my wife and say, "He's right." She scoops up our two year old and heads out to take shelter in the car with the kids. I grab the cordless phone and do a quick look for obvious smoke or flame before heading outside. The alarm monitoring company calls and I tell them that there is no obvious fire, but if carbon monoxide would set off the alarm, then they should probably send out the fire department. She tells me that CO would trip the alarm, so I wait on the front lawn for the fire trucks.

FD clears the house and finds nothing wrong. I apologize for waking them up and the chief assures me that it's better to over-react and be safe, especially with kids in the house, than to under-react and suffer the consequences. (I actually know this chief, he was kind enough to bring his engine to my kid's birthday party for the kids to climb on about a year ago. Really good guy.)

When the FD left, I sat my four year old down and made a big deal of telling him how proud I was that he knew what to do when the fire alarm went off, and that he immediately went to get out of the house, and that he should do the same thing if it ever happens again. He was really freaked out by the whole thing, and it took him a while to calm down enough to go back to sleep. My two year old was crying profusely, because he did not want to fire trucks to go away before he could play with them. It was a fun night! (Sarcasm)

The alarm company is coming out today to see what tripped the alarm. . .

Anyhow, I'm really pleased that my son knew what to do when the alarm went off, and did it. We've discussed with him what to do in a fire, and it's good to know that some of those instructions actually sank in.

I hope everyone else is having fewer moments of excitement lately than I am!