she'll probably win an olympic medal or something

I have a needy two year-old.

Like whiny to the point where by 6:30 tonight I wanted to stick my fingers in my ears and start yelling, "I can't hear you. I can't hear you." (I resisted the urge.) (Barely.)

This doesn't pertain much to the story except that because of this needy two year old, I have been looking extra hard for two minutes of peace and quiet throughout the day.

So this afternoon, while the children were playing happily, I stole myself upstairs to see what Dave was up to. He was, of course, playing with his new nifty computer that the school issued him and so I plopped myself down next to him and relaxed for a few minutes.

After a few minutes I heard the fridge open so I went downstairs and got them each a bowl of yogurt and went back upstairs to finish my conversation with Dave.

... I interrupt this story a little side note: A few weeks ago I read a friend's facebook status who was lamenting the mess her children made while she thought they were playing quietly. Seeing as how at least one of my children (usually Ana) is underfoot ALL DAY LONG, I couldn't really understand this concept. My kids don't really get into too much mess making trouble because they never leave my side. That's just what they do - follow me around the house. It is really quite rare that Ana and Jack play happily without needed frequent intervention and even rarer that Ana plays by herself alone. To continue ...

We probably had a conversation uninterrupted for 15 whole minutes! It was awesome.

Then I started to hear thump ... giggle... clang-clang... thump.

No one was crying so I ignored it.

But it just kept going on. Finally I decided to go down and investigate.

I was expecting a mess of toys all over our dining room.

I was not expecting to have to mop the floor three times.

I was expecting the thump to have been toys being thrown all over the room.

I was not expecting the thump to be Ana slipping on the dining room floor, covered in Strawberry Yoplait and declaring happily, "I'm skating, Mom!"

Some things I have no response but a laugh. And to thank my lucky stars that Jack was merely a spectator clanging toy dishes in applause for Ana's antics.

As I took her upstairs for her bath Ana said, "I want to take skating lessons sometime, Mom."