dungeons and dragons

It's just Ava and me at home this afternoon. Lori is off with Brennan and Zoe enjoying the first day of Winter break at Skateland. Admittedly, I really like a quiet house in the middle of the afternoon. It's rare, but oh so enjoyable. It is prime time to do one or more of the following (in order of necessity):

1) Work
2) Nap
3) Read

After putting Ava down for her nap, my plan was to progress through that list over a three hour period in the following order: 1, 3, 2. However, 30 minutes in, I realized that none of that was going to happen. It started when she stuck her legs through the slats in her crib and donkey kicked against the wall, sending herself and her crib sliding into the middle of the room (this happens frequently, so I could tell what was going on simply by the sounds coming from upstairs). From there, she began to make a lot of noise - the kind of noise that is both distracting and entertaining. As such, there's really little else to do except ignore my own agenda, and document Ava.

I should preface this by saying that she was clearly tired and I went up to talk to her several times during the course of this performance. Because she was both tired and very entertaining, there's no way I was going to let her get out of taking a nap. So, neglect? Nah. Selfish? Probably a little.

Meowing, loudly. (1:17p)

Screaming, "Can't be mad at me..DAH-DEEEEE!" (1:19p)

Two things were just tossed from her crib. I'm guessing two books - one hard cover, one paper back. (1:22p)

"GO TO SLEEP...KITYYYYY!!!" (1:30p)

"I WANT...YOGURRRRRT!" (1:35p)

"I gonna be mad at you." (1:37p)

"ha ha. nah nah nah. try n' get me. ROARRRR!" (this repeated several times between 1:42p and 1:53p)

"I not asleeeeep, DAH-DEEEE!" (1:56p)

"Good NIGHT! Good NIGHT!" (1:59p)

*singing* "Flushed away. Flushed away. Every day, it's flushed away. You can't pee in my house." (2:02p)

"I'm awake, daddy. I'm awake." (2:03p)

"Come 'n find me, Daddy!" (2:05p)

"Daddy!? *Howl* Daddy!? *Howl* Daddy!?" (2:07p)

"There's a dragon in here." (2:11p)

And then (2:14p), asleep (Ava, not me)**. I feel bad that the last thing she told me prior to slipping into her afternoon slumber was that there was a dragon in her room. However, I'm also fairly impressed. She went to sleep despite the presence of a dragon. Or maybe that was simply the final scene in her performance. "Hey dad, there's a dragon in here. The heroine will slay it and THEN be able to rest knowing the people are safe."

I like that ending. It would have been better 45 minutes ago, but still, overall, a very strong performance.

** I went up to check on her, making sure that 'dragon' wasn't preschooler code for something that should actually concern me.