background information necessary for this story: pea = please, and det-do = credit card in carter's language.

we went to the olympic center to watch the junior international figure skating grand prix competition, very fascinating to ava, not so fascinating to carter. this is also where we go for ava's skating lessons, thus it is our home away from home. during a break, i took both kids out of the big-deal arena, and let them run around the halls. we ended up in the not-such-a-big-deal area, where the rinks are not as snazzy, but where we are very familiar with the available amusements like squishy blue (BLUE!) gym mats. there is also a gumball machine. one of the big ones, where you put a quarter in and the gumball travels down a transparent spiral in the base of the machine around and around and around until it finally appears at the bottom. both kids adore these gumballs (i bite carter's up and give him 1/4, if that, and i insist that ava prove that hers is squashed before she is allowed to move), but i rarely have any quarters on me.

on this day, carter ran up to the machine. "eh? mamma? nummy num? eh?" -- tap tap on the machine.

"no carter, i am sorry, i don't have any money for the machine."

"eh? nummy num?" tap tap tap "pea?"

"sorry, honey, no money."

pause…

"det-do?"