we finally went skating on the oval today--this is the outdoor 1980 olympic speed skating oval in lake placid, which has public skating throughout the winter and which we have been eagerly awaiting, since 1. now it is right down the road from us and not 45 minutes away and 2. carter is finally skating with enthusiasm. unfortunately, they delayed opening it this year, as ORDA (olympic regional development authority) is under financial restrictions per the state and i guess running it -- the refrigeration and staffing and zamboni-ing etc was too costly. it was opened just before christmas, but then only limited hours and often only for the speed skaters. public skating was held inside, in the 32 arena. (this is the 1932 olympic arena--we are just swimming in history here...) this was fine, but it was just not the oval. finally they had public skate during the day outside, but then of course it was about 0 degrees, which will turn any 3-year-old into an anti-skating monster in about 2 minutes. today, finally, it was warm (low 20s) and open and the stars alligned.

ava immediately started skating around at mock speed, lapping carter and i 3 times for every lap we did, but it was great because usually she heads straight for the center of the rink and does her little tricks, but never really gets going--she prefers to spin and spiral and do bunny hops vs actually go fast in a circle. at the oval, there is no center--well, there is, but it is grass. she was forced to go with the tide, and as she really likes the attention of being "such a young figure skater! wow!" she hams it up, and put a huge amount of effort into it. that, and the speed skaters had the inside lanes blocked off--VERY nervewracking to be the person in charge of carter, who will change direction in a split second and i was constantly fearful of having to rescue him from the oncoming train of speed skaters--but it served to squish ava even more into skating with everyone else. it also served to inspire ava and carter, both of whom announced that they wanted to try speed skating. ava appeared to be very curious, staring at their skates and watching the process very intently, and at the end, there was a young teenager taking her skates off, and i told her to go ask her how old she was when she started speed skating. this girl started at 7, though i am not sure if that meant started on skates at 7, or speed skating at 7. regardless, ava seemed very eager, which i found interesting. we'll see if she likes it as much as figure skating, which somehow gets to the core of her being--she pretty much dances and spins and leaps her way through the whole day, without even really being aware that this is what she is doing. carter had to stop and watch the skaters fly by every time, and he was not as vocal about wanting to do it, but he certainly was absorbing it all. both kids were intensely interested in the anatomy of the skates, something that i know very little about, but definitely picked up on a lot just listening to the skaters.

there is a benefit to being a very small pregnant lady, and that is that i can scoot right out there without anyone having a cow over me doing something "dangerous" -- i am 32 weeks pregnant, and with my big puffy coat on, no one can tell. and before anyone reading this has a cow, i have fallen 2ce in this pregnancy--once on our stairs, and once just the other day on the golf course. in both instances, i was simply walking. in the latter, i was walking through snow, and did not know the golf cart path was under the snow--nor did i have any clue that it was solid ice, and i hit it and went down like a ton of bricks. interestingly, i did not get hurt.

i do get some looks when i take my coat off inside the lodge or the skate shack, but very few comments. i think i look about 6 months pregnant. i don't know why i am so small this time--i was huge with carter and certainly a lot bigger even with ava. i measure exactly where i should be, so no one is worried about the baby being small (least of all me), but everything is just very compact. i can still lie almost completely on my belly. i still feel ok, though the random aches and pains are increasing, and i am oddly nauseous and very tired again. it is like i am back in the 1st trimester. that is also not what i went through with ava and carter. perhaps it is just the fact that i am chasing after 2 small kids--between the calories burned and the sleep lost i am staying tiny, exhausted, and well, nauseous -- not sure about that last one. the one thing that is not different is the restless leg syndrome. it is as bad as it ever was with the other 2, and it really stinks. i have all the sympathy in the world for people who deal with that all the time, and not just when they are pregnant. that is the one thing that will keep me counting down the days, obsessively, hoping for relief.

8 weeks to go. and i finally ordered the car seat. and the cosleeper, and the bjorn, and something else. yes, we gave all of those things away several years ago. and yes, i said at the time: "you know this guarantees that we are having 3 kids, right?"