Maddy has just graduated from elementary school and was reminiscing about "the good old days." Among those memories was one story she had never told us before. Apparently in kindergarten a firefighter visited the class and asked "who knows what to do if your clothes ever catch on fire?" He called on Maddy (this is a particular Maddy skill...whenever we're in the audience for anything--magic show, street juggler, whatever--Maddy gets called on. There must be something about her eagerness that draws them in).

With confidence (and probably quite a bit of enthusiasm), she said "Stop, drop, and roll!"

"Can you show us what that looks like?" asked the unsuspecting firefighter.

"Sure!" Maddy proceeded to stop, drop to the floor, and do a somersault, which is what her gymnastic teacher had taught her to call a forward roll. According to Maddy, she got a big laugh and the amused firefighter said, "well, that's one way to do it." Now, I remember her tumbling skills and her front rolls were of the wobbly variety. More often than not she would get stuck midroll and need a little nudge to her backside to finish the flop, adding to the visual this story creates for me.

How strange not to know all of my kids' stories--but then, I guess it's only fair because they don't know all of mine. Although they do claim know a select group of my stories by heart...time to pull out new material!