Mouse: No Longer in the House

Kitchen, 7:00 a.m

We awake this morning, check the mouse trap, and find it empty (a little of the peanut butter licked off . . . eeeewwww). Jason and I exchange glances and keep our eyes wide open all through breakfast.


Hallway, 8:00 a.m.

I'm putting on make-up in the bathroom. The girls are changing into dress-up outfits in the playroom, then running down the hallway to see themselves in the mirror. They do this over and over, switching outfits each time.

I am putting mascara on when I hear Annie scream, "MommEEEEE!!! Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy there's something IN HERE!!!!!" and Jason emerges from a bedroom just in time to see the mouse streak past the girls, right down the length of the hallway, and head for the kitchen.

We look at Annie, who has climbed my legs. We look at each other. We have nothing.

"It was a mouse," says Jason. She screams in my left ear. I take the girls to Annie's bedroom and spin elaborate, light-hearted stories about the poor mouse getting separated from his family, how he must have gotten lost inside our house, how daddy will set a trap to catch the mouse so we can put him back outside where he belongs. Jason sets the trap and leaves it on the kitchen counter. I am sure we will be paying for years of therapy and answering questions for days about where the mouse is.


Kitchen, 8:45 a.m.

I am going through the house, picking things up and returning them to their rightful place in preparation for Annie's playdate coming over after dance class ("Hi Grace and Grace's mom, welcome to our house for the very first time ever; don't mind the mousetrap on the kitchen counter!"). I'm turning from the playroom to go back down the hallway when I hear a simultaneous scream and Snap! from the kitchen. Annie and Jemma had just wandered in, finally braving that room in the house, just in time to see the mouse be caught in the trap. More screaming, obviously, and I finally take them upstairs while Jason gets rid of the evidence.


Rest of the day

Annie functions normally, except that she refuses to be alone in any room "because the mouse is in there" no matter how many times I explain that we caught the mouse and put it back outside (which is technically true because the trap went into the garbage bin, which is outside). So every time she has to pee, I go in the bathroom with her. Every time she needs something from her room, I go with her. During rest time, she called me two times to "give me a kiss and a hug and make sure the mouse isn't in here." Bless her heart; she's going to worry about this for a long time. I'm actually shocked that she's in bed right now. I kind of thought I was going to have to sleep with her tonight.

As for us, we set another trap because, really, what are the odds that it was Just One Mouse? We're waiting for his family to show up, so that we can "put them back outside."