Mousecapades

The other day I loaded the girls up in the car and ran back inside to get something. A came back out a few seconds later and Emma was laughing...

"What's so funny, Emma?"

"I saw a mouse!"

Now, hold it. Yes, we've had mice in our garage before and I hate them. They give me the creeps. I admit that maybe they're a tiny bit cute, but mostly I hate them. I don't like not knowing where they are and having them surprise me as they run from one corner to the other. And I really loathe mouse poop. Finding surprise piles of it in corners of my basement or garage really irks me. I seriously get chills and find myself paralyzed. I literally have to calm myself down, take a deep breath and just back my way upstairs when I spot it in the basement. (I know - get over it.) So anyway, I thought maybe, just maybe she was making it up. Although I wasn't totally sure that she'd actually seen a mouse, I didn't doubt it either. I just thought we'd killed them all with the rat poison...

"You saw a MOUSE? WHERE?"
(still giggling) "Over there!"

That's when she pointed to the yellow box of rat poison. I was not happy. Now I didn't think there was any way she was making this up.

"Mommy, it played peek-a-boo with me!"

OH GREAT. Now I knew she'd seen one. With it's head bobbing up and down or scurrying back and forth, of course she thought it was playing peek-a-boo! I was not thrilled. I quickly dismissed it, because I didn't want her to catch on to my fear of mice. As we pulled out of the garage, she sighed and said, "Mommy, I love the mouse." Great.

But then today...

We were loading up in the car and Emma asked, "Where my mouse is?" I said I didn't know, to which she replied, "Mommy, find it!"

I took a deep breath and said, "Emma, Mommy doesn't like mice. Sorry."

She gently put her hand on my face while I buckled her in and said, "Don't be afraid, Mommy. The mouse is friendly!"

Ohhhhhhhhhh sweet, innocent Emma. I laughed so hard.

AND I STILL HATE MICE.