The age old story, from enemy to beloved friend...

A pre-corona virus story for today to remind everyone there was life before social isolation, there will be life afterwards...

Last Wednesday was a busy day.  Tuesday afternoon, my amazing friend Ann had passed.  I was in a strange head space.

After running around all morning, I raced into the house, preparing for a double playdate that afternoon.  As I raced around, suddenly a small mouse came sauntering out into the middle of the floor.  Being startled, I screamed.  To which the mouse responded by continuing to slowly walk the room.  I was just feeling like UGH!! I do not even have TIME for this nonsense right now.

I immediately texted Thom, "Mouse stand off in the kitchen".  "Middle of the day too."  "That's not a good rodent."  "Oh my god I just stepped onto a mouse."  "It's in the middle of the hallway."  Then I texted a string of explicatives and OMGs...I then tried to do the emergency measure of phoning Thom.  He did not pick up.

So I knew that I could not allow 4 small girls to come into my home with a dead stepped on mouse in the middle of the freaking hallway.  So using as little of my body as I possibly could, I carefully used the entire hallway rug to roll up the mouse and shove it into the basement stairwell.  You know like a mob boss.  (I did not have time to take the extra precaution of dumping the body in the lake.)  As I was leaving, another mouse walked "happy as you please across the dining room floor" as I texted Thom.

I then traversed to school for pick up.  Of course when I arrived, I announced to my fellow pick up parents my mouse delimma.  When all the girls arrived home, I did not catch any sightings of the rather bold mouse.  It was LOUD.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  Maybe all would be well during the playdate.  Maybe the mouse would behave and we could put off dealing with any of this..

The girls were all upstairs happily playing, as I worked on a workshop at the dining room table.  In a previous year, a chipmunk had gotten into our house.  It took YEARS for Lotta to be able to use the bathroom by herself after that.  I was not sure we could go through a setback on that front.  When, once again, the mouse walked out to see what was happening.  There was a birthday box Zibbi had packed for her upcoming birthday (in MAY).  The mouse could not seem to figure out how to get around this huge obstacle.  Then, Lotta came down.  As she was also about to step on the mouse, I was forced to tell her.  To which she screamed and ran upstairs.

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon playing away from the mice situation downstairs.  When Benja learned of the mice debacle, he refused to go upstairs by himself.

When Thom arrived home early, he immediately picked up the mouse and placed it in a large bucket with a lid.  I suggested that if our home was being overtaken by mice, perhaps we should have a policy that he takes my calls.  He then informed me that all of my texts had been shared with his entire team and had provided much needed comedic relief on a stressful day.  (I guess my hopes of gaining any respect from the tech team died that day.)

The girls then became enamored of the mouse, wanting to keep it as a pet.  They built furniture for it and placed fruit beside it.  The took the bucket outside to free the mouse, where the mouse breathed its last breath.  (I suspect the mouse felt as if death was better than the life it was currently leading with so very much attention from two large mammals.)  Zibbi was heartbroken and had trouble eating dinner.  Benja suggested we bury the mouse with the headstone, "From Enemy to Friend in a matter of minutes..."

One of the moms at pick-up thought that maybe it was my friend Ann, playing a posthumous joke...

The Troublesome Tooth Fairy

So the Tooth Fairy has had a challenging time lately delivering the goods in a timely manner.  The first time, the speculated cause was that the tooth was not extracted until well into the evening, near bedtime.  It was assumed that the tooth fairy was unable to get our home on the schedule for that evening.  When she did deliver, she included a small "late fee".

Next time, TF again did not arrive the following morning.  Zibbi descended the stairs, head down, tears in her eyes as she explained that the Tooth Fairy didn't come. 

Again, TF delivered late with a "late fee" included with the usual dollar. 

(Just as an aside, there is an epic tale floating around both Marquette and Lapham Elementary Schools about a student who received $10 from the Tooth Fairy!!  Even the school nurse had heard the tale...)

Then this week, when Lotta lost a tooth, TF left money, but did not in fact take the tooth.  We suggested Lotta write a "Yelp review" for the tooth fairy.  Here's what she wrote...

Lotta obviously did not want to discourage TF, still giving her 4/5 stars (!!?!)

Then, Zibbi joined in, being a bit more direct...

While the girls were in school, the Tooth Fairy responded...

Zibbi came to me last week excitedly (with a bit a of bloodiness), telling me how she had banged her tooth into something and she was sure it would come out soon.  Who knew something so very tiny could create so many stories?