That's not Mickey.

We're really loving the house that we're living in now.  It's been just incredible.  There are multiple rooms in the house where we can all 6 comfortably hang out together.  I forget sometimes that we have a large family by most standards... until it's been raining for a few days - then it all comes screeching back into focus.  

One of my favorite rooms is the laundry room.  It's HUGE - and it's mine.  Several days ago, I went in to get dog food, and when I picked up the bag a handful of kibbles and bits rolled across the floor.  Deep breath.  There's a rodent.  Upside?  No evidence of this rodent anywhere else in the house.  Downside?  RODENT.  

First step?  Denial.  It's a fluke!  I literally taped up the hole in the bag and told myself it was a fluke.  It was a friendly country mouse en route to visit his friend in the city who stopped in for a snack.  Surely he wouldn't be back.   

But he was.  The next morning there was another hole in the bag.  Of course.

I bought the sticky traps.  Deep down I knew that this was going to lead nowhere good.  There was really only ever one plausible conclusion and it included a panicked (and STICKY) wild animal, hysterical me, and at least one (probably 2!) child(ren) who wanted nothing more than to see what the ruckus was and then put it's hands in it's mouth.

I looked to the traditional traps, and I saw one thing.  SNAP.  Microscopic diseased blood splatters.  Think Dexter.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

This was one of those things that I was going to just have to power through.  I tossed the glue traps in the cart and left.

One night went by... no mouse.  Considered briefly baiting the traps, but the box said it would make the glue less effective.  I needed the most effective glue possible.  Considered briefly pouring extra glue on the traps.  Decided to just be thankful that I had put off my face to face with those beady black eyes for one more day.

Night two came and went.  No mouse.  Having found the silver lining the day before, I jumped directly to relieved.  

Sometime after lunch, I went into the laundry room and I heard it.  I heard the furious scritching of a mouse ... a BIG mouse trying to escape from a trap.  I couldn't even talk myself into getting onto the floor and putting my face in front of it.  I was afraid that the face of his oppressor might be the thing that gave him the adrenaline rush he needed to pry his body from the glue and jump on my face.  So I did what anyone would do...

I blindly snapped a picture and ran.

To be continued...

and then there were 5 M&M's...

Unfortunately, the threat of losing M&M's did not stop Bo from streaking through the school today.  He lost 5 M&M's for running away from his teacher naked after potty time.

It's a good thing he's cute.

He ate his lunch and went straight down for his nap.  Hopefully he was just testing to see if we'd follow through today.  I'm not done fighting the good fight.  We'll try again next week.

10 M&M's

I have a very intelligent, high energy, hard loving, hard living 3 year old.  He tests boundaries.  All the time.  We've tried many things to encourage him to follow the rules.  We've responded with anger and with love.  We've expressed to him that it makes us sad when he acts like a bad boy because in reality he's a very very good boy.  We've tried not responding at all in hopes that taking away the attention that comes with negative behavior will change it.  Unfortunately, nothing really seems to penetrate that hard curly head of his.

Yesterday, there was a teacher absent from his school.  (Praying for Mrs. Jen and her now removed appendix!  Love you, Jen!)  He was especially rowdy and had to sit out at recess.  I was mortified. This behavior is just not acceptable.  So, we're trying a new tactic.  After school, we put 10 Pecan Pie M&M's in a jar.

I don't recommend these M&M's.  I don't care how much you like Pecan Pie - just don't bother.

When he misbehaves, he loses a piece of candy.  After dinner, he gets to eat any M&M's that are left.  Last night, he had 5 of the 10 left.  Of course... we started at lunchtime.

This morning, we walked into school together.  He apologized to Mrs. Bobbie.  We talked to her about the M&M's.  If you are reading this, please pray that he has a better day.  It is just so frustrating to know what a sweet kid he is and have him act out this way at school.  I'm telling myself that as long as we don't stop trying to correct him, then we haven't failed yet.  Besides... he's 3.  3 year olds get to have bad days too.