Posted by mommyfranklin at July 17th, 2005

I’m awake an hour and a half before intended. I’d like to go back to sleep, but my heart is racing at what just happened.

Before I tell you what happened, let me give you a little background.
– First, we have a bit of a mouse problem around here. We’ve caught around 10 mice over the last 6 months or so. There is one who is particularly skilled at avoiding the various traps we have around the house right now.
– Second, one of the rules around here is that you do not get out of bed unless you need to go to the bathroom. Emily has learned that if she needs to tell us something during a sleeptime, she better go to the bathroom first. Many conversations have started with “I needed to go potty and ….” usually followed by something like “I can’t sleep” or “what time can I get up?” More often than not, that occurs during naptime. We really have been blessed with three great sleepers.

This particular event was brought about by Timothy. At 5:55AM on this particular Sunday Morning, our door creaked open. Pretty soon, I knew it was Timothy because Emily has learned not to “poke the bear” by waking me up before I am ready to get up. So, I tell Timothy to go back to bed. It’s not time to get up. His response? “Poo Poo”

We are potty training. It’s not going just real well. If we ask him if he needs to go, he says “no” and procedes to go in his pants. If we make him sit on the potty, he will go. We think there is still too much immaturity in his communication ability, but we’re going to keep at it. Maybe by the end of the summer we’ll make some progress. At night, he’s still wearing a diaper. Anyway, I digress. Since he was actually asking to go to the bathroom, I got up to take him. So, he and I go into the bathroom. I put his potty seat up on the toilet, and tell him to climb on. All this time, he is looking on the floor at the side of the toilet. No big deal, he does this quite often since that is where the bath toys are. A moment later, I saw what he was looking at. A mouse came running out from beside the toilet. Timothy wimpered and I screamed. So, Timothy let out a blood curdling scream and jumped into my lap. All I wanted to do was get out of the bathroom. So, while holding Timothy, I ran out of there and sat in the desk chair in the living room.

Of course, all the screaming caused Scott to come investigate. He found Timothy and I in the chair. I was a bit more calm by then, so I told Scott that the mouse was in the bathroom. All the while, Timothy is still saying “poo poo.” This time, a bit more tentative than before. So, we left Scott to take care of the mouse and moved the potty seat to the master bathroom. Timothy sat there for a moment and did a little business. Something settled behind him. So, instead of just sitting there for a bit as he sometimes does, Timothy said “mouse” and jumped off the potty onto my lap. By this time, I was in need of the facilities myself.

I put Timothy in a fresh diaper and told him to go back to bed. By this time, Emily was up and had come into the room to tell us to hurry because she doesn’t like being alone. This is a new phrase for her lately. I think she may have heard me mention it to a friend one time. Timothy was sitting on our bed. He wouldn’t get down to go to bed because of the, as he put it, “bi mouse.” So, I carried him with him whimpering the whole time. I told him it was a little mouse and that it was “gone gone.” So, he laid in bed saying “lit mouse gone gone.” Poor guy may be spooked for life from going to the bathroom. Nah….

When everyone had calmed down enough in the kids’ bedroom, I came back to bed. I tried to get back to sleep, but Zachary has decided this would be a good time to do his vocalization exercises and the dogs have decided they no longer want to be in the closet so they are scratching at the door. I lay listening to all the activity for a bit. Once they quiet down, I am reminded of my sunburn. At the pool yesterday, I got a bit pink on my shoulders and back. It’ll be impossible to get comfortable now. What’s the point when I plan to get up in 35 minutes anyway?

I’m counting on getting a nap this afternoon!