Cold & Mouse Season

(from the jojos archive)

I'm sick. It's hard to find the energy to watch Aiden when I feel bad. Thanks to Jon staying home for awhile this morning, I got a few more hours of sleep. So far he and Aiden seem to be feeling fine although Aiden has been sleeping a lot more today than usual. Aiden was supposed to be in an infant cognition study today at Duke. I guess we’ll do it next week.
On a good note, our mouse problem may be solved. About two weeks ago we discovered that a mouse had eaten through the bottom of the dog food bag in the pantry. We keep his food in a plastic bin but there is always the last bit of the bag that doesn't fit. Once Jon pulled out the bag, we realized this was just the beginning. I also had a big plastic bin in the pantry with all of my maternity clothes that weren't out on loan. (I know, who keeps their maternity clothes in the pantry? Our house is getting pretty full these days!) This would have been mouse proof, but I didn't get the lid shut all the way after I tossed in that last pair of pants I'd still been wearing. Taking out the clothes we found dog food nestled in with shredded sweat pants and mouse poop. So GROSS! Anyway, that has all been cleaned out, bleached and sealed up. The shelves, floor and walls have been bleached too. The dishwasher has been pulled out, wall sealed up, floor scrubbed. But our mousy came back. Somehow he is getting INTO the dishwasher. So we set a trap in the pantry a few days ago but have gotten nothing. This whole time I'm cursing the cat. He has been camping out in front of the dishwasher for a few months but has not caught anything. Until last night. This morning there was what looked like (according to Jon, I didn't look) an eaten and barfed mouse on a napkin on our kitchen table. Not exactly how we wanted it done but it seems like Theo has earned his keep for a little longer. Kitty has been sleeping soundly on a chair all day.