Boys are Gross

We've never had an actual lesson entitled "don't touch mice", but somehow my girls know that they shouldn't anyway. It is part of their nature. My boys, however, didn't learn that lesson in heaven. They automatically think it's a good idea to touch the mouse, even to pick up the mouse. They found it today in one of our window wells and instinctively knew it would be fun to chase the girls with it. They chased my sweet screaming girls through the house with the mouse before dropping it on my kitchen floor. EW! EW! EW! I'm no stranger to mice. I grew up in the country and mice were part of the package, but on the kitchen floor? Is there a way to get it clean enough? I told my mouse-loving boys that their hands would be satisfactorily clean after they wash them 500 times in hot soapy water.

St. Patrick's Day Resolution

Nathan finished telling me something and then he looked at me expectantly for an answer. I said "ok," but he just kept looking at me. Then he tilted his head to one side and said "do you know what I just said." I wiggled my toes nervously and replied "uh, huh." "Tell me what I said then," he shifted his head to the other side. "Hmmmmm. You said something..." "Nope," he cut me off before I could make an intelligent guess. For the next few minutes he looked me right in the eyes and told me his plan for a leprehaun trap. It was a pretty good plan about a toilet paper roll with a ladder on one side and a slide on the other side. We made it together tonight, but I've been thinking. Maybe I don't listen as well as I thought I did. I've read plenty of articles about how important it is to listen to your kids. In my 5-year old's life leprechaun traps are very important so that means they should be important to me. I want my kids to share the big things with me, so they need to know I listen NOW to the things that matter to them. Nathan seemed to know I hadn't heard him the first time and he was right. It makes me feel sad that I almost missed this awesome chance to spend some one on one time with my growing-up-way too fast little guy. He needed that time and so did I. I am grateful that he had the patience and forgiving heart to give me a second chance.I am a LUCKY mom. Tomorrow I will post a picture of the leprechaun if one is so unlucky as to fall into Nathan's cleverly designed trap.