The Pack Rat

For the last 2 days the family car, our '06 4-Runner has been under siege...by a huge pack rat. Just lovely. I actually saw it today. Yesterday I just saw the aftermath. It chewed up a portion of my heat shield, Foxy's blanket, a dried fruit wrapper, a sucker, and the flung a pop can half full pop. So today while my son heaved himself up in the 4-Runner to "drive", I was running from door to door trying to prod the huge beast out with a ice scraper. No luck. It went up under the dashboard. I couldn't see this since I was prodding from the backseat. After a couple minutes I got smart and tried the glove box. Ding, ding, ding. There it was all curled up resting it's fat self. In slow motion I watched it pour itself out of the glove box, over the stick shift, and towards my son, who was still driving. This is the point where I screamed bloody murder, which made Matthew also scream bloody murder, while we both watched it go back under the driver's seat. That was rather comical, if there is comedy in this situation. This time I kept my eye on the rat as I prodded it and watched it hot foot it up in the dashboard. I decided it was time to call the authorities. Yes, I called Dad. He said to throw Pan in the car, leave the glove box open, and hope it left. This meant I'd have to leave the good car at home and drive the Green Streak, which isn't running too hot. Fine. I installed the unwilling cat with food, water, and commode. I parked in the shade with windows down. I extracted everything that wasn't nailed down to chew. I came in for the Green Streak's key and...yes, you guessed it, nowhere to be found. I had to call my boss to pick me and my son up and take us to work, making us all late. Which insured that work would be CRAZY. It was only volleyball and football night. And of course Matthew couldn't go to the daycare until 5:15. A whole 45 minutes there, wow. Once Matthew and I got dropped back off, I extracted my very unhappy cat, along with all necessary cat supplies, and installed more rat bait inside. I had come home last night and put rat bait in place of the lovely nest it'd built under the hood. Hopefully this will be the end of the rat and it will not die in a spot that I can't get to (but stink to high heaven for 6 months) like in the Green Streak last fall. Does anyone want to change lives with me? Anyone?

I should also mention that in the middle of the rat battles I realized the mail lady was at my mailbox and I still hadn't got my mail there yet because I started battling the rat. What did I do? I snatched my mail and went sprinting down the driveway waving my mail wildly hoping to catch her attention. It did. She probably thought it was a pretty scary sight. I think I would have. She politely said once I got to her, "Well at least you got some exercise." On my way back I realized that Matthew, still driving, was looking horrified and calling me back. I have to say it is shocking to see me run because I don't do it unless I have to.

Today Matthew said, "Me water.", while looking at his sippy cup that was on a table. Yesterday he said bracelet. All week he has been chattering in sentences I can't understand. Yesterday he dropped his sunglasses in the tub and couldn't get them. He said something like, "need those" and I said, "You need your sunglasses?" and he said, "Yessh". It was so cute and amazing realizing your child is on the edge of talking like an adult. Every day this week he says "Hi kitty" to Pan whenever he sees her. I've said it before, but he's getting really good about stopping and waving at every car that goes by. Now he does the big person wave side to side, not the half shutting the hand kind. It's kind of nice to be able to tell him to go get me something and have him go and get it. At least 75% of the time. Yes, he is making big strides.

He is also getting lots of boo boo's. Tuesday, to quote the lady at the daycare, "Your son was being a daredevil and fell causing him to bite through his lip, well almost." Words every mom wants to hear. Translation, his teeth cut the inside of his lip and he had a sore spot on the outside, same place. Wednesday he leaned down to pick up something and in typical Matthew fashion, smashed his left cheek bone into the coffee table. The poor kid never looks down so he falls over everything. Well, by this morning he has a bruise in the that spot. Then today, after I extracted him from the driver's seat, he tried to go up the front steps, fell, and scraped his chin. Let me tell you he's looking good. On top of it he is drooling so much he is drying the skin out around his mouth, which causes redness and irritates his exzema.

In other words, I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday and that Halloween is only 29 days away.