Summer Begins
Friday 5/25
Summer begins for us only when we open the house and head to NH for the first time. We had the kids miss school on Friday and drove up in the morning, anxious as always to see with our own eyes that the house was still standing after a long winter. It was, and lilacs were blooming all around the house and barn. I stayed outside with the girls while Andrew went inside to do the first walk-through. It's always dicey, this first glimpse of the interior. In years past, we've found more than one gruesome tableau involving dead mice in myriad arrangements. This year, there was one dead mouse and epic mouse droppings, and a vacuum that stopped working over the winter. So getting the house clean enough to enter took some doing. Lucia and Greta were happy enough to run around outside.
Andrew cooked hot dogs and burgers on the grill Friday night, and we ate outside. Greta has a grotesquely wiggly bottom tooth and couldn't eat her corn on the cob; Andrew cut it off with a knife. Bedtime was tricky, the girls over-excited at sharing a room, and then things got even worse because of one of the most insane mouse encounters ever.
Andrew and I were in the living room, reading and waiting for the kids to go to sleep so we could go outside and sit around the fire pit. All of a sudden, I saw movement under the windows, and a small dark shape darted behind the piano. It was so shadowy and quick that I was *almost* certain it was a mouse, but there was still a possibility that it wasn't. I jumped up, startled, and Andrew looked for it behind the piano, but it was gone. I sat back down on the couch. I turned my head, and in my peripheral vision I saw a giant hand-size spider on the wall right by my shoulder. I gasped and jumped up in panic, running from the room and throwing off my sweatshirt as I ran, hissing "IS IT ON ME IS IT ON ME IS IT ON ME" to a freaked-out Andrew. When I looked back to where I was sitting, I realized it hadn't been a spider at all but only some dramatically peeling paint. Still trembling, I stood in the hallway while Andrew headed to the stairs, intending to put on some shoes so he could Take Care of the Mouse Situation. He began walking up stairs. I was standing just in front of the staircase. Suddenly, a dark shape hurled itself off the staircase, between the railings, and landed inches from my feet. It stayed there, stunned, and then scurried away: a mouse.
I screamed. A loud, sudden, terrified scream that the girls heard clearly from their bedroom. We spent the next hour reassuring them that it was just a mouse, not anything scary, actually a very tiny and cute gray mouse that had just startled me. They did go to sleep, but Greta woke up screaming several times after midnight, claiming she was terrified of mice, and finally sleeping in our bed (which meant we didn't get any sleep since we were scared of suffocating her).
We managed to squeeze in a fire pit between the mouse drama and Greta's night terrors. We drank wine and ate Vermont cheddar and heard coyotes in the distance.
That was Friday.
Saturday 5/26
Despite the mouse drama from the night before, Saturday was a perfect NH day. It was warm and sunny, absolutely beautiful, and we started off the morning with pancakes and then a walk to the creek. I'd bought water shoes for the girls to make it easy for them to wade around, and we spent a couple of hours exploring. The creek is one of the most peaceful parts of the woods.
Next up was the pond. We blew up our raft-boats, and L&G went into the pond to float around. Andrew went for a run and then took a swim. It's pretty relaxing to sit by the pond in a chair while L&G are doing their floating meditation; they wear life jackets, so I don't have to worry about them if they fall off the rafts. Greta paddled out after a while, but Lucia continued to float around for at least another thirty minutes, just lost in her own world. I'm eager for warmer weather in July so I can go out in my own raft-boat and float too.
After changing clothes, we drove to our favorite ice cream place and had our first maple creamees of the season (wild raspberry for Lucia).
Dinner was ribs and chicken legs on the grill.
No more mouse drama.
Sunday 5/27
Sunday was twenty degrees colder than Saturday, and the heat wouldn't work. It's always something. But we made the best of things, working on puzzles for a while and then heading out for some shopping at Joann Fabrics. We stopped at a few yard sales on the way home, where we got a set of classic games (Pick Up Sticks, Chinese Checkers) and a large assortment of Shopkins. L&G were over the moon with their finds. Greta had been annoyed with my predictable refrain of "Cute, but no" whenever they asked to buy anything, and they were amazed when I said YES to the $5 lot of Shopkins. They played with them the rest of the afternoon.
We had our cousins over for dinner Sunday night. No more mouse drama.
Monday 5/28
Monday morning, we were all upstairs, packing up, when Greta screamed in terror and bolted out of her room, Lucia close at her heels. "A MOUSE IS IN MY ROOM!" she screamed. As we watched, however, we could see her analyzing and recalibrating her reaction, little wheels turning in her mind. After a moment she said, "It was...adorable! And surprising!" This was absolutely the perfect way of describing her feelings. No longer afraid, she was tickled at her mouse sighting and wished to see the mouse again, talking at length about what it might have hoped to achieve by darting out to see her, hoping she'd see the same mouse again on our next trip, etc.
We will not tell the kids about the poison traps Andrew set all over the house. I don't like to think about them myself. The mice this time around are truly adorable, very tiny and gray. Mice you'd like to hold in your hand and keep as pets.
We had lunch at Pizza Chef and drove back to NJ. All of us are excited about returning in July. It was a perfect Memorial Day weekend.
Summer begins for us only when we open the house and head to NH for the first time. We had the kids miss school on Friday and drove up in the morning, anxious as always to see with our own eyes that the house was still standing after a long winter. It was, and lilacs were blooming all around the house and barn. I stayed outside with the girls while Andrew went inside to do the first walk-through. It's always dicey, this first glimpse of the interior. In years past, we've found more than one gruesome tableau involving dead mice in myriad arrangements. This year, there was one dead mouse and epic mouse droppings, and a vacuum that stopped working over the winter. So getting the house clean enough to enter took some doing. Lucia and Greta were happy enough to run around outside.
Andrew cooked hot dogs and burgers on the grill Friday night, and we ate outside. Greta has a grotesquely wiggly bottom tooth and couldn't eat her corn on the cob; Andrew cut it off with a knife. Bedtime was tricky, the girls over-excited at sharing a room, and then things got even worse because of one of the most insane mouse encounters ever.
Andrew and I were in the living room, reading and waiting for the kids to go to sleep so we could go outside and sit around the fire pit. All of a sudden, I saw movement under the windows, and a small dark shape darted behind the piano. It was so shadowy and quick that I was *almost* certain it was a mouse, but there was still a possibility that it wasn't. I jumped up, startled, and Andrew looked for it behind the piano, but it was gone. I sat back down on the couch. I turned my head, and in my peripheral vision I saw a giant hand-size spider on the wall right by my shoulder. I gasped and jumped up in panic, running from the room and throwing off my sweatshirt as I ran, hissing "IS IT ON ME IS IT ON ME IS IT ON ME" to a freaked-out Andrew. When I looked back to where I was sitting, I realized it hadn't been a spider at all but only some dramatically peeling paint. Still trembling, I stood in the hallway while Andrew headed to the stairs, intending to put on some shoes so he could Take Care of the Mouse Situation. He began walking up stairs. I was standing just in front of the staircase. Suddenly, a dark shape hurled itself off the staircase, between the railings, and landed inches from my feet. It stayed there, stunned, and then scurried away: a mouse.
I screamed. A loud, sudden, terrified scream that the girls heard clearly from their bedroom. We spent the next hour reassuring them that it was just a mouse, not anything scary, actually a very tiny and cute gray mouse that had just startled me. They did go to sleep, but Greta woke up screaming several times after midnight, claiming she was terrified of mice, and finally sleeping in our bed (which meant we didn't get any sleep since we were scared of suffocating her).
We managed to squeeze in a fire pit between the mouse drama and Greta's night terrors. We drank wine and ate Vermont cheddar and heard coyotes in the distance.
That was Friday.
Saturday 5/26
Despite the mouse drama from the night before, Saturday was a perfect NH day. It was warm and sunny, absolutely beautiful, and we started off the morning with pancakes and then a walk to the creek. I'd bought water shoes for the girls to make it easy for them to wade around, and we spent a couple of hours exploring. The creek is one of the most peaceful parts of the woods.
Next up was the pond. We blew up our raft-boats, and L&G went into the pond to float around. Andrew went for a run and then took a swim. It's pretty relaxing to sit by the pond in a chair while L&G are doing their floating meditation; they wear life jackets, so I don't have to worry about them if they fall off the rafts. Greta paddled out after a while, but Lucia continued to float around for at least another thirty minutes, just lost in her own world. I'm eager for warmer weather in July so I can go out in my own raft-boat and float too.
After changing clothes, we drove to our favorite ice cream place and had our first maple creamees of the season (wild raspberry for Lucia).
Dinner was ribs and chicken legs on the grill.
No more mouse drama.
Sunday 5/27
Sunday was twenty degrees colder than Saturday, and the heat wouldn't work. It's always something. But we made the best of things, working on puzzles for a while and then heading out for some shopping at Joann Fabrics. We stopped at a few yard sales on the way home, where we got a set of classic games (Pick Up Sticks, Chinese Checkers) and a large assortment of Shopkins. L&G were over the moon with their finds. Greta had been annoyed with my predictable refrain of "Cute, but no" whenever they asked to buy anything, and they were amazed when I said YES to the $5 lot of Shopkins. They played with them the rest of the afternoon.
We had our cousins over for dinner Sunday night. No more mouse drama.
Monday 5/28
Monday morning, we were all upstairs, packing up, when Greta screamed in terror and bolted out of her room, Lucia close at her heels. "A MOUSE IS IN MY ROOM!" she screamed. As we watched, however, we could see her analyzing and recalibrating her reaction, little wheels turning in her mind. After a moment she said, "It was...adorable! And surprising!" This was absolutely the perfect way of describing her feelings. No longer afraid, she was tickled at her mouse sighting and wished to see the mouse again, talking at length about what it might have hoped to achieve by darting out to see her, hoping she'd see the same mouse again on our next trip, etc.
We will not tell the kids about the poison traps Andrew set all over the house. I don't like to think about them myself. The mice this time around are truly adorable, very tiny and gray. Mice you'd like to hold in your hand and keep as pets.
We had lunch at Pizza Chef and drove back to NJ. All of us are excited about returning in July. It was a perfect Memorial Day weekend.
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