Another Gosh Darn Mouse

This evening, Auntie Shannon discovered a dead mouse in our garage.  For those of you unfamiliar with the great mouse fiasco of 2015,  all I can say as that at least it's not dead inside the house.

The girls have had wildly opposite, and completely characteristic, reactions to the newest dead mouse.  Madeleine immediately wanted to go and see it, and, as is her wont when looking upon dead animals, began fawning all over it.  It's so CUTE!  Awww!  Thanks to Madeleine, the dead mouse now has a name.  Clarabella.  It's a boy.  That's a pretty original name for a boy, although not an original name on the whole, given that Auntie Shannon has a dog named Clara Bell.

Julia, on the other hand, is terrified that mice are going to get into her room and crawl all over her at night.  I overheard Ethan trying to talk her down from her ledge.

ETHAN: Okay. Julia.  Listen to me because I'm only going to say this once.  I don't want to hear ANY freaking out about mice.  You don't need to be scared, it's ridiculous to be scared, so I want you to just calm down.
JULIA: But what if it gets in my room while I'm SLEEPING?
ETHAN: I think that's very unlikely.
JULIA: But can mice even climb stairs!??


By the time we were putting the kids to bed, Julia's mouse terror had expanded to a general, all encompassing anxiety spiral.  While she and I independently read silently in her bed, she persisted on chattering at me on an average of every 2-3 seconds.

JULIA: Mommy?  If an asteroid hit the earth, would, like, EVERY person on Earth die?
ME: Umm...if it was a big asteroid, it's pretty likely that nothing but the deepest sea creatures would survive.
JULIA: That's SCARY.
ME: Well, you don't need to be scared.  Astronomers know how to keep an eye on that sort of thing and they haven't found any major asteroids on track towards Earth's orbit.

Two seconds of silence

JULIA: Mommy?  Do terrorists have, like, a REASON for terrifying other people?
ME: Usually, but I don't think that violence and terror is ever the right way to try and get what you want.

Two seconds of silence

JULIA: Mommy?  You know what I don't get?  Why, like, in an earthquake drill, did students have to hide under their desks?  That wouldn't really PROTECT them from the earthquake.
ME: I guess in case there was debris falling from up above, so they wouldn't get crushed.
JULIA: Boy am I glad we don't live in a place where there are lots of earthquakes.  That would be really scary.

Three seconds of silence

JULIA: Wait, I think I was thinking of volcanoes.  I don't know why I was- (with barely contained panic) THERE'S A BUG ON MY WALL!

I finally had her quiet and settled, immersed in her book enough, to leave the room.  Unfortunately, that was the same moment that Auntie Shannon, who had borrowed our car to grocery shop, pulled into the garage and accidentally leaned on the horn while grabbing her grocery bags.

CAR: *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*
JULIA: (running out of her bedroom, eyes wild)
ME: It was just the car horn.
JULIA: That SCARED me!!

I mean, at this point, when it's coming down to bugs and car horns, I think it's safe to just give up on Julia quelling her anxiety for the evening.  Let's just hope we can have a mouse-free day tomorrow.