If It's Not One Thing, It's a Huge Rodent

So I haven't been sleeping so well what with my 9-month prego physique and crazy hormonal profile. Once something wakes me up in the middle of the night, then I can't get back to sleep. Normally, it's Hadley suffering from some nocturnal emergency related to drinking or going to the bathroom or loss of her pillow.

So last night, I got up at about 3 for one of my regular trips to the bathroom, then settled back into bed, pleased that everyone was sleeping so well. It was even raining, which means it's nice and cool and makes a lovely sound on our tile roof. I was just dozing off when I was pretty sure I heard Something on the bed. Not wanting to overreact, I perked up a bit to listen...when It went scurrying across my feet. Now this most difinitively falls into the Not Okay Under Any Circumstances category. I sucked my little feet up as fast as they would go, but it took me an extra moment to work up the intertia to get my large self out of bed and to the kitchen light right outside our bedroom. The nasty creature had beat me to the kitchen, then ran under my feet when the light turned on. Of course, this caused some rapid, involuntary movement (much easier to carry out now that I was on my feet) and a little bit of a shriek.

Josh had been slumbering peacefully on the couch up to this point because he has a cold and didn't want to pass it on, but when I screamed, he bolted up, ready for action. I didn't get a good look at my rodent friend, so I thought it might have just been a mouse. We moved everything in the bedroom and couldn't find anything. Josh went back to bed on the couch and I crawled in bed with Guildy. (She woke up and asked why I was there. When I told her, she said in her most conforting, grown up voice, "Don't worry, Mom. There's no mouse in my bed, so you're safe with me.")

A few minutes later, I heard Josh up rustling around, turning on the porch light, moving furniture, etc. Apparently our rodent friend, who wasn't a mouse at all, but rather some sort of large (as in 8" long) jungle rodent cross between a rat and a flying squirrel, had an affinity for people and had been trotting across the back of the couch while Josh was laying there. It bolted for the kitchen, seemed to be hiding in/under the fridge, resulting in the dismantling of the back pannel of the fridge. But he wasn't there, so Josh started looking in the cupboards. Upon opening one cupboard, Rat-Boy, as we had come to call him by this point, took a look at Josh and jumped about 3 feet from the shelf onto Josh's shirt. So Josh got a pretty good look at his funny little face, flat, hairy tail, and almost webbed back legs, before smacking him off himself.

At this point, Rat-Boy disappeared, and a thorough search of the entire house revealed nothing. By this time, it was time to start making breakfast, so we gave up, only to hear scratching inside the stove. Josh dismantled the stove, but couldn't find anything. Once again, I went to cook and heard it again. So out to the porch went the stove, where it will live until Josh has time to completely take it apart. There is a vent-type thing that he might be stuck in. At any rate, it was a less than restful night. We'll try again tonight, unless, of course, we have a new baby by then!

Oh, and in addition to Rat-Boy, there were a horse, a couple cows, a huge toad, and literally hundreds of insects on our porch during all this, all seemingly wanting into the house. It hasn't rained for several weeks, and the wildlife seem to have gone crazy!! Oh, and we have an iquana who is about 2 feet long who has taken up residence between the tiles and tar paper on our roof. We're definitely the minority in our own home! Never a normal, boring day here!

The baby and me cooking breakfast on the porch.