Good Morning...Or Not

Somewhere around 8 or so this morning I heard kiddos in the hallway. They are great about getting up and dressing themselves in the morning, but they aren't very quiet. Maybe "they" should be replaced with "Daniel". He has a tendency to slam dresser drawers shut and shout in the hallway. Brenna's usually on her bed reading. Ignoring him. They know to stay upstairs in their room or the baby room until Michael or I come to get them.

Anyway, I very slowly began my roll to the left. It's a calculated attempt to land my feet on the ground before I run out of mattress and fall completely out of bed. So far, it works, but only because we put my big fluffy recliner right up next to the bed. The arms are kind of like my own big-girl bed rail. Or maybe I should have typed 'BIG' girl. They give me something to lean on and keep me from awkward tumbles.

Grabbing my glasses I opened our door to find Daniel in the hallway trying to his best to put on a shirt. He'd already ditched his pjs and pulled on underwear and shorts. As always, he was in a hurry because he was hungry. He's always hungry. After breaking through Brenna's book trance, the three of us headed downstairs to pick out our cereals. And that's pretty much where 'normal' ended.

We keep our cereal in a detached pantry cupboard in the dining room. Daniel opened the door and announced that there was an ant on his cereal box. I think I told him to kill it, while I got out the milk and orange juice. But then he saw another. And another. As I peeked around the door I realized we had a problem. I started pulling out boxes and watching little black ants run crazy lines all over the place. Slamming the boxes on the counter I was able to kill the initial outbreak....but then I opened a box. So we started trashing cereal. Breakfast was over before it got started.

Realizing the cleanup was going to be more than I could handle, I stomped up the steps, demanding help from a 'pretending to still be sleeping' Michael. He came down right away and we started unloading the pantry. Pulling it away from the wall revealed a whole new bunch of scurrying little black ants. Spraying and wiping quickly, he took them out, only to discover more behind the hutch and the kids' art supplies. There's no way to move the hutch without unloading it, so down came the good dishes, the glass pitchers and bowls, the cookbooks, and baskets. Slowly and carefully, Michael eased the hutch forward away from the wall, one inch at a time. We both leaned around the back to take a look.

Fruit Loops and ants. Fruit Loops and ants.

Somebody, at some point, apparently tossed a handful of Fruit Loops behind the hutch. There is no way for them to accidentally get there. I'm thinking somebody little. Short. Perhaps a bit mischievous. One with sandy blond hair and a 'not me' smile. A boy. Roughly three years of age. We have one of those. He shares a room upstairs with his sister. His name is Daniel and I'm pretty sure he's the guilty party.

Using a combination of sprayers, paper towels, and the vacuum cleaner, Michael got the problem under control. Just yesterday the house was treated for ants, so we knew they'd been attacked and were feeling the eviction.

We just weren't counting on somebody FEEDING them!! On the bright side, though, I did get to go out to breakfast...and I'm counting my blessings that it's just ants.