beat THIS

So yesterday (Sunday) morning I schlepped out of bed and got Daughter up. She padded off to the corner of the sofa to veg and suck on her fingers, and I put on my coat and shoes (over my moose pajamas...hawt!) to get the newspaper from the mailbox. I was outside for maybe twelve seconds. When I came back in Daughter was kneeling up on the couch and fully awake. This is what she said to me:

"Mommy! Did you see that chipmunk?!?"

Now, I was still kind of in half-asleep mode myself, so I was confused. A chipmunk? Like, a toy chipmunk? We don't have any of those. Uhhh...

I asked her ,"wha-? What are you talking about? What chipmunk?" And she said:

"MOMMY! LOOK! Right there! A chipmunk!"

She was gesturing wildly toward the kitchen (I should mention here that my house is laid out like this: family room, kitchen, dining room in a row). So there I stood, in the doorway, newspaper in hand, asking again what on earth she was talking about. I think I said, "what chipmunk? Where?"

"RIGHT THERE! IN THE DINING ROOM!"

And dudes, I kid you not - I turned around and saw a FREAKING CHIPMUNK streak across my dining room.

Hijinks ensued, I can tell you that much. Hubs jumped out of bed and immediately closed off the bedrooms (which are off the dining room). I got the broom. Hubs got a bucket. Don't ask me what our plans were. We just grabbed what seemed like logical chipmunk removal items. Daughter grabbed the broom and proceeded to try to find the chipmunk and, I don't know, perhaps sweep him to death. We mostly stood around, spinning in circles and shouting, "there he goes!"

Finally, we got Daughter to calm down and sit in the kitchen to eat her cereal, promising that she could watch for Mister Chipmunk (as she called him) from her chair. Once it got quiet, Mr. C came out of the dining room and hid behind the stove. I got the flashlight and coaxed him out of there after propping the front door open, and he crept around the perimeter of the kitchen and shot out the door.

It was one heck of a morning.

The question we have is, where did the little bugger come from in the first place?!? Ay-yi-yi. Never a dull moment.