Night Mices

Last night Chloe was allowed (by her father, not me) to take a cup of juice upstairs. Apparently on the way to the stairs she "sloshed" a little over the sides of the cup along about a 6 foot trail on the hardwood floor. I found the "sloshed" juice about an hour later when I walked through the den in my bare feet. Of course I fussed and said we need to clean this up now. Well, Chloe ran downstairs and this is what she had to say:
"Mom, leave it.... PLEASE!!! Don't worry the night mices will get it."

Her father and I exchanged glances-- like we often do when we have no idea what she's talking about-- and I said, "What?!?" She said, "The night mices." And she said it in the tone of -do I really have to explain the night mices to you mom?!? how lame!-
Well, here's how the rest of that conversation went down:
me: We don't have mice in our house Chloe, and if we did I'd be outta here pretty quick!

Chloe: They don't live here mom. The night mices come from all over the world to South Carolina at night and pick up whatever we drop and eat it. They love it!

me: I see. Well, I'm not sure where you got your information but we don't let the night mices in here so we have to clean this mess up now.

She proceeded to pout the entire time we cleaned up the mess. And Micky and I were trying not to laugh and were trying to figure out where she came up with this idea. We decided it must have come from the "Nutcracker"-- I took her to see that ballet at Christmas time and she fell in love with it. She got the book for Christmas and the Barbie Nutcracker movie-- so we figured that must be it. Well, I found out this morning that we were wrong. The culprit for the crazy night mices is my MOTHER!! When I told her the story this morning she got a guilty look on her face and said,
"oh, when we were at the mall yesterday Emma dropped a Goldfish on the floor and Chloe tried to pick it up and give it back to her. I told her to just leave it there because the night mice come at night and eat the crumbs-- and they love Goldfish!"

Mystery solved. Be on the lookout for night mices that love to visit South Carolina!