Part 1 - I bought mice at Ikea.

The drama started around Christmas time.

One of my nieces, little K, was pretty sure that I was going to get her a mouse for Christmas. Specifically, the little curly-haired kid wanted a plastic mouse.

When I was in Wichita in December, I asked a group of people where I might find a toy mouse for little K. They seemed stumped. I checked farm and ranch stores, and I did not see one single toy mouse for sale.

Little K got a unicorn dress for Christmas.

Every time I've seen her since then, she asks me if I have a mouse for her. I don't know why, but she thinks that the toy mouse I supposedly bought her is in my purse.

Our conversations go something like this:

Me: "I love you. Give me a hug."

K: "You have my mousy in your purse?"

Me: "No, but I still love you and I still want a K hug."

K: "Let me see your purse. I want my mousy."

I went to Kansas City over the weekend for a couple of little concerts. Part of the Kansas City experience is going to Ikea, which is fantastic. When my Mom and I were walking around, she stopped dead in her tracks and called me over to her.

There was a little cardboard display in an aisle. There were tiny toy mice in it.

I bought four of them.

The first time we went, I saw that there were bigger mice for sale, too. I debated buying them, but I decided four little mice for three little girls was more than enough.

But then I felt really bad. This poor kid loves her a good mouse and here I am, in this city of a whole lot of people, and I was too cheap to buy her the big mice. (Or rats, whatever they were.)

Later that day, I drove back to Ikea, which is 10 miles outside of the middle of nowhere, and I marched my ass into it and bought my little niece two big mice.

It snowed on the way back, and I was slightly nervous about the drive. (It was fine and we had no problems.) As I told my Mom, if we get stuck or slide off the road, we'll have the company of six mice to keep us warm in the car.

tl;dr: I bought mice at Ikea.

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Update: I gave the mice to the kids last night. Little K was psyched. The first thing she did when I walked in the door was inspect my coat for her mice. I tricked her! The mice were in my purse instead of my coat.

We played hard and the mice ended up on my head while three little girls laughed at me.

#auntlife

Not K, but her little sister, C.