Very Mysterious

Lila totally freaked me out the other day. We were on our way out the door, headed to Double Dave's for peproni rolls. Doug had already taken Eli out to the car, I was gathering some last-minute item from the kitchen, and Lila was getting a jacket from her room.

Then Lila says, "Mom!" -- (she calls me 'mom' now) -- "I found something mysterious! Behind my closet."

I was, first, amused by the fact that she was using the word 'mysterious' and, second, intrigued by what she might have found in her closet. Doug had taken a piece of furniture out of there to fix it, so there was no telling what might have been under it. Anyway, I come into the kids' room and Lila is standing a few feet from the closet, sort of leaned forward and staring into it.

"Mom... Do you see it? [she's pointing into the back of the closet]... It's very mysterious... Look..."

This is the point at which I started getting a little freaked out because I didn't see anything. Was there some insect that she saw, but I didn't? I was looking very closely where she was pointing as she continued.

"Do you see it?... It's teeny tiny... It's a little tiny baby guinea pig!"

Oh. All this was about an imaginary animal. Whew! I thought one of us was crazy! Well... arguably, we both are. What inspired this sudden mysterious discovery in the closet, I don't know, but the guinea pig joined us at dinner and has "shown up" now and again since then. We found out later in the evening that it's a BLUE guinea pig.

I'm glad we have someone to keep us on our toes.