Rodent man came. Seems it's very unlikely to be ratty. There are old rat droppings, but nothing fresh. He's not convinced I saw a rat but rather a mouse with shadow!! Either way, I'm glad there is no fresh ratty evidence. More recent mice droppings under the cupboard and in the loft. Lots of bait has been liberally applied under kitchen cupboards, in loft and under bath - he showed me where mice have been squeezing through a pipe hole.
It appears without being able to remove a very stubborn kickboard (believed to be glued in) from directly under the sink, it's very very hard to see where they may be getting in. There is a gap under our eaves which looks like a plastic vent has fallen out and it's possible they're getting up next to our telephone line access point. But increasingly likely they are travelling between houses - backed up by neighbours coming out once man had gone and one of them saying they've had mice since at least xmas.
So I've to block up those holes and leave the bait for a few days before checking on it. If it's mice, they'll strip the bait to get at the middle husk so we will have teeny bits left. If it's rats, they'll eat the whole thing so nothing will be left. Was quite an interesting discussion really about the differences between mice and rats.
It's also likely today that I will be down by some parents as an awful/abusive parent. We were late to school. Emily and James both went in shoeless and emily hadn't had her hair brushed!
They both refused to go to school today. Wouldn't cooperate at all so I gave up and did everything else needed to get twins ready for school, put them in the car, grabbed the big twos shoes, a hairbrush, their coats and book bags and ordered them in to the car. Got to school, ordered them to the office (still shoeless) and took the twins over to preschool - why should they be late/I have to worry about them running round the school while I sort the big two. Then went into school to sort emily and James out. I did have one mum ask if I knew emily had no shoes... Er, yes. And carried on walking. Two other parents congratulated me 
. Needless to say they came out of school in a slightly better mood, helped no doubt by dh finishing work early and being there for pick up.
I'd also decided that even though we had a bad start to the morning, perhaps doing something nice for them might help us move past that. So I bought them some mini eggs as a treat for after tea. Gave the kids theirs, had mine and left dh's out on the worktop (he'd gone out) while I took the twins up to bed. Came down to find the box missing. So the nice thing I did ended up with E&J being sent to bed early for lying and for eating treats which weren't theirs and certainly without asking.
They did quite quickly confess. But neither have thought to say sorry yet. Although weirdly both went to bed without a whimper so I'm pretty sure they're tired and grateful for the excuse of an early night.