Last night, both my kids were having a difficult time going to sleep. (Perhaps they indulged in a bit too much of their Halloween treasure?) There was much giggling and playing and several trips out of their room.
Finally, about two hours after bedtime, my daughter decided there was a mouse in her room.
She told me it was inside the heat registers along her wall. She knew this because she could hear it inside.
I told her there was no mouse and to go back to bed.
She insisted that she could hear the mouse.
I told her she was hearing the noise the heater makes when the furnace kicks in.
She insisted that it was a mouse and that she knew the difference between the heater noise and a mouse.
(I suppose I should acknowledge that I am perhaps at least partially responsible for her mouse fixation. When she sneaks food into her room, I have been known to tell her that mice will come into her room. . . . Perhaps I'll rethink that strategy.)
After several minutes of the mouse discussion, I used my "I-mean-business-missy" voice and told her to get back to her room and forget about the mouse.
About half an hour later, there was still noise and activity in their bedroom.
I went upstairs to check what was going on, only to discover that she and her brother had made a barrier along the heat register using whatever they could find -- toys, books, blankets, stuffed animals. All this was now laying across the heat registers.
Ashley proudly informed me that now they could be sure the mouse stayed inside and didn't get out into their room.
Yes, 5-year-old ingenuity is sometimes impressive.
Of course, now I have to figure out how to explain to her that creating a barrier over the heat register probably poses a fire hazard, not to mention defeats the purpose of having a heater during cold New England nights.
Wonder how she'll address that problem?
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