Amazing... the Things I Learn from my Kids...

Victoria has always been a funny and interesting child. She can say the most amazing things that either make us laugh, infuriate or irritate us, or just make us scratch our heads and wonder??? Life is never dull with her around! But this summer, I learned something very interesting from her...

Something she has done, even since she was just a tiny baby, has been to sleep under a light sheet or blanket with just her feet out, and right in front of the air blowing out of our air cooler.* This meant that her feet were never under her mosquito netting. She always insisted it helped her stay cooler. I just laughed, sprayed her feet and ankles with mosquito repellant and thought she was being silly; and - as long as she wasn't being eaten alive by mosquitoes - allowed her to sleep that way.

One evening this summer I was laying down with Elsie Mae in the girls' bedroom, cuddling her to sleep (that is a habit I have - it forces me to spend a few quiet moments with the little ones each evening). It was hot and humid, and since we were on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed and inside the mosquito net, I couldn't feel any air moving... in fact, the feeling was quite similar to clausterphobia - YUCK! Since Elsie Mae is a close cuddler - she usually likes to have her hands on my face and neck as she snuggles - I was not enjoying that night's cuddle... not in the least. Then, I stretched, trying to get a deep breath to ease that sensation of suffocation, and my feet slipped out from underneath the net and right in front of the air cooler.

And you know what? Our nutty Victoria was ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Just the fact of keeping my feet cooler in front of that only slightly cooler moving air made it much easier and a whole lot morre pleasant to relax and cuddle with Elsie... in fact, I think I might even have dozed off for a half hour or so. Who would have guessed?

So, either Victoria was right... or she and her mama are both a little strange and enough alike (a fact on which others have commented before) that what works for one also works for the other. I must admit, this is not a trick any of our other children have tried... gotta wonder???

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*An air cooler is different from an air conditioner (though they are synonymous in the minds of our younger children). Air coolers lower air temperature by adding humidity to the air, and tend to move a larger volume of air than most ACs. When the humidity rises, however, we turn that humidity function off, and just use them as a large fan, bringing in the slightly cooler night time air to make the house bearable enough to sleep.