Where'd it go?!

I'm actually just on my way to bed, but I had to write about something Kaleb did today, because it was so darn cute I don't ever want to forget it.

So, it gets cold here in Minnesota in the winter. I think today it was in the low 20's (which is actually quite balmy for January. In Minnesota). In older houses it's pretty common to have to put plastic over the windows to keep the heat from being sucked out through the cracks. We don't have a very old home (probably 10 years or so??), but we do have a sunroom that is on the back part of our main floor. You may have seen it in pictures--that mint green monstrosity??

Seriously, our friend once said he felt he was trapped inside an Andes mint when he was out there. But I digress...

Anyway, the sunroom is a four season room, but the way it is built, there is no insulation (or really crappy insulation) under the floor. That combined with the fact that there are two big windows and a sliding glass door means it gets pretty chilly out there. We used to close the doors and put a little space heater out there when we used it as a TV room, but we've had it open all this winter.

A while back we had a cold snap, and decided to see if keeping those doors shut made much of a difference. Boy howdy, does it! About 30 degrees difference on the colder days! 30 degrees!! As in 71 inside the house, 41 in the sunroom. Crazy.

It's kind of fun though, to open the doors in the morning and feel the big rush of cold air. It's not so fun to realize how much better the whole house stays heated when the doors are closed.

No fun at all for the munchkin, who uses the sunroom as a toy room.

We've been pulling toys into the living room in the morning, and switching them out as needed. That was not an appropriate solution in Kaleb's mind. He wants the doors open. And he pushes them open all day long. So today Martin came up with a solution that works for everyone. He hung a thick blanket over the doorway, which allows people (and animals) in and out, but mostly keeps the heat in the living room.

Today after his nap, Kaleb didn't pay much attention to the big red blanket over the doorway. Martin put it up during naptime, so Kaleb hadn't seen it yet. About 45 minutes after he got up Kaleb was running around playing, then decided to go over to the blanket and peek around it. All of a sudden he yelled "Der it is!" and ran into the sunroom. He wasn't looking for any toys, he just went in then came back out a minute later. It was hilarious! I'm not sure where he thought the sunroom went, but he finally found it. Oh to have the mind of a toddler ;)

Lexi (our Jack Russell) wasn't quite so intuitive when it came to the blanket. She didn't try to peek around it at all. But Martin threw a tennis ball towards it, she chased it, and tried to stop, then braced for impact like she was about to hit a wall. You could almost hear the dumfoundment (is that a word?) when she passed on through the "wall."

Thankful I don't have the mind of a Russell...