How many days 'till spring?

I'm not actually going to count and please don't tell me; if I know, I'll do a mental countdown every day from now until then. Seems like forever today. Warm winter vacations are a great retreat, but the tease about nicer weather to come makes what's left of winter stretch out even farther. To top it all off, it's about 50 degrees outside today - again with the teasing. This all makes The Yearning (for summer, of course) begin. Thank goodness for sunny days and offices with windows; these help quell The Yearning, at least temporarily.

I think there's a part of me that still feels like summer is the playtime it was when I was a kid, and the days would stretch out as far as I'd let them. I'm originally from Chicago, where there were at least 15 or 20 kids on every block, playing outside all day every day until as late as we could muster. (Clearly, this time was 9:00, when it was a well-known fact that every child should be inside. That's when The Robbers came out, and no one wanted to be out then. Was this an urban legend or just something one of our parents had started to make us come inside without a fight? We may never know.)

I'm especially excited for this summer. Not only do we have a couple of fun jaunts planned for when the weather warms up, but my son's old enough to wear sunscreen this year, so we'll be able to play outside about as much as we can stand it! wooHOO!

Our subsequent pool trips on vacation went as well as a gal could dream. By the time we left, the Little Man would sit on the edge of the pool and lean/hurl himself into the water for us to catch him. It's as close to a jump as a 10-month-old could do. He giggled and giggled and splashed. This confirms my anticipated need for a pool pass this summer. Our town has a brand-new, beautiful public pool with a whole separate section for little people. I can't wait to take him! I'm certain that I'm more excited to go than he'll ever be. I'm even willing to wear a swimsuit in public for it, and that's saying something.

In my daydreaming mind, as soon as the weather cooperates, our time will be filled with riding bikes, going to the pool, playing at the park (very near the pool, and we can ride bikes to both), trips to the zoo--just about every type of outdoor fun possible. Oh, and a vegetable garden where the boy can watch things sprout up!

Okay, maybe I do want to know how many days it is. I'll try to hold out longer before I look, but I can't promise anything.

Yum!

There's something about being in a warm place when it's cold at home that's particularly satisfying to me. Not to brag, but last night I ate dinner in an open-air restaurant right on the water. It was 78 degrees with a little bit of warm breeze. My Dear Hubby had wonderous, fresh seafood, and my son flirted with every dark-haired girl he could find. (That's his M.O. - find a dark-haired girl, usually pretty, and flirt shamelessly with her. If you can, turn around in your seat, even, and really distract her from her own meal.) It was warm and happy, and all-around good.

In the last two days we've had first airplane and first swimming pool; the former went more swimmingly, which is odd. I hate to jinx the trip home, but Little Man was an angel - he fell asleep as I held him during takeoff (literally--just as we were pulling off the ground) and slept on the seat next to me until mid-descent. The parents of a 4 1/2-month-old behind us weren't as fortunate, and we felt a little sorry for them as people complimented us on our well-behaved boy as we got off the plane not knowing that they were behind us. The swimming pool today was a little less auspicious. It was a little chilly, and he had just endured being slathered with SPF 50 sunblock, which may have put him off a little. Also, he needs shades as he refuses to wear any hat, and the sun was brighter than he's used to. Still, there were a few minutes of giggly fun, which are enough for Mommy. We'll try again tomorrow - there are plenty of pools and beaches in the Florida Keys, so I doubt we'll have trouble trying again.

Would someone please remind me why we live in the midwest?

I kid you not

Today the boy and I went across to play with our neighbor, Mary. Mary has claimed since the boy's birth that she's his favorite neighbor, and I now believe it to be true. They laugh and scream and play together, and she wears him as a "baby hat." It's adorable. Oh - Mary's not an infant; I'd put her mid-late 40s. Anyway, we played for half an hour or so with Mary, and then her jokes weren't quite as funny, which meant he was tired.

I scooped up boy and sippy cup, and inside we went. I happened to glance at the clock as we walked in, because I have much to do today (leaving for vaca tomorrow morning!). 1:12. I wiped his nose, put some cream on his cheeks, found the bink, and laid down on the couch with him on top of me for his nap. I waited until he was good and asleep before I got up. Glanced at the clock again then. 1:15. Seriously, 1:15.

A couple of days ago he was playing with me in the living room and my jokes got not quite as funny, so I knew he was tired. Obviously, it couldn't have been my jokes. I tried to hold him to go to sleep, but that angered him, so I sat on the couch with him, and he fell asleep in a little heap on the couch pretty immediately.

I am what you would call "a good sleeper." To this day I can sleep about anywhere - obvious places like a hammock or a beach, and also not-so-obvious places like on the floor of a friend's house while they play with their son nearby, on a noisy plane or in a car - pretty much anywhere. I also can take solid naps and still sleep well at night, and I can sleep in with the best of 'em. I think my son's got me beat, though - from playing to dead asleep in a span of five or fewer minutes. Excellent!