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.