Today it was over 40 degrees.
Now, 40 degrees really isn’t that warm, but when you compare it to the single digits we are used to having, it’s virtually a heat wave!
Like most of the country, my family is suffering from a common ailment called “Sick Of Snow-itis.”
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My kids (minus Josie, who was busy at a Special Grammie Sleepover) and I were so excited to see the blue sky and the sun that we went outside with no coats and no hats and we tried to drink in the Vitamin D through our bare arms and heads.
Then one of my children (I won’t name names) thought it would be a good idea to take off her boots and walk around on the sun-warmed pavement in her socks. I informed her that no, it was not a good idea.
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Since no one in Northeast Ohio is ever really sure about the weather (Lake Erie turns Mother Nature into a highly unpredictable, crazed lunatic), you have to take advantage of the sun whenever you can. So we went to the park.
In the snow.
Well, some of it was melted.
What can I say? We were desperate. It's been a LONG winter.
We headed for the playground. It was wet and mushy, but we didn’t care. It wasn’t covered in two feet of snow, and that was a vast improvement. Adelaide scrambled up to the top and yelled, “I am King of the Mountain! Well, actually, I am QUEEN of the PLAYGROUND!”
Jed stomped in snow. He stomped in puddles. He stomped in mud. He stomped in dog poop (my least favorite park-related hazard).
Sadie spotted a turkey vulture in the sky (she’s been learning to identify birds by their airborne silhouettes) and she and Jed watched a falcon as it was hunting in the woods nearby. It was “BIG and PWETTY” according to Jed. He was very impressed.
Adelaide tracked a chipmunk to his little hidey-hole on the forest floor. She chased him down into his tunnel and inspected his “door” made out of bark.
We saw what appeared to be “wolf scratches” on a giant stump. We counted squirrels. We listened to the birds chirping from high up in the trees. We discovered some really cool leafy “ice fossils” that were formed when dead leaves sank down into the melting snow. Adelaide swung herself on the big swings (with no pushes from me!) It was so nice to be outside without worrying about hypothermia and blue lips.
Yes, our little outing may have ended on a bad note involving a certain potty-trainee and some no-longer-usable Superman underwear, but we have seen the sun.
THE SUN.
It’s coming, people! And we just can’t wait.