If you had told me yesterday morning that I would have had a wonderful day playing outside, I would have said you were crazy.  Waking up with a migraine is never fun, but waking up with one on a relatively nice day on a weekend is even more unfair in my opinion.  And that’s exactly how I awoke Sunday morning.  I remember first opening my eyes in the darkly lit bedroom, Rivka lying beside me curled up snuggling the breast, and realizing, that I once again had a migraine.  Convincing myself that more sleep was definitely the answer, I pulled the blanket up over me and snuggled into the bed going back to sleep.

A few hours later, Rivka woke up, nursed a bit and stood up in the bed to wake hubby.  At this point I realized that unfortunately, more sleep didn’t help and the pounding on the right side of my head continued at a rhythmic pace.  Ugh, I absolutely hate waking up with migraines.  At this point, I was still trying to hold onto the vain hope the migraine would go away if I just stayed in bed, so I let hubby get up, prep the coffee and take a shower while I cuddled and nursed Rivka, but otherwise didn’t move from the bed.  When hubby got out of his shower, he told me to get up because that would help my head.  I scowled at him and rolled over.  “Leave me alone,” I growled.  Hmph.  I wanted to lie there and feel sorry for myself not get up and have to do anything!  After a few more minutes of this, I decided the lure of a caffeinated beverage was enough reason to get out of bed.  So, I showered, used the Neti pot, and made a batch of pancakes for breakfast and I did start to feel better.

But after breakfast, it was still pounding away.  Thump, thump, thump.  Hubby suggested that since the weather was much improved from Saturday’s wind storm, we head outside suggesting the outside air might help my head.  Hmph, I thought, not bloody likely.  Despite my reservations, I tried it and I was starting to feel significantly better, so I decided to through caution to the wind and head out to the store for some groceries.

On the way to the store, hubby suggested perhaps Rivka would like a trip to the playground.  I agreed and we drove over and let her have some fun on the slide.  My day was progressively getting better, my head was clearing, the other kids had left the playground so it was just us, and as I revealed in the warmer air, a hawk flew overhead.  “That’s a hawk!” I cried pointing upward.  “Rivka, do you see the hawk?” I asked.  She was oblivious to everything but the steps up to the slide, but hubby saw it too. “Looks like he’s got a snake,” he said.  And then we heard another call, it was a second hawk that came flying in.  A mating pair!  Hubby and I were amazed and commented that hawks pairing up seemed a little early considering it is still February.  We watched the two hawks for quite some time while Rivka busied herself around the playground exploring.

Back before Rivka was born, hubby and I would frequently go out wildlife watching to various parks, but I am always surprised and happy to see wildlife in small spaces; housing developments, playgrounds, and office parks.  The hawks were definitely the highlight of the day, but we also got to see three different kinds of woodpeckers (Downy, Flicker, and Red-bellied), bluebirds, and the typical backyard birds.  When Rivka was done with the playground and we were loading her back into her carseat, I thought of what a nice time we had.  We got to play with her at the playground, got to do some wildlife watching, and just had the opportunity to get out and enjoy the spring-like weather.  It was wonderful.

When we got home, Rivka took a nice long nap while I held her on the couch and just read a book.  A simple day full of simple joys, but sometimes, aren’t those the best memories?

Saturday was our first trip to the Baltimore Zoo in over six years.  Hubby and I couldn’t remember exactly why we stopped going, but since it was a relatively warm day for January, we decided to take Rivka to the zoo to see the owls they have.  We’ve already visited the National Zoo and seen a Barred Owl and Burrowing Owls, but I remembered that Baltimore had a Snowy Owl, Barn Owl, and Long-Eared Owls.  And for some reason, owls are Rivka’s absolute favorite bird and I wanted to give her an opportunity to see more of them.

So, we planned out our day and the route we’d take and invited our friend Aron to join his.  He came over Saturday morning and enjoyed a good breakfast of homemade french toast.  I always try to make something a little special on weekend mornings and since we had some cinnamon swirl bread, I thought french toast was in order.  After taking one bite out of the french toast, he looked over at me and asked, “Will you come over to my house every morning and make me french toast?”    Nothing like a good breakfast in you to get started in the morning.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed over to Whole Foods to grab a few provisions for the trip.  Thanks to Aron looking for something for lunch, I remembered their lunch counter and we all got sandwiches to go and I picked up a bag of potato chips (I know, I could make these at home, but I’m still working on getting over my love of processed potato chips).  It had been awhile since I got a sandwich at Whole Foods, but I was happy with my selection of a veggie sandwich, though I was disappointed they were already out of grilled veggies at 11:30!  Crazy.

Food gotten, we got back on the road and drove to Baltimore.  We lucked out and Rivka decided to take her mid-morning nap on the drive up so it was a relatively peaceful drive and we got to the zoo a little after one o’clock.

We roused Rivka up and got her in the stroller and headed in for some animal time!  Well, I was surprised at the changes in the zoo.  Now instead of being able to walk through, you have to take a tram to the middle of the zoo which I was initially worried about, but Rivka handled it better than I did!  The zoo itself seemed smaller than it was years ago, but thankfully the children’s section and farm were just like I remembered and Rivka loved the Barn Owl.  One of her favorite videos on Youtube is of Ollie the Owl and when she saw the Barn Owl at the zoo, she said, “Ollie Owl!”  Hubby and I beamed, we were thrilled to see her so happy.

After a visit with the owl and a look at the farm animals, we went and decided to have a little picnic with our sandwiches from Whole Foods.  We picked out a picnic bench by the concession stand and had a lovely picnic in the sunshine.  Rivka happily ate her food in her stroller and we all enjoyed some good food and a beautiful almost springlike afternoon.

We finished up our day at the zoo by visiting the lions and then the Snowy Owl and Arctic Foxes.  By the time we got to the Snowy Owl, Rivka was getting tired and had already been asking for milkies back when we were visiting the lion, so we got back on the tram and I gave her a little nip while hubby re-packed the car and we headed back home.

It was a great day, I’m so glad we managed to make it out to the zoo and were able to give Rivka a nice day out.  I think if the weather cooperates next weekend, we’ll take her by our favorite farm so she can run around a bit.  She liked the farm section at the zoo, but seemed a little confused why the chickens were in a cage instead of wandering around the yard.  She is definitely a food hippie.