Monday, February 20, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2002. Mattie was a month old and I must have snapped this picture because I was stunned that he was napping. Mattie was NOT a napper at all. His pediatrician used to make me nuts with her pronouncement that babies have to nap and the benefits of napping. Nap time in our home was absolutely ridiculous, because I would go to great lengths to try to get Mattie to sleep. However, if I moved even an inch away from him, he would be up and crying. By the time Mattie turned one, I rationalized with myself that if he wanted to sleep he would, but I no longer was going to be working for 45 minutes to try to get him to nap. Mattie and I found our own rhythm together, one that wasn't covered in any baby book or doctor's office. It maybe hard to really see this from the angle of this picture, but when I saw it today, it reminded me of the beauty of Mattie's nose. Mattie's nostrils formed a heart, and I recall many a day while he was napping admiring that very sweet feature about his face.
Quote of the day: The essential thing is not knowledge, but character. ~
Joseph Le Conte
I continue to be worn down by a horrific headache. It is so bad that it is hard to keep my eyes open due to the pain. Yet I knew staying home all day wasn't a solution either. So today Peter and I went to Huntley Meadows Park. This 1,500-acre park is one of the largest non-tidal wetlands in our area. We hadn't visited this park in a long time and to me our visit was overdue. I love the boardwalk at this park, which takes its traveler over beautiful wetlands where you can see some wonderful birds. As soon as we walked on the boardwalk today, I noticed the ducks and Peter made two observations. The first observation was that the wetlands looked flooded, more like a pond then what we were used to seeing. The second observation was the boardwalk structure looked completely new. Peter was right on both accounts. The boardwalk wood had been replaced with an environmentally friendly material in October of 2010 and the area clearly had a very busy beaver building dams and creating ponds which never seemed to exist on previous visits. 
As we kept walking along, here was the next beautiful sight we saw, an egret. This egret was rather camera shy today, but nonetheless was a special sight to see on a February day!
Peter was very happy to see this mud and stick structure, or in other words, a beaver lodge. This confirmed the presence of a beaver in the area. A beaver lodge, or its home, has underwater entrances to make entry nearly impossible for any other animal. The walk and getting outside was the highlight of our day. Tomorrow we head to see another doctor for a consultation. So this will be the third oncologist I have seen in two weeks. I am hoping he can shed additional insights on my situation and care plan. Nonetheless all of this is highly stressful for me and exacerbates my already daily headaches. So I am shutting down the computer for the night to rest my head and eyes.
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