Feathered Frienemy

The Pitty is growing on me. It's a slow growing affection and I would be lying if I said the onset of winter hasn't slowed the pace even more. But as I keep telling my friends and family, I don't hate it! One of the things that I love about the city are all the things to do and see. We have made our rounds at the museums and the zoo. We are always ready for something new to do! So, when one of My Favoritest's coworkers invited us to visit the National Aviary with she and her son, we said sure.

Now before I go any further I will admit I don't love birds. I think they are beautiful and I love to look at them.

 

I do not however like it when they fly anywhere near me. They are unpredictable and erratic and they make me nervous! And right about now, you are wondering why I agreed to go to a place where birds fly free. The answer is I have no idea. I guess part of it was that I don't want to pass on my fears to Doodle and SJ. The other part of it was that I want us to start making friends and putting down roots. So... of to the aviary we went.


It is a really neat place and I am sure a bird lover would have had a perfect morning. As for me, I enjoyed the company and the rooms where birds didn't really fly. It was a little stressful worrying about running over birds with our stroller and dodging their dive-bombing flights in a few places. These little boogers were very guilty of the dive-bomb!

 

I was also a little unnerved about the flying birds, because SJ was taking her maiden voyage in the top seat of the stroller!

 

As for the birds and Doodle, I think she is a little to busy to really enjoy them. She doesn't really see the point in staring at birds. So pretty much we made a high speed pass through every single area. She did slow down enought to participate in the children's activity they had set up. The kids picked a card with a bird at the top. The card then listed all the things that bird ate. The kids had to gather all the things and put them in a bowl. Of course it was lots of fruits and veggies, but Doodle's bird also like to eat mice. It totally cracked me up that they had a stuffed rat/mouse for the kids to put in their bowl.

The only other area that Doodle was willing to slow down and enjoy was the lorakeet feeding room. I was totally suprised that she was willing to go in and get that close to birds. Needless to say, I made My Favoritest take her!

This moment alone would have been enough to make me pee my pants and flail like a wild person all at the same time!

Santa also happened to be there that day. Doodle was totally against sitting in his lap, but did agree to talk to him if I held her. She only agreed to that because she wanted to see the penguin that Santa brought with him!

And speaking of the penguins, that was my favorite part of the whole thing. And my favorite part of the penguin exhibit is that they are all named and wear bands with their names on them:)

 

All in all, we had a nice morning with some friends. I didn't get pecked by a bird. Doodle talked to Santa. SJ proved she is big enough to ride in the big girl seat. And we escaped the gift shop exit without purchasing a stuffed bird purse (which Doodle was begging for). Not to bad for a morning spent in my own personal hell!

 

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