Saturday, we drove down to CT to visit my sister and keep her company while she recuperates on the couch. She gets tired pretty quickly, so Lilian and I left her to take a nap while we went and picked blueberries.
(Kristian had something to do for work, so he went and locked himself in another room with his laptop.)
We went to Birchbend Blueberries, which is a pick-your-own blueberry patch not to far from Allison’s house.
Lilian and I each got our own bucket.
It didn’t take too long before I realized that we were in our own live-action version of Blueberries for Sal.
(No bears though.)
(Phew.)
Lilian would pick a few berries, drop them into her bucket with a nice “plunk!” and then wait a beat, grab the blueberries, and eat them all. At first I tried to keep her from eating them, but you try explaining to someone who isn’t even two-years-old yet that we are surrounded by tasty fruit, and she is allowed to pick it, but she’s not allowed to eat it. They sell the berries by the pound, so I vowed to round up.
(Besides, the best way to learn not to pick the green berries is to eat a couple, spit them out in disgust, and vow to never pick them again.)
There were a few other people out picking, and Lilian greeted them all with a cheerful “Hi! Hi! Boobies!”
(We are working on enunciation.)
(I promise.)
I walked along picking berries and putting them in my bucket. Lilian walked along picking berries and eating them. The biggest difference between us and Blueberries for Sal? We weren’t going to can our berries for winter. Also? Still no bears.
I feel like we’ve reached the point with Lilian where we can do stuff with her and it’s actually easy. Not that she’s ever been a particularly difficult child, but now she can fully participate in outings like blueberry picking. And she can let me know what she needs! (sometimes very, very loudly). Picking with her was just pure, unadulterated fun. I am looking forward to more outings like it!
And then we went back home and shared our blueberries with Allison. Because we’re not monsters.
