Julia decided she didn’t want to eat blueberries when they were placed in front of her at the table. So one day, I had washed some and put them out to dry. I also put the girls’ step stool in front of the tray. Amazingly, Julia stood on that step stool and ate and ate and ate blueberries. Since that day, she will eat the blueberries put on her plate again. I guess it just took her trying them again on her terms to decide they are good.

Emily was a huge fan of the step-stool-blueberry-stealing game. She ate a meal’s worth of blueberries. I wonder why food is so much more desirable when it eaten on your own terms.

We seem to have started the month out with blueberries and we have now finished out the month with it too. Late morning, we made another trip to a blueberry farm to collect some sweet treats along with a fun playtime. The month of heat and rain has been good to the bushes and there were a lot to pick. Emily was selective of which blueberries she picked. They had to be a good blue, and generally, she wanted to find them exactly where I was picking them. Julia was also very selective to the ones she picked. They had to be small and almost white. I couldn’t get her to pick any other type. She was very intent on pulling the stem off and then putting them in her bucket. Luckily, she was slow about it. I’m presuming that she ate them too. Somehow when it was time to leave, both girls had empty buckets and mine was mostly full.

After about a half an hour into picking we were all dripping sweat and wearing the dew off the bushes. To our delight we were visited by some friends. What a treat! The girls all ran around the rows of berries yelling with the delight that comes with carefree play.

Joy, joy, joy – Blueberries!

Blueberries are little round blue wonders of so much joy. These four girls just ate and ate blueberries. They ate them from their buckets, from the bushes, and probably from the ground. They also picked a few blackberries. Emily had blackberry juice stains on her chin, shirt, fingers, and legs. The pig-tailed girls all enjoyed being out in the sun on a pleasant sunny afternoon and being together.

(18 months) Emily had her first blueberry picking experience. I put her down to walk around among the blueberry bushes, and she was fascinated immediately. She wandered around visiting the other pickers while I picked for a little while, and then she noticed what I was doing. She was amazed to find those tasty blueberries on the bushes and even on the ground. After a while she discovered that I was putting blueberries in my bucket and wanted to carry my bucket around. I was worried that she would dump all of my hard work on the ground, but she never did. She did, however, like to put the bucket about three feet away from me at all times so I had to take handfuls of blueberries to the bucket. She made friends with a little boy who was enjoying feeding blueberries to Emily. It made for a very fun day!