Raspberry Picking with Mia

We are at the farm, visiting Rob’s side of the family for a long weekend. The Henry family has a 100-acre farm complete with a pool, barn (with kittens), huge vegetable garden, farm dog, a never-ending supply of toys from across the generations and an ever-increasing number of cousins. It is any kids’ dream come true; Toby LOVES it here.

Today, in a very rare occurrence (similar to a blue moon I might say) I found myself alone on the farm with only Mia to care for. Sitting idle on the farm is not really an option, so I was asked to pick black raspberries during Mia’s nap so we might make raspberry tarts later on.

Caught up in the tranquility of some time to myself and the sounds of the farm, my naïve self of 4 hours ago decided to save the berry picking for AFTER Mia’s nap so we might enjoy the experience together. And what an experience it was…

I’m not going to sugar coat it for you; my romantic notion of leisure berry picking with my 6 month old never came to fruition.

It was a mere 115 degrees out (in the shade) and we lathered on the sunscreen, I put Mia in the baby bjorn and off we went.

To start with, ANY activity that occurs at noon on a typical Ontario July day is destined to be thwarted by spiking temperatures and sweatiness. On top of this, my monstrous 17 pound (and agile) 6 month old made baby bjorn carrying much more difficult. Add to this her insistence to either kick or grab for the attractive berry leaves and vines that were COVERED IN THORNS and you have a most unpleasant situation.

Teaching Mia NOT to grab the thorns, I soon discovered, was not an option. And holding out my bucket of lovingly cultivated berries to distract her only resulted in it being knocked out of my hand and my having to start over again. I quickly realized that the only way for me to pick the berries safely was for me to walk backwards into the berry patch while holding the bucket up in the air, out of Mia’s reach and then pick berries from behind my back. Fun times...I won’t even MENTION the added bonus of poison ivy and wasps that also enhanced the experience.

Suffice it to say, the berry picking activity took WAY longer than I anticipated. In fact, it took way longer than MIA anticipated. It was right when I discovered a very accessibly patch of particularly lovely berries that were surrounded by tiger lilies (which Mia could safely grab) when Mia announced that she was DONE with berry picking. And there wasn’t much I could do to convince her otherwise.

I have a very meager basked of berries and a very scraped up back to show for my intense effort. But, somewhat more useful than either of the above, I also have some well-learned words of advice: when given an opportunity to accomplish something while your child is asleep, DO IT. NO matter HOW FUN it may seem to involve the baby in the task, believe me - -it won’t be.