Blueberry picking!

I mentioned in my last post that we went blueberry picking last week, which despite his new-found hatred of blueberries, Dashiell really enjoyed doing.  I happen to have some cute pictures from that day, so I thought I'd post them!

We went to a cute little pick-your-own farm called "Parlee Farm" in Tyngsboro, which in addition to fruit picking and farm stands has a great petting barn area with lots of goats!  The one above wanted to make friends with Dashiell right away!

But look!

There are goats climbing around on ramps!

It was a pretty cool set up.  I didn't get a picture of this, but they have a tall platform at the top of one of the ramps that you can use pulleys to get food up to, so the goats LOVE going up to the platform to get additional snacks!  Dashiell and his friend Liam fed goats the usual way, though, by gingerly holding out a hand full of food, then dropping most of it as soon as the goat licked at their hands.  Sorry goats!

After checking out the goats it was time to grab a bucket and pick blueberries!  There were a TON of them, and plenty at Dashiell-height so I didn't have to pick him up to get to the good ones.  I instructed him on which were the best blueberries to pick (the big ones that don't have any pink on them), and he was so good about picking the right ones!  He was so single-minded on this task - his friends that were with us were running about, picking a few berries but mostly playing around (or eating the berries they picked), yet still Dashiell was focused on the task at hand and didn't stray!  I was amazed!

Here he is, bringing his perfect berries to me to put in the bucket.  Don't let the mouth fool you - though it looks like he was eating berries, I can assure you he didn't!  He totally missed out! ;)

After a long morning toiling in the fields, it was time for a break!  Whew - picking blueberries is hard work!

It was a fun morning, and I think we'll do it again when the raspberries are in season!  Yum!

Parlee also sells amazing blueberry donuts (worth a trip out there, even if you're not picking any fruit yourself!).  Dashiell was disappointed to see that they had blueberries in them, but somehow managed to choke down 2 and a half donuts.  Poor child! ;)

Contrary to Popular Belief...

Ah, the glorious age of 3!  While there are many, many wonderful aspects (better communication, awesome imagination, greater coordination, better sense of humor, even more hugs and I love you's than before, etc.), the thing that is currently driving me batty is Dashiell's constant need to contradict EVERYTHING.  Everything!  I could tell him that we live in a house, and he would claim otherwise.  But the contradictions involving food are probably the worst.  Everything that he used to love, he now wants nothing to do with.  The kid even turned down pizza the other night.  PIZZA!  What the - ?!?  Yesterday we went blueberry picking (D loved picking blueberries, but will not eat them anymore - last year at this time he LOVED them, and a few times in the past years he's eaten them and enjoyed them, only to reject them the next time they were served.), and they had lovely fresh strawberries at the farm stand.  Dashiell requested that we get some, and as a lover of strawberries myself I of course obliged.  That afternoon I asked D if he wanted some of the strawberries, and replied yes.  So I cut up a few of them, put them in a bowl, and gave one of them a taste test.  These were the BEST strawberries I've tasted this year, and I said as much out loud as I was about to give the bowl to Dashiell.  AS SOON as the words were out of my mouth, he says, "maybe I don't want any strawberries" and leaves the table, strawberries uneaten.  Unheard of!  This kid is a strawberry fiend!  The same thing happened this morning - I was cutting up strawberries for my cereal, he asked if they were for me or for him, I said "me" then asked him if he wanted me to cut some up for him too, he said yes, then he decided he didn't want them as soon as they were ready to eat.  Of course the strawberries didn't go to waste, but still, it's the principal of the thing!  I'm thinking if I tell him he can't have any and make him put up a fight for them, maybe then he'll eat them again. 

Part of our current food problem that has less to do with being contradictory and more to do with him being just plan stubborn is that he remembers EVERYTHING.  So 1-1/2 years ago when he had that hot dog that he didn't like?  Well, that of course means that he'll never like a hot dog again.  Not even one as cute as this!

I got the idea for it from the Annie's Homemade facebook page (I think they got it from the Frugal Stepmom blog), and I hoped he'd at least try it.  No octopus hot dog for him thank you very much!  And carrots?  About 8 months ago I gave him a carrot that he choked on (not to the point of not breathing, but it went down the wrong way and he coughed it up), so now anytime I give him carrots, he reminds me that he choked on one and doesn't want to try another.  Grr.

It's not just food that he has to fight us on.  Since the beginning of our warm weather, he generally freaks out anytime we put him in shorts ("I want longs!"), and he insists on wearing socks.  Okay, this child may faint from heat exhaustion soon.  I just don't get it.  And if he gets even the smallest drop of water or milk on his clothes, prepare for a meltdown.  Seriously, last night as it was 90 very hot degrees, he spilled 3 drops of water on his jeans while we were leaving the grocery store.  You would have thought I was pulling his hair with all the carry-on that happened.  It evaporated before we even got home, but he wanted to change his pants anyway.  I let him put on his pj bottoms since he could wear them to bed later, mostly because I was too hot and tired to fight him on this minor issue.  So he ended up looking like a college boy, which I have to admit was pretty funny:

Dashiell is an amazing kid who I love to pieces, but some days I just wish he could go with the flow a bit more.  But even when he doesn't, at least he keeps me laughing.

(Side note: Look!  We got him in shorts that day!)

More visitors!

A couple of weekends ago we were blessed with more visitors in our home!  My mom, my sister Terri, and my niece Abby came out from Bemidji, MN for a nice long visit!  To say Dashiell was excited to see them was an understatement.  Visitors mean built-in playmates, and it means we go out and do stuff we don't do on a regular basis, like travel into Boston or go to the beach or visit cute coastal towns.  Which is what we did!  They got in on Thursday after a LONG day of traveling, so we mostly chilled out at home for the afternoon.  On Friday we all went up to Newburyport for the morning so Abby could go to the Life is Good store there, and as luck would have it we discovered that Newburyport is totally cute!  I've lived out here for almost 14 years, and this was my first excursion there.  Tons of shopping, and it's really kid-friendly.  We did manage to eat at the worst restaurant in the whole city, though, which was less fun (seriously, we were the ONLY customers and it still took an hour to get our food!  And the crab sandwich?  It was a whole crab, shell and all, deep fried and thrown on a bun.  And it tasted fishy, to boot.  The waitress claimed it was "their best sandwich - everyone loves it!"  Sure.  Long story short, don't eat at Glenn's in Newburyport).  After our sad lunch, Rick and Dashiell headed home for a nap, and us ladies went to Kittery, ME to do some outlet shopping.  I didn't buy anything, but Terri and Abby found some great deals.

Sunday we headed into Boston!  We even rode the T to get there!

Okay, I admit, I chose the picture of Dash and I on the T that I look best in, not the one he looks best in.  It's my blog, after all.  But Dash was excited to ride the train, and he did a great job getting on and off and wasn't too impatient during the waits between stops.  I think we were more impatient than he was, especially since it wasn't clear that we were supposed to take a shuttle at North Station instead of waiting for the next train and we almost missed our Duck Boat tour!

That's my attempt at getting a picture of D and I on the Duck Boat.  I think it more than makes up for me choosing a decent picture of myself on the T.  Dashiell did well on the tour, though towards the end of the "driving" part of it he was getting a little bored.  THEN we got on the water!  That was totally exciting for him.  Though he did keep asking if we could go over a waterfall, and I had to explain that the goal of most boating expeditions was to avoid the waterfalls, not travel down them.

After the Duck Boat, D and Rick once again headed off for a nap, and the rest of us went to Cambridge so Abby could visit Harvard.  While she is only 16 (only?  Wasn't she just 8??) and not ready to apply to colleges yet, Harvard is one of the schools she's strongly considering.  I hope she gets in!  It would be fun to have her around!

We visited with Rick's parents and grandparents that night, and we got a nice pictures of Nana and Grandma with Dashiell.

How cute is that?

Monday we all headed to Revere Beach (except for Rick - he had to work) for the morning/afternoon, and after Dashiell's 30 minute crying jag regarding the use of sunblock, we all had a great time.

It was a fun visit, and I was sad to see them go on Tuesday.  But the good news is that Rick, Dashiell and I will see them in just over a month when we go to Bemidji for my High School Reunion!  Yay!

Oh, one last cute picture of Dashiell, Terri and Abby:

Aww... :)

Sensitive, or just discerning?

A few weeks ago we were all in the kitchen eating breakfast and listening to the oldies channel on the radio (much safer lyrics than the "alternative" station we used to listen to!).  The song "Bridge over Troubled Waters" came on, and about 30 seconds after it started Dashiell got all teary-eyed and sad.  I asked him what happened and why he was upset, and he said, "I don't like this song!"  Now, as someone who had to sing this song in 8th grade choir and who always had a hard time getting through it without getting a little teary, I totally understood.  We have a sensitive guy, of course he would respond to a kind of sad song with tears.

Like mother, like son?

This morning, however, we were listening to the same station and Donna Summer's "Last Dance" came on - definitely an upbeat, disco-dancing tune.  And he came up to me in tears, so very sad.  "I don't like this song!" was his response yet again when asked what was wrong.  Hmm.  So maybe it's not so much that he's sensitive, but that he just doesn't like the music of the 70's!