Monday, July 12, 2010

Berry Time!


Strawberry season in Portage la Prairie reminds me of babyhood; fleeting.  It seems like just yesterday, our little boy was a baby.  Now I find I'm correcting myself every time I call Ethan "baby".  This little guy isn't so little anymore, and definitely not a baby.

This past weekend, I was able to take Ethan out to the berry patch.  We went picking last year too, but that involved Uncle Chad and I picking while "baby" Ethan slept in his removable car seat.  I loved picking berries when I was a kid.  I remember going to the Hyde's patch, thinking I was so lucky to have strawberries so close to our house. 

Then I remember working with Chad at Mayfairs in the mornings, and picking for our own business at Connery's in the afternoon for the few weeks that berries are available during our early teen years.  There is apparently a lot of money to make on the berry patch for kids that can handle the sun and are a little ambitious. 

I hope that Ryan and I can make strawberry picking one of our loved traditions with Ethan.

But on Saturday.  I can tell you my sneaky little man LOVED the berry patch!  I showed Ethan were the berries were hidden under the greenery.  It didn't take him long to figure it out.  But Chad and I learnt early that succeeding on the berry patch requires a little bit of craftiness.  Ethan would pretend to pick a strawberry, then walk over to my bucket to "put it in" and ended up swiping three or four berries at a time.  I picked 2 buckets in the 40 minutes I was there.  Not a great amount for that time frame, but in my defence, I had to refill a quarter of the first bucket picked after Ethan had found it down the row.

Mr and Mrs Connery saw Ethan in his car seat when I went up to the shack to pay, and noted that baby would have some issues with the pampers later that night. 

But it wasn't so bad.  It was worth it to share one of my favorite summer activities with my Little Man.