Saturday, August 14, 2010

I Picked This One Just For You!

Friday 8-13-10 (That's right. Friday the 13th! OooOoOoooOoOo!)
I had originally planned to visit my sister out on the peninsula (1.5 hours away, either by drive or by drive & ferry) since I had cancelled last minute yesterday, due to Little Z sneezing and having a runny nose, and being tired of always spreading her plague whenever I visit! She's called Typhoid Z over there! But there were no symptoms later in the day yesterday, and no symptoms today (I love it. Her teflon immune system kicks out viruses within a few days! But she'll knock ME for a loop for a few weeks! Same with my poor little nieces and sister.)
I also had about 20 packages of stuff I'd sold on eBay to put together, address and mail, that I should have done Monday. Oops. Plus a library book that had been waiting for us on hold for a week. By the time I got the packages ready, it was almost 11. If we went to my sister's, we wouldn't get there until 1 at the earliest, and then would want to leave around 8., maybe with a nap starting once we got there, or worse, no nap and have cranky little bitch-pants tired angel screeching over every slight, real or imagined, all day. Seriously. This child freaks out if another child even LOOKS at the toy she's playing with. Imagine a cranky version of that. All. Day. Long.

So after the post office ($72!! I had a *lot* of packages!) we went to the library. Right next to the library is a strip of grass with some benches (and apparently a freebie lunch line today) and some ducks! After making them shake their tail feathers, Z decided that exploring the train tracks was in order. I of course was on her like stink on shit something sticky on toddler hands, mostly because of all the creepy guys loitering around eating their free lunches. I told her that train tracks were NOT for playing on, but that she could explore only if Mommy or Daddy (who are we kidding. He doesn't even want to take her out of the car on a ferry for fear that we'll accidentally chuck her over the side) were with her and said it was okay. As an added bonus, to shave a few years off our lives, a train actually came. I heard the dingdinging from the things going down to block the cars from crossing the tracks, so I was totally prepared. Plus my head had been vigilantly whipping around so much looking for oncoming trains, you'd think I was a model at a photo shoot (with a wind machine. You know. To make the hair look awesome. I wish I had an awesome-hair-wind-machine following me around at all times. *sigh*)

Little Z was of course scared of the loud noise, but I was prepared and warned her and was holding her (not that I was worried she'd go running TOWARDS the loud noise/train tracks, but I know she's scared of loud sounds, and feels better when she's being held.) She was brave and watched the train go by, even as she clung like a limpet to my neck. That made a good transition to head towards the library, which she had been resisting up until that point. I told her we would look for books on trains and/or ducks. So naturally, there were no train or duck board books there. Jerks.
Our first trip to the library, when we got her her own card (7/11,) we found a SkippyJon Jones board book, which she LOVED. My husband is even willing to buy her a copy, which says how much she loves it, as the reason for all this library activity all of a sudden is because he's a cheapskate to save money on books. Because she enjoyed it so much, we looked for other SkippyJon Jones books, but the rest (that this location had) were paper-pages books. And I thought they were pretty stupid, with all the made-up words and nonsense, but they're very popular, so the kids must love them. And my husband usually reads her bedtime stories, so I don't have to throw up a little in my mouth read them. But we got her one anyway, and she didn't rip it or eat it or ruin it in any way. So this trip I found her some train books with regular pages. AND a Thomas the Train DVD. Best. Mommy. Evar.

After the library, my evil scheme to get her to nap in the car on the way to our next destination was a success!  Muahahahaha! Some friends had gone to Canter-Berry Farm yesterday to pick blueberries. We had gone last year and I loved it, and I was warned that they'd only have a few days of berries left, so it was now or never next year! I sat in the car reading a (library) book with the AC on for about an hour before she woke up. It was not a good wake-up. You know, when they smile and feel refreshed and everyone has a great rest-of-the-day. No. This was a glued-to-the carseat-straps-by-puddle of drool, wrinkle marks on face from leaning on something, shirt rucked up the back leaving marks and hot sweatiness, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHke-up. Ugh. No she didn't want to pick berries. "HOLDJOO HOLDJOO NO WANNA WALK!" Crying and whining whenever I had to set her down to pack something into our bag to bring with us. Juice box, snacks, sunscreen, sun hats, bowl to take berries home in, her Crocs (she was wearing glittery princess flats,) Dollar Tree magnifying glass, etc. Plus I carted out our folding chair with fold-up shade cover, so she'd have somewhere cool to sit. Once they led us to our bushes, we went to work.

At this U-Pick place, they want you to pick each bush (the half that faces your walkway anyway) over completely before moving on to the next. No just going after the 'easy' ones. Ugh. This is like work! After being told repeatedly to only pick the blue ones, no not the green or red ones, no don't eat the green ones, etc, Little Z quickly decided it was time for some dedicated product testing, and became the quality-control manager.

She quickly grew bored, so I got out her magnifying glass, to look for bugs. After seeing bajillions of tiny bugs all over the insides of our buckets and on the berry plants the whole time we were picking, now there were none. Little Z was having none of that, and demanded I come with her, in search of bugs. I stalled as long as I could, but finally packed up our stuff and trekked back to the weigh-in place, since they had a dog laying out in the shade (and a swinging bench for tired-old me!) and I had hopes that we could appease Her Royal Highness with a doggie, if nothing else.

Luckily, we were able to find a bunch of dead aphids impaled on the thorns of a rose, so she got to put her magnifying glass to use, and I didn't have to have any skished buggies wiped off onto my pants, since she couldn't get at them without being pricked! Score!

We ended up with 3.5 pounds of blueberries, for which I have no use, and we will not possibly be able to just snarf up before they rot. I'm hoping some kind of Baked-Goods Fairy will swoop in and bake them up into something fattening and delicious.


  1. 1. Where did you get that WAY Cool magnifying glass?

    2. I'm afraid to take DS on the ferry this next trip for fear he'll dart off the side into the water as well! Next trip...

  2. I know what you can do with those berries! Get your A** over here and I will make jam and pie!

  3. Dollar Tree. It was $1! And it has a screw-open handle with tweezers in it. I assume you could store a bug in there too.

    Z was actually very well behaved on the ferry. When you get outside, the wind is so loud and powerful, it's very humbling. But she's also content to sit on one of the sofa benches and look out a window.


