Sunday, August 3, 2008

Berry Birthday

This morning at 8:46am, Liam turned 2 years old. We did most of our celebrating yesterday with family and friends. But I had planned a blueberry picking excursion for him today. My sister joined Alissa and I, with the kiddos on a trip to Leslie, Michigan. The weather way beautiful and the kids cooperated pretty well as we picked. Of course most of what we picked ended up going into their growing stomachs! We finished the first row and moved on to the next - I spotted a mantis and called Liam over to look at it. As I was showing him the mantis among the leaves, he decided to eat a small red berry that was growing with the blueberries. He swallowed the thing before I could even get my hand to his mouth.

Then ensued frantic calls by myself, my friend, and the farmer who owned the patch, to poison control. All I could think was - "I've poisoned my son on his second birthday!" After all three of us inundated poison control's call center, we learned that it was honey suckle and was not deadly. Thank goodness!

The worse thing was that after all that craziness, we had crying toddlers and very few berries. At least the farmer let us take what we picked without paying. A small consolation for yet another grand outing gone wrong. :-/

My sister, who kept picking during the red-berry incident - knowing full-well that we had the problem covered - managed to get a couple pints worth, so I might have enough to make one batch of jam. At least my first attempt at canning will be a memorable one, though I sometimes wish life didn't have to be such a soap opera.

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