Enjoying Summer

I can't believe it's August already. Where did the summer go?? We've had such beautiful weather this weekend, we thought it would be fun to go to one of the local farms and pick some fresh fruit with Sadie. Last year, she had no interest in it except to run around, but this year she loved it. We picked blackberries, blueberries and peaches and she tasted each one! She loved the berries the best, probably because she could easily pick them herself and put them in the little basket. Pretty much every one she picked, she would taste, then put in the basket. :) So..... this fruit is probably not for sharing! She seemed to really like the juice of the blackberries, and these bad boys were really juicy, so it almost looked like a scene out of True Blood after we left that berry patch. :) Great time had by all. But now...... I have all this fruit to use up! So I found a recipe for peach crisp that sounded delish and also a blueberry coffee cake, and it's been SO long since I've baked (or cooked, really), that I'm excited to try these out. Especially with the fresh fruit. Leave it to me to make fruit bad for you!

Inspecting this curious fruit, never tasted before.

Sadie's commentary on blueberry picking.

The program Sadie was in stopped this past week, so we now have our summer back. Looking very forward to that. And to not drive 2 hours a day. The program did wonders for her. We still have a long way to go, but they broke through the barrier that we couldn't- they got her to start chewing. It's kind of hit or miss right now, and we have good eating days and bad ones (but don't all toddlers??), and she is in such a better place right now than she was in June. It felt like I'd never see the day she would crunch Kix at breakfast or eat small pieces of mac and cheese or eat ice cream or american cheese. And just try different things and experiment. The latest? A McDonald's french fry!! I gave it to her because we had dinner on the run tonight and expected her to lick the salt and ketchup off, or start to chew it and spit it out. She ate the entire fry! I was shocked and she was extremely proud of herself. So was I. Sometimes you never see even the smallest light at the end of the tunnel, and then you get something like this today, and it shows you that progress is indeed being made. Good progress, at that.

Off to bed, we had a fun weekend and we did a lot, but now Mama's tired. Night, all.