Growth Charts

It occurred to me last night while I was picking blackberries, that I can age my daughter by her role in the blackberry picking. Some people have growth charts hanging on their wall. That'd just be too easy.

The summer Anna was two, she was fearless and ferocious in her quest for the purple fruits. Briars were no match for Miss Anna. She ate most of the berries she picked and about one third of the ones I put in the bucket. She giggled and bounced like Tigger during the blackberry adventure.

When Anna was three, she was more of a pointer. "There's one, mama." Older and wiser, she left the scratches and pricks to me. She understood well what became of anyone who got too close to the limbs of the blackberry bush. Mind you, she still managed to return to the house with a purple ring around her mouth.

This year Anna is four. She picks a few berries and then talks a lot. She eats a few berries and then she talks a lot. She points out a few berries and then she talks a lot. She is four now, and, oh so good at it. She only dumped the berries on the ground twice. And, yes, she came back in the house sporting a lovely blackberry juice mustache.

Eventually, she'll figure out like her brother and sister, that you can shirk the blackberry picking and get to eat cobbler anyway. I wonder what age five will bring?

 

 

Author's Note

She is five now and still eats half as many as she picks. And still talks a lot.

Published in the August 2009 edition of The Other Herald (http://www.otherherald.com/)
How blessed am I that she still follows me to the fence rows to pick the blackberries?

Reviews

[Raef C. Boylan]

It's so sad to see no reviews for this, when I remember there being lots.

I love the simplistic description in this, and - overall - the concept of a child's behaviour being the more accurate growth chart. You depict Anna's trial-and-error learning really well, using a paragraph for each year, which was easy on the eye and mind.

This is an amusing and pleasant read. Thanks for [re] posting it.

[Gandré]

...blackberries, I love to eat them. It was a sweet and sensible portrait how a mother would see her small daughter's behaviour changing, simply by her doings how to deal with pricks and scratches! This was quite a psychologically deep piece. I was taken to my own childhood, which was loving with sheeps and pets and meadows in the Slovak Carpathian Mountains. I like how you show us this simple beautiful way such an authenticity, so carefuly chosen, the salient characteristics of change abd step forwards, within your sweet daughtie Anna. I am grateful to read such an observation.
Hello Emily,
thanks a lot for your patience when reading my long piece 'Once upon a life time', it is greatly appreciated! Hope all is well you have not a too hot summer. At the moment, it is pleasant here, so I am smiling.

[The Archangel Gabriel]

Very nice. The blueberries are in up in Maine - Maine blueberries. The ones that are small and work perfectly for muffins. Amazing! The simplest things in life are some of the most enjoyable!

That makes me want children pretty badly, but I suppose that I will have to wait a few years for that!

Peace and luv,
Gabe

[Riverdance]

aww, i love this!
daughters are wonderful things. :)
very charming and heartwarming.

~Rd

[bluessadmood]

that was lovely dear ,the way you talk about how a child changes every year ,behaviour changes as he matures ,its very nice ,you put a new growth chart ,i have studied this a lot ,but your chart is so easily to read and fun to follow

[No one]

Kids sure learn quickly how to manipulate the system. One day they beg you to let them wash the dishes and then the next day they look at you like you're crazy if you ask them to put their dishes in the dishwasher.

Thanks for sharing this. Now I want some blackberries...

[E. M. Murren]

Lovely work. It is well written yet gently told. It has the aura of a different era about it. Fine job.

[mick weller]

'That'd just be too easy.'
Great little piece, I just wonder if that third sentence flows a little better if raed:
That'd be just too easy.
But that's just me - nit picking pedant ha ha

simply told with good imagery - I'm left wanting more from this piece though - it's as though I feel a bit cheated that it ends so soon!

[Brenda Sue]

This is just too cute. I love it and all the adventures of a little one. Wonderfully and delightfully penned. Great job.

[Candle in the wind]

This is so amazingly beautiful. Its full of love and visually evocative.It depicts the dwindling of innocence with gentleness.

[mattavelli]

You put them to work young hu? :)
Have fun.