Titus was busy doing manly stuff with his daddy this morning, helping him hammer together the new chicken coop they’ve been working on, so I thought it would be fun to have a little girl time with my two sweethearts. I loaded baby Xia into a front carrier, and with Jada leading the way, we headed through the woods to where the blackberries grow.

The birds and animals have picked the bushes pretty clean, but we were happy to find several ripe berries still waiting to be picked. I have to remember to bring gloves with me the next time I go to pick wild blackberries! The thorns are terrible! It was really hard to reach into the thicket, and try to keep Xia out of the briers, especially since she was hanging right in front of me. I decided it just wasn’t working out like that, so I took her out of the carrier and sat her in the grass. Jada volunteered to watch her for me while I did more picking. They were only a foot or two from me, but she wanted to make sure that Xia didn’t crawl away.

Every now and then I’d turn around to smile at the girls as they sat and played together. Xia was surprisingly content to stay right where she was. She ran her hands over the grass, letting the blades tickle her fingers. She picked petals off of the flowers that Jada would find for her. She was so cute, looking all around, taking it all in. And Jada was just precious, talking to Xia as if they were in deep conversation, picking off a random ant which had found its way onto Xia’s leg, and making sure that nothing ended up in Xia’s mouth.

I love that they have each other. What a joy it is to watch them play.

What a beautiful morning it was.