Always in the back of our brains as parents is the question, “how hard do I push my kid?“. And often this is a priority question when we are out on our adventures.

I’m not sure that I’m any good at answering this. Yesterday I was so convinced that Abby was being dramatic, but guess what? I was wrong and now I feel awful about it.

We headed over to Char Mar Ridge Preserve with my sister to do a short hike and let the kids play in the natural play area. The loop there is only 1.5 miles, so it seemed like a nice quick morning activity.

The Whining Begins

Abby started crying and begging to be carried about 5 minutes into our walk. I knew she had just eaten and we had barely expended any energy so I refused to carry her. Many times she will have a total meltdown and then get over it quickly, but that was not the case this time. She proceeded to cry and whine for the entire loop.

Our fellow nature goers were probably really enjoying the relaxing vibe that her screams created.

She rallied a bit for the wildlife blind and the creek, but that was about the end of her joy.

Her favorite activity of the day was hair pulling. Molly was wise and had a hat, her hair follicles are thanking her. I think I might have a bald spot created exclusively by Abby angst.

This is the third time we’ve visited Char Mar Ridge this year. I keep coming back to it because it’s such a good one. The trail is beautiful and well kept, and it’s a nice distance for me and the kids. The natural play area here is simple, but really what more do you need? There’s a creek, a slide, and stumps and logs for climbing.

Olivia was really channeling Katniss Everdeen here and I love it.

Eventually we made it through the loop and the girls had a great time playing in the creek for a bit. Both girls were acting normal and happy while they were playing so I just assumed Abby had gotten over herself and didn’t think much of it.

Here it comes

Later in the afternoon we ran over to Kroger and suddenly I realized Abby was hot. Radiating heat like a furnace hot. And she suddenly had the shakes. By the time we got home and I checked her temp she was 102.5, which opened the flood gates for epic mom guilt. I made my sick toddler hike a good part of mile on her own.

Winning. Winning at life.

My children never get sick during business hours, so today we had another nice visit to Children’s Urgent Care. She’s not sick with anything serious, just a sinus infection but man I feel guilty. Perhaps I should have paid more attention when she fell asleep on my sisters shoulders.