Jykell and Hyde Child

We enjoyed the most wonderful weather earlier this week.  T-shirts, shorts, jackets in the evening.  It was beautiful.  So beautiful, in fact, that to stay inside any longer would’ve been a crime so Big E, little g and I went out to explore. 

At first I was a happy hiker, soaking in the rays, strolling along with my kids.  Big E was chatting about sticks and rocks and little g was content with her pacifier.  Fifteen minutes in, we stopped for a picnic (any eating outside is described as a picnic at our house) of applesauce packets, baby mum mums and freeze dried yogurt bites.  Life was great.  Until…

We cleaned up and put little g back in the pack.  Awkwardly I got the pack on and started to stand up.  At that moment a strange wind blew…not really but something weird clicked in Big E’s head.  He jumped on my lap and said, “Carry me!”  

As much as I would have liked to carry an extra 60 pounds between Big E, little g and the pack I knew I had my limits so I said, “Sorry buddy.  You’ll have to walk.”  The only thing I could think of that was worse than carrying both kids was falling onto one while squishing the other in the pack. 

Big E said, “NOOOOOO!  CARRY ME!  I WANT YOU TO CARRY ME TOO!” while clutching my now straightened leg so tightly that I was not able to walk without tripping.  All my maternal logic could not convince my 3, almost 4 year old that he really did want to walk.  He cried, complained, begged and threatened to hit me.  Finally I said, “If you keep this up I will leave you here and come back after I drop little g off at home.”  Not my best moment, but he let go of my leg long enough to walk 10 paces before starting up again. 

I tried bribery, distraction, singing, playing follow the leader; anything I could think of to make Big E stop fixating on wanting to be held.  We finally ended up hobbling up to our house with him still clutching my leg.  

What had started as a beautiful morning walk in the woods turned into a terrible Jykell and Hyde moment for all of us.