Ducks

I'd like to submit photographic evidence that my ducks were in a row. One time. At least for a bit.

That's me and 6 ducks in a row!

This was made possible in part by our Huckleberry Hiker, which allows us to hike with Teddy (down a rocky, steep, trail and through river crossings, as was the case with this hiker). It helps when the most unpredictable duck is strapped quite literally into a chariot that I'm pulling. But still, it counts as ducks in a row!

A Hiking We Will Go!

Ya'll, life does not slow down. It's about to get extra crazy here, so I wanted to share a quick update since we got our Huckleberry adaptive hiking cart. 

If you've followed our journey for a while, you've seen me post multiple times about hiking because it's a key part of our vacations and our life. While we don't get to hike as much as we'd like with kids (and Teddy in particular), hiking has allowed us to explore so many incredible things. You can read out our hiking adventures ... at least some of them ... here. And you can read the bittersweet end to hiking while carrying Teddy here. 

We truly thought that was the end of our hiking journey with Teddy, unless we could take his adaptive chair on a particular trail. Then we discovered the Huckleberry available for pre-order this spring and ordered one within a week! (A huge thank you to our generous family member who helped sponsor Teddy's Huckleberry!) 

Teddy's Huckleberry arrived in the last couple weeks, and we've taken it for spins around the yard and two actual hikes. It was definitely a learning curve for all of us, as Teddy was pretty skittish and uncertain about riding in it at first, but he's now more than willing to clamber on for a ride. 

Amazing friends help pull (and stabilize) your child!

Yesterday two of my amazing friends joined me for a hike with Teddy, and we had a great time. I'm thankful for strong friends to lend helping hands who love Teddy and have a sense of adventure because we certainly needed it for part of the trail as you can see in the video.

We're looking forward to many more hikes and adventures with this!

A beautiful scenic overlook (up the side of a Wisconsin mountain).

Hiking is My Happy Place

Thankfully Teddy enjoys hiking as well, whether he's rambling on his own or riding in his chair. He's usually fairly content in his chair, as long as we're moving and he's not in a mood. The other weekend AJ, Teddy and I went exploring a local state park.

His chair can cover a variety of terrain, including even the sandy incline that was a pain to push through and up, but we made it. Unfortunately we may have been on a horse trail, which was fine until we got to the water crossing. It was narrow enough that AJ could jump it safely, as could I. But Teddy couldn't jump it without one or both of us going in the water. And I couldn't get his chair across the water without one or both of us getting soaked. And given that it was about 30 degrees (like every other "spring" day this month), water crossings where we got soaked weren't a good idea.

Two smiling faces and a dorky face for this photo.

So we backtracked while AJ waited for us, which wasn't super long because it was less than a half mile (and down the sandy slope instead of uphill). 

Nature is good for the soul, even with misadventures. 

Hiking with Teddy

We hiked before kids, even backpacking our way across Isle Royale National Park, covering 50+ miles carrying all we needed. We continued hiking when we had AJ, excitedly purchasing a backpack carrier and taking him to our favorite camping spot at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. When we had Teddy, we added a second carrier to our collection. As AJ grew older and more capable, he began hiking on his own. 

That's a good thing because Teddy continued to get larger and heavier to carry. He also outgrew the initial carrier we had, so we switched to soft-sided carriers and continued to upgrade to the largest size we could find as outgrew each one. We would rotate hikes, where I'd carry him one hike and my husband would carry him the next. Then we started rotating during the course of a hike, switching out to ease the workload. 

Then a pandemic hit and greatly limited the hiking and exploring we did. And Teddy continued to grow. Each time I loaded him onto my back, my husband expressed concern that I'd permanently hurt myself. When I carried Teddy for 2 miles last spring, up and down the side of a pretty steep hill, I begrudgingly accepted that was likely the last time I'd carry him that distance. 

Teddy is absolutely capable of walking on his own. There's a couple challenges in hiking with Teddy:

1. He doesn't have the stamina to walk long distances.
2. His balance is still wonky, so he stumbles and falls frequently. This doesn't phase him, but sometimes he does get bumps and bruises from these falls.
3. He's a strong-willed boy who doesn't listen well. Often he wants to go the opposite direction, or off trail completely, and just takes off running. This isn't safe, nor does it help us reach the destination.
4. When Teddy doesn't want to walk, he will simply collapse and melt to become one with the ground. He's 70+ pounds of dead weight. Unlike AJ, who could be motivated to continue hiking bribing him with M & Ms, we haven't found anything that can consistently convince Teddy to resume. 

When Teddy wants to hike, he does amazing. He is surprisingly good about balancing with rocks and roots, although I think it's just his momentum propelling him forward. It's fantastic physical therapy for him. Although he falls, he falls far less often than I'd expect. The challenge is that when he doesn't want to hike, we don't have a lot of good options.

On vacation, we did a 2-mile hike. We were able to push Teddy in his adapted chair for the first half mile (and then the last half mile on the way back) before the terrain became impossible to navigate his chair. Trust me, I'm willing to push him over rocks and roots and can cover more terrain than you might expect. But this was large rocks with steep inclines and a bridge far too narrow for his chair. 

He hiked fairly well on his own for about a quarter mile or so and then did #3 and #4 from the above list. Our nanny and Dave tried to cajole him along while I checked on AJ who had hiked ahead. Then they carried him with piggybacks, fireman carry and some really questionable techniques. So on the way back, I simply loaded Teddy onto my back rather than all the struggle. We look ridiculous, but it's not challenging to carry him short distances (less than a half mile) over relatively level terrain. And it's much easier than the non-stop struggle to get him to move on his own.

He still loves going up. Honestly, so do I.

Our hikes will have to continue to adapt. His chair will cover quite a bit of terrain, so I'm excited that we can explore using that. I've also told him he needs to learn to listen before he grows so large that I can no longer carry him ... sure hope he listens to that request.