He grew up a little right before my eyes today.

Duhdee and I took Monkey on his very first hike in July and we noticed he had a great time but struggled on the more uneven terrain. Duhdee and I love to hike and we’d finally decided he had the endurance to do some easy ones. We were taken a little off guard to see his struggles and decided we needed to give him more opportunities to practice. All summer long we have been going on longer and longer walks and adding more difficult terrain. Today we tried the longest and most uneven trail of the summer and Monkey did so well! I could see clearly how much more attention he paid to his feet and where he was placing them. He was so much more confident too. He only asked to hold my hand very briefly on a steep part of the trail covered in loose gravel. I was so proud of him!

That is not, however, what the title refers to. The moment today when I was faced with more undeniable proof that my little boy is growing up occurred at the summit. We had sat down to enjoy a snack of grapes and apples ((Honeycrisp!!!)) and Monkey stood, turned to look at me and belched. Duhdee and I, being mature adults, completely cracked up. Monkey looked at us bewildered for a moment, smiled and then PURPOSEFULLY burped three more times…grinning at us the whole time. He taught himself to burp on command. Is he 7 or what??