Quality time: adventure hike...

After a couple hours of having young Quinn at home, Charli was ready to get away for a while. Korin was crashing on our own bed for what seemed like the first time in a very long time, Quinn was napping in his very cozy car seat, and binka and grandpa were reading or otherwise occupying themselves so Charli and I slipped away for a little adventure. We have taken this hike together before, but something was different about it this time. Back home, another sibling was waiting to hear tales of out journey up the treacherous heights of Bernal Hill.

I left home at about 4am the father of an only child - a little girl who was the center of everything. I now find myself hiking up a hill only 2.5 days later with a totally different, no longer so little girl who has all kinds of new responsibilities. Already, she has made some room in the center of everything for someone else. I have experienced nothing that made Charli seem so much older so quickly. Or is it just that now my own personal mindshare is split between this little girl, now so independent and able scale uneven paths of gravel under her own power, with the help of her walking stick and bearing the burden of her backpack with her own little baby inside, and a brand new infant boy at home who could probably have fit into the backpack.

Looking at this picture again though, I am more inclined to think that she is actually older now and she knows it, despite her protestations to the contrary. "I'm a little girl" just ain't gonna cut it. Your a big girl now!