My little Mountain Goats

I bought my first Groupon right after Christmas for a place called "The Circuit Gym." It is a bouldering gym, which means a place to climb without ropes. This particular place has a large kids area, with lots of easier sections to climb up. In the kids area, once you get to the top you climb over the wall onto a platform which leads to a slide you take back down. The Groupon was for a 3 week pass, and I bought one for each kid. At first, D was nervous to even do the easiest section, and needed me to climb up right behind him, touching him the whole time. Today was the last day of our passes, and as you can see here, he no longer needs my help. He was able to do five of the sections all by himself, and he was buzzing with pride.

DaVinci is AMAZING at climbing, and can do all but one of the sections by herself. The last section has an overhang, so you are climbing a wall that is leaning towards you, and even that she is able to do with only one or two "bumps" from me as she lets go with a hand to grab further up. I can visibly see the muscles in every part of her body now, and I am so proud of how much she can do. The strongest person she knows is her Uncle Andrew, and she kept showing me the scraped skin on the palms of her hands, asking excitedly if they would get tough like Andrew's. He keeps threatening us that he will take her on his adventurous climbing trips when she is 13, and it looks like his wish just might come true. 

I myself am becoming more brave as a parent, allowing my ever growing kids to climb up tall walls even though it makes me nervous. I am now constantly walking that fine line between keeping them safe and letting them grow. I'm just happy I don't have to think about riding in friends' cars yet.