file this under "are we really at this stage?"

A little boy rode his bike to our house today, rang the doorbell, and politely asked if Trey could come out to play. Trey surprised me and answered politely "I can't. We're leaving for a hike. But maybe tomorrow we can play together!".

It's hard for me to imagine that someday soon this will happen again, and Trey will go running out the door yelling behind him "Mom! I'm going to play with (insert neighborhood boy's name here)! I'll be back later!". And even more hard to conceive at this point, I'll let him go and yell after him "just be home by dinner!".