Do you remember YOUR monkey?

My 5 year old son came home from school today, asking how Earth was built.  We started telling him about the big bang, and particles, and how there is more going on in space than he had yet realized.  He was intrigued.  He asked how the dinosaurs got here, and so we jumped into microorganisms and evolution.  How things from the sea moved to land... Well, apparently we have discussed evolution before and this jogged his memory.  We hadn't even gotten to humans yet when he asked:

5: People used to be monkeys.  Mom, did you come from a monkey?  Do you remember your monkey?

Me: Well... kinda.  You are right, humans came from monkeys. My monkey was Nana.  I think it's important to note that Nana is actually not a monkey, and she is a human.  I came from Nana.  

5: Oh.  Did she come from a monkey?

Me: Honey, none of the monkeys you see today just had human babies.  None of the humans you see had monkey mommies.  Although.... 

5: Well when did monkeys start having human babies?

Me: Never, evolution happens very very slowly.  Like monkeys started ...

5: To stand up!  Monkeys learned to stand up.

Me: Yes, over time monkeys changed to adjust to the world around them, and developed traits that would help them live longer, and be stronger in their environment.  To put it simply.  But, it goes very slow, and you cannot see it happen right before your eyes.  It happens over lifetimes.  

5: Oh, so you didn't come from a monkey.

Me: Hmmm, now that you mention it, Nana does like bananas, and she can be pret-ty silly.

5: But she's no monkey.

Then, I suppose finding out that monkeys don't have human babies was a bummer, and he ran off to play hotwheels instead of discussing evolution with his boring, non-monkey mother. Which is probably for the best, because we were getting awfully close to Mommy having to break out Google to continue this discussion. (What did our parents do without Google?!)