Sick to death of the rains we’ve had every day for the past 2 weeks, I decided to take Max to the Science Museum. We went a few months ago, and only saw about half the exhibits because he was afraid of the dinosaurs, the planets, and the skinless man (I can see that one).

But what a difference a few months makes! While he was trepidatious about the dinosaurs, I lured him in. And he was actually in awe of the skinless man that showed his muscles (and his man-parts, as Max pointed out). He ran and laughed hysterically, and made my heart glow. He’s still pretty shy in public situations so I was glad to see him peel away from my leg and actually play.

It made me so happy I considered getting us season passes.

Every time I think something with him is permanent, he changes. For the better.

Kids are funny, aren’t they? They’ve got weird pecadillos that you just can’t explain. Take Max’s phobias:

He’s petrified of lizards. When we’d walk to his school, he would walk with his hands over his eyes so his eyes wouldn’t be offended by the site of a lizard. P.E.T.R.I.F.I.E.D. My husband used to cup his hands together and say “wanna see my lizard?” and Max would go into convulsions.

Now, you’re probably thinking, yea but aren’t you afraid of lizards? Maybe he picked up on that. But I’m not. I like lizards. I found myself talking to a teeny tree frog stuck to my window the other day. Not me (maybe it skipped a generation and he got it from my mom).

Next, water. No, he loves swimming. He just hates being sprayed with water. But so do I so…let’s move on.

The Hulk. He loves superheros, but talking Hulk dolls send him shrieking. He’ll even cover his ears when I pick up a doll that doesn’t talk. And my husband REALLY likes the doll he got. It says “You’re making me angry! You don’t like me when I’m angry!” and his eyes light up red. Cool. But not to a 4-year-old.

Fireworks. Again,  I think it’s the noise factor. I’ve heard that kids who had ear infections a lot are sensitive to sound. I haven’t seen a fireworks show (except on tv) in 3 years. Sigh. And I love ‘em.

Hopefully he’ll grow out of these. The 4th of July is getting mighty boring!

Max starts at Montessori tomorrow. He’s been in daycare or private school since he was 3 months old, so I’m not devastated about him going away. But it does mark a special time because…he has to bring his lunch. I tear up just thinking about it.

I’m also excited. I bought him a special tin Power Rangers lunchbox, a la 1980s. None of this thermal bag crap would do. We’re a retro family. I did get him an insulated Hulk thermos, which he hasn’t stopped drinking from since his birthday. We even practiced the whole “open your lunchbox and get everything out” process yesterday. He’s stoked.

I realized I’m at the start of about 10 years of packing lunches for my son (until he gets too cool to bring his lunch. That’s, what? High school?). At this point, I vow to pack each peanut butter sandwich or turkey tortilla wrap with love (put anything in a tortilla and he gobbles it right now). It’ll be a few years before I start throwing Lunchables in there!

He’s getting so big so fast. I just read this post on Mommy Bloggers that made me realize he’ll be grown up and gone in a flash, so I want to enjoy him all I can right now.

PS I just had a nice thought. This blog will serve as a scrapbook for me when Max is all grown up. Vive la Web 2.0!