A Dream Come True

Buddy loves anything that wields a sword or anything with big teeth. The bigger the teeth, the more cool: sharks, crocodiles, and dinosaurs top his list. He LOVES T. Rexes and is a T. Rex about half the time. I always thought it would be so great to have a child into dinosaurs (for the smartness factor). But then I realized that having a child that loves dinosaurs means being a mom that loves to read dinosaur books. So that's why G found me this shirt. I haven't ordered it yet, but I think I should. (For Valentine's Day, G?)

Anyway, dinosaurs have become my thing too, even if they bore me to tears.

So imagine my joy when my good friend, Nicki, called me the other night to invite me and Buddy to go to a preview of the new dinosaur exhibit at the science museum in Portland. Just the night before I had been online checking out the details because I knew Buddy would love it. Nicki called me around 4:30. By 5:00 I was in the car ready to go with a VERY excited little boy in the backseat.

We got to the museum and discovered that most of the people attending the preview were adults, apparently employees of the companies sponsoring the exhibit. There were very few kids, so Buddy and his friend James had free reign of the place. When we walked in and Buddy got a glimpse of all the dinosaurs and dinosaur bones he said, "Is this a dream, or is this real?!" He was that impressed.

We got to see several real dinosaurs, including a real T. Rex which was a highlight of the whole visit (notice Buddy's T. Rex hands in the picture above). James was mildly nervous by the size and realness of the robotic T. Rex, I mean real T. Rex. Nicki and I reassured him that it was just a robot, which put him at ease. But that put Buddy into a panic. Buddy has now reiterated to me 1000 times since that it was a real T. Rex, not a robot. He also mentioned that he doesn't know why there was a computer by the T. Rex, but it is real. Do T. Rexes eat computers, he asked?

We stayed until the museum closed and the boys also enjoyed all the bones on display, digging in the sand for bones like paleontologists, and playing in a sand and water display.

Buddy was so thrilled about it all that he told G all about everything he saw -- giving him a detailed play-by-play the whole car ride home and he called my mom first thing the next morning. And now a week later he's still talking about it. We'll definitely go again, but the real fun in that evening was having the place virtually to outselves. Thanks Nicki!!!!