You think you know a guy

And then he turns 6!  This kid has chaaaangged this summer.  His whole life he has been super cautious & a big wuss.  I mean seriously cautious (ie won't even consider riding a merry go round).  Then one day it changed.  If I could pinpoint it, it might have been in April at a local carnival with his grandpa when he braved a ride he normally wouldn't have & loved it.  Since then it's been no holds barred.  It got really started though when he got to go to Legoland for his birthday & he rode EVERYTHING.  This shocked us beyond belief! 

He has always been able to swim a bit, but not very confidently.  Now he is a better swimmer than both Ben & I!  He is always seeing how far he can swim holding his breath (which really is amazingly long) & swimming around on the bottom of the deep end.  And he has taken up boogey boarding & body surfing hard core.  He just runs into these freezing, huge waves (ok I feel like they are huge for my little man) without any fear, trying new tricks & getting the crap beat out of him & he just keeps going back.  I sit dying on the shore praying he comes running to just watch with me again instead.  

This new outlook even carries to eating.  My super picky eater tries all food now!  He even says "I try everything now before I decided if I don't like it" & eats a bite of whatever we put in front of him (for the moooossst part).  

It's taking me a bit to adjust to this.  I have always tried to be sure I wasn't a "hovering", overprotective parent, but this new Taj is throwing me for a loop.  I like to hope it's pregnancy brain, but he is scaring me to death!  I mean not riding grocery store rides strait to cliff jumping!?  I wasn't ready. 

All last year he looked on enviously as his friends lost teeth.  He really took a personal interest in this & checked for wiggly teeth hourly .  Finally one came in June.  Oh the joy.  But one morning as he ate cereal he said, "what was the crunchy thing?" I laughed & said it must have been a burnt cheerio or something.  After breakfast he discovered his tooth was missing.  His face was priceless.  It went from pure bewilderment to absolute horror as he realized what the "crunchy thing" really was.  The tears were rolling hard as he said "No!!!!  I swallowed my tooth!!!"  All the months of anticipation ended with a swallowing.  After we calmed the tears he wrote the tooth fairy a nice note & picture describing what had happened in order to receive his prize, but still remains heartbroken when the incident is brought up.