The Lying Monster! (Gasp!)

So, A woke up the other night from a terrible nightmare. We had had a discussion about lying the day before. Things like what lying is exactly, and how it is different than "tricking" or joking. A sees the world in black-and-white, and is such a rule follower, that she has a hard time understanding the differences between actually lying, or telling someone you love their new shirt, even if you really don't. It's difficult for her to understand why one is lying, and the other is being kind. The fact that she has difficulty feeling empathy for others (like so many others who are on the autism spectrum) doesn't help. It is a work in progress.

Well, all that talk about lying and its consequences crept into her dreams that night, and she woke up from a nightmare about . . . the lying monster! Apparently, the lying monster comes around when you lie. He comes around to scare you into never lying again. Oh my. It was a very scary dream.

She was trying to explain to me what he looked like and decided to draw a picture of it to show me just how terrible and scary he was. Turn away if you are easily spooked because here he is!

The lying monster!

Notice the yellow horns, the big teeth, and clawed hands and feet! The two necks! The red red and yellow stripes!

After drawing the picture A scared herself by looking at it and asked me to turn it over so she she wouldn't have to see it. Usually, her pictures are taped up somewhere, or stuck on the fridge for a few days before we stick it in her art box. Well, she did not want this anywhere she could see it, so straight away into the art box it went.

For now, the art box is akin to Pandora's box . . . do not open, lest you release the lying monster! Shiver.

Today's the Day the Dinosaurs Have Their Picnic

A few weeks ago we went to the Calgary Zoo for their annual Teddy Bear Picnic. Lots of fun for kids of all ages. Of course, A brought along two of her favourite dinosaurs.

They were checked over by Calgary EMS. Littlefoot was fine.

Poor Dinah had a sore horn. Luckily, they bandaged her right up, and she was perfectly fine by the time we got home. 

What luck! Jurassic Toss for my dinosaur lover!

Here we are on our third, yes third, time around the Dinosaur Park. What a gorgeous walk it is. Can't wait to go in the fall when all the leaves change.

Back-to-School-Blues Brachiosaurus

She's got the blues. The back-to-school blues. The first day of school is always difficult for A (and for most children with Aspergers). There are just too many unknowns and no structure to the first day back. For most children with Aspergers, not knowing how the day is going to unfold is upsetting, and causes so much fear and anxiety. With school starting next week, A's anxiety is increasing, and we are lucky if we can get her to sleep before midnight.

So, we are doing our best to help her through her nervousness, and to keep her focused on the fact that there is still a week left of summer. With that in mind, I took out my dusty crochet hook to whip up another crocheted dinosaur for her; this time her favourite dinosaur - brachiosaurus. 

A's Brachiosaurus, named Trinity (nickname Slim)

She loves it. Ravelry details are here. Pattern is by June Gilbank (PlanetJune) who I've used for all the dinosaurs I've crocheted for A.

She is thrilled. So, her mind is at ease; at least for a little while longer.

Horses and Ponies

We finally got out to our first family horseback ride, and it was lovely! A gorgeous hot summer day, gentle horses (and ponies!) and friendly guides helped make our afternoon relaxing and fun.

Griffin Valley Ranch is tucked away in what feels like the middle of nowhere, yet it's only a 40 minute drive away from our house.

The rolling hills.

We got to the ranch early enough to have some time to walk around the ranch, and look at dozens and dozens of horses and ponies. But, holy manure!

And here she is on her first pony ever, Icy. The sweetest little pony for the sweetest little girl.

Afterwards, the guides let A feed Icy with treats of carrots and apples that we brought from home.

We will definitely go back again another day. And the first thing A said to me as she got off Icy after our ride? "Mom, wouldn't it be cool if Icy was a sauropod?" Always my dinosaur girl.

All Hail Mother Nature

Our little vegetable garden did great this year. It was our best harvest of peas and carrots ever. And then the hail came.  A couple of weeks ago we had a terrible hail storm (golf ball size hail!) that literally chopped up entire bed of peas. No more peas.

But, we did get to enjoy lots of peas before the storm came, and the carrots seem to be doing fine; protected by the fact that they're buried within the earth. Here is a picture of what we enjoyed before the hail.

And remember A's tomatoe plant? Well, all those little yellow flowers have turned themselves into teeny little green tomatoes. Dozens of them!

Very happy we decided to grow them indoors, rather than plant them in the garden.

Royal Tyrrell Museum (aka The Happiest Place on Earth)

We made our annual summer trip to Drumheller to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and A loved every minute of it. We are so lucky to live so close to Drumheller considering we have a little girl who is absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs.

Here she is studying the underwater exhibit. The prehistoric seas have really perked her interest recently.

Here she is next to a Camarasaurus leg bone! This is something new that wasn't there the last time we visited. Incidentally, it was very crowded around this bone as people waited to take their picture next to it, which is why A isn't smiling. I think she would have preferred to have more time to look at it carefully, but the crowd got to her.

Here she is speaking with a palaeontologist who had different specimens for people to touch. This boy next to her seems to have a love and knowledge of dinosaurs almost as much as she does!

Afterwards, it was time for the dinosaur water park in Drumheller. She LOVED it, and the weather was perfect. 29 degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny, And luckily, not at all busy at the time we went. Here she is at the spray park.

Here she is being a liopleurodon in the wading pool.

Here we are after the boys in the background got us really good with their water guns. Really, it was more like a water missile launcher. Funny how we are fleeing in different directions. Clearly it was everyone for themselves.

I love it when we don't have to prompt her to smile.

See? It is the happiest place on earth.

: )

The Ants Go Marching (all over our garden)

Our garden is thriving this year. We planted carrots, strawberries, and peas 2 weeks earlier than we have in the past, and it seems to have made a huge difference in our garden. All the rain we had at the beginning of the summer helped too. 


But.


Ants. Thousands of ants have invaded our garden. And all those ants have eaten dozens and dozens of our strawberries. Not only that, but the strawberry plants are absolutely covered in crawling ants. Not an easy task to pick the couple of strawberries the little buggers haven't gotten to yet.

So, here are the five I salvaged, plus a few raspberries that have come in from our raspberry bushes that we planted this year. So far the raspberries are safe from the ants, and hopefully we'll get a bunch more berries.

Meanwhile, we've sprinkled cornmeal around the garden in hopes of getting rid of the little pests. Such a shame - the strawberries we did eat were so delicious.

On another note, we planted basil into a pot indoors and it has grown wonderfully from little seeds! We've already enjoyed a lot of it with our dinners, and it keeps thriving. Nothing beats fresh basil. Also, A's cherry tomato plant is looking like it's going to start flowering any day now. She planted it while it was just a tiny sprout at school (the wonderful Greenstart Project) and brought it home, determined that tomatoes would grow from it. I'd say it is looking very likely.

The basil plant is on the left, and the tomato plant on the right. Can't wait to make a little salad with these two plants!