The book.

My son LOVES dinosaurs. He always has. His second and third birthdays were Dinosaur themed and by the age of 2.5 could recite all of the names of the dinosaurs in his Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs book that at the time, was almost heavier than he was. He has multiple dinosaur books, numerous figurines, every Playmobil dinosaur ever created and a custom dinosaur quilt as well. Our visits to the library involve him parking himself in the aisle with all the dinosaur books and devouring them one by one. And every day he talks about and asks me when are we going to go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller again.

He likes facts about dinosaurs. He needs to know as much as he can about the dinosaur-du-jour and I get asked on a daily basis a minimum of 10 questions about dinosaurs. Mom, How long is 5 meters? How much is 10 tonnes? How fast can {insert dinosaur name here} run? Where did this dinosaur live?

He has watched and re-watched every dinosaur documentary on Netflix and recognizes the paleontologists now in the different shows!

Lately his obsession love of dinosaurs has taken a new turn and all he wants to do now is draw the dinosaurs that he loves. And he needs specifics for his art and details about the dinosaurs he is drawing and is very particular about getting it right (I blame his perfectionist streak on his dad!)

He has recently had quite the breakthrough in his drawing technique and has discovered sketching.

This is a Spinosaurus drawing from about two months ago:

And this is one he did two weeks ago:

Tonight when I got home from the Leslea Newman Human Rights Lecture at the U of A, this is what was waiting for me.

My son's first dinosaur book all about his current favourite, the Torvosaurus. Dictated to his father and coloured blue and red because not only is this a book, this is a 3D book! (Somehow he made the connection that his 3D glasses are blue and red and thinks that is what makes things 3D, so then logic follows that to colour his dinosaurs blue and red makes them 3D as well!)

I love how the beautiful minds of children work!

I am so proud of my budding artist/paleontologist/dinosaur hunter/author/illustrator.

At least someone in this family is writing a book!

natasha~