Look out for T-Rex

Niranjana is in a dinosaur mood these days. It started when we watched Disney's Fantasia. Well, parts of Fantasia. Over and over.

Set to classical music, the herbivores are all placidly munching plants when suddenly a T-Rex appears. They run away. But the stegosaurus is the slowest. He puts up a decent fight, but ultimately loses to the T-Rex. Not gross, but it is scary. Lightening, sharp teeth gnashing, etc.

After watching this several times over the course of a few days, Niranjana declares sincerely, "I'm not scared of it any more."

Great, I'm desensitizing her to violence. Sigh.

So we rented The Land Before Time (the original). It's pretty good. The mother dinosaur dies early, the kids have to use teamwork to defeat the mean T-Rex, but there's a happy ending.

Then Niranjana used some of her birthday money to buy a dinosaur pop-up book.

We're contemplating a trip to Walking with the Dinosaurs in the Yakima Sundome later this spring (www.dinosaurslive.com). With enough advance preparation for the life-size creatures and loud sound effects, I think Niranjana will be fascinated.