A beautiful sunny t-shirt weather Spring Sunday gave T and I the recharge we needed.
After breakfast, we practiced reading two chapters in his latest book then headed to one of our favourite nature spots: Rouge Park.
I feel blessed for this urban oasis near our home. I appreciate the government recently adding a boardwalk and bridge that makes accessing the trails from the parking lot much more convenient.
Nature is healing.
Fresh air is refreshing.
The sound of water is calming.
Sunshine is reinvigorating.
For neurodiverse kids like T, who has diagnoses of FASD and ADHD, nature supports mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
The outdoors provide endless space to burn off his fuel in a productive healthy way.
Look at him go!
Trees, branches, sticks and twigs. Sand, mud, water, rocks and pebbles.
Nature provides active learning opportunities to feed his imagination and wonderful textures to satisfy his sensory needs.
Fallen logs several feet up in the air create a balancing game to provide proprioceptive inputs.
For the exhausted frazzled caregiver (that’s me, in case you’re wondering), nature calms the mood and thoughts – a respite away from home life with a loud, unregulated, oppositional child.
If a child swears or has a meltdown in the forest and no one sees or hears it, did it happen?
It brings me joy to watch T be carefree in the wild, zipping down seemingly endless trails then circling back to see if I’m ok then dashing off again.
He is at his surest and most confident in nature – and that surely must feel good for him.
We enjoyed unexpected sights and sounds, like a fort made with branches, or the calming rhythm of chirping birds and woodpeckers.
Nature is not a miracle worker though.
There were moments during our outing when T tested my patience… a lot.
Our often oppositional child wouldn’t follow my instructions to stay on the trail – away from the direction of the bear warning sign.
“Ok that’s fine. If you get eaten by a bear, I’ll finally get my peace and quiet,” I said and kept walking, refusing to wait for him any longer.
Then of course, our walking birth control ad decided to turn around.
“You don’t want me to have peace and quiet, do you?” I said, trying to suppress a smile.
He grinned like a little shit as he ran past me on the trail.
My Life With T 
I agree with you nature has some healing powers. Nice to see T actively climb up those stairs. You have such great patience 😃
LikeLike
Thanks Faith! I know you’d relate. 😊 How I wish to explore your part of the world one day with T. He would love it!
LikeLike
When you are here, just let us know 😁
LikeLike
Beautiful, I’m just loving those views, natures natural tonic ✨
LikeLike
Thanks Cherryl. We are blessed with wonderful nature nearby!
LikeLike
This was all so sweet and peaceful then you took a bit of a dramatic turn there, didn’t you? 😛 Your last line made me LOL. Glad you’re learning patience (though not my choice) and you had a relatively good day outdoors. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you Betsy! Reading your updates make me wish T could get into martial arts as it would be so good for him. We took him to a free test class once but he ended up not wanting to participate. Maybe we’ll try again one day!
LikeLike
Gorgeous place! Beautiful happy pictures. It sounds like a great day for the family.
LikeLike
Thanks Ana. It was lovely. This is my favourite time of the year. More time outdoors on weekends!
LikeLike
It’s great that you live so close to Rouge Park. We hiked here quite a bit during the early days of the pandemic, back when the roads (and trails) were empty. It was fabulous. There are so many benefits to spending time in nature. Glad it’s become a family activity that you all enjoy. I got a good laugh about your bear warning!
LikeLike
Thanks Linda. It’s such a fantastic park and I feel blessed to live so close to it. It was a very nice day on Sunday and I hope it’s the start of a long season of outdoors time ahead. And it was certainly a saving grace during the pandemic.
LikeLike
What a beautiful experience! I absolutely love the precious video. My son loved natural so much too. I thought about it the other day and realized that when we are out in nature, we don’t have the pressure to be anyone but ourselves! It is so healing. 🤍
LikeLike
Thank you Stacy. You said it best. We can be ourselves in nature without judgment. I so cherish these moments too and they get me through the rougher ones. 🙏
LikeLike
Wonderful adventures and it really does so much.
LikeLike
Thanks Gary. I sure hope so! 🙏
LikeLike
You crack me up AB! The life of a boy in nature can’t be replaced by any other activity.
LikeLike
Thanks Diane. Spring is my favourite time of the year. Great start outdoors time without the unbearable summer heat.
LikeLike
Love…”burning off fuel”. It reminds me of what Wynne wrote today about Mr. D. and how much he benefits from physical activity before school drop off…sets his day off in a beautiful way. Love the photos of T…and your question, hmm…if a meltdown occurs in a forest…did it happen? Maybe…and maybe the goodness of nature absorbed some of the residual tension. Nature does that, I think. Hugs to all! xo! 🥰
LikeLike
Maybe if a tree falls, it’ll be cuz of a meltdown induced panic. 😆 But nature really is amazing and we’re so blessed with abundance of it in my area.
And I love seeing the parallels in our children’s journeys such as T and Mr D!
LikeLike
You’re funny! And I agree! 🥰
LikeLike
Glad that T loves being outside in nature. Any place that holds trees and sticks and dirt and all manner of crawling/walking/flying things is an amazing place to be.
I laughed at the video, then felt so very inadequate as T bounded up those steps. I can’t remember when I had that much energy, or the ability not to trip and fall flat 😉
LikeLike
Thanks Deb. We’re so blessed with nature in our area and I don’t take it for granted.
I hear you on the stairs. I can start to feel the strain on me compared to a few years ago!
LikeLike
Oh I love these pics Ab. The park looks amazing. Love how it’s so wide open, lots of places for kids — young and old — to roam free. Yes, the bear signs can be a little unsettling but glad it was fun.
LikeLike
Thanks Brian. We’re so blessed with abundance of nature in our area and this federally government run park is a beauty indeed, bear signs and all!
LikeLike
Hilarious!
I love the rhythm of these sentences, “Trees, branches, sticks and twigs. Sand, mud, water, rocks and pebbles.”
Nature is so amazing. Love hearing your adventures – and how it’s (mostly) good for you both. No bear snacks today!
LikeLike
Thanks Wynne. The natural poetry and rhythms in nature are the best. I was quite taken by the woodpeckers on this outing.
Hope you three enjoy your first full week of school again! We have the school day off today in recognition of the solar eclipse event.
LikeLike
You must be in the path. How fun! Miss O is on Spring break this week and Cooper is getting neutered tomorrow. So it’s a bit of a mixed bag this week. 🙂
Enjoy the eclipse! Please sing Total Eclipse of the Heart or something and embarrass T. 🙂
LikeLike
Enjoy the Spring Break and glad that you are taking preventative measures from unexpected grandpups!
LikeLike
Amazing outing and it’s nice to see T in his element again. I love Rouge Park. I did a lot of archaeological work there and I also took part in the handover to the Feds mainly by supplying them with the history and archaeology of the park. It was fun. I loved going for walks after they took over and started adding their components to the park. I live too far now, but I am happy to see that they are adding more. I am pretty sure that the bear signs are new!
LikeLike
That’s very cool, Margie. Thanks for your contributions to the park. It really is an urban oasis and treasure.
I hadn’t been at the park since 2021 and it was nice they built the boardwalk and bridge. Saves us a huge chunk to time to go directly to the trails from the parking lot.
And yes, the bear sign is new. Hope to never see a bear up close in person unless I’m in a car with the family. 😊🙏
LikeLike
Nature is healing, indeed. It’s great that you have such a nice green space not far from where you live. It’s always encouraging to read about how more and more city leaders realize the importance of nature parks for their citizens. After all, happy people make a great city. It’s funny how you ‘threatened’ T with peace and quiet you would get.
LikeLike
Thanks Bama. We are very lucky to have an abundance of outdoor urban spaces and that nice rural outdoor spaces are not a terribly long drive away. Happy people make a great city indeed!
LikeLike
Nature is music to our FASD Ears, that is for sure!
LikeLike
Thank you Rebecca. I agree. T is in his element in the outdoors and I’m thankful that the days are getting nice so we can hang outside again.
LikeLike
Love this. Nature is music to the ears! I have been commenting on your posts but they are not posting lol. Something with my phone. I love that T loves nature so much. Definitely helps to regulate him it seems.
LikeLike
Thank you, Rebecca. WordPress has been finicky lately as I’m having the same problem with other people’s blogs. Hopefully they fix the bugs soon. 😊
LikeLike
I pray I get to hang out with you guys one day!!
LikeLike
That would be fun! 🙏
LikeLike