Home at last and almost in tears

Our week away was great. the weather was slightly disappointing, our cabin was slightly disappointing and babe came home tired, whiney and full of beans but all in all it's still nice to get out of town for a while.

Since coming come I have been dreading the potty training that I have planned for Kaiya. Is she ready? What if she isn't, will this set her back even more? I was having nightmare about it. I have heard horror stories about trying to potty train and all I could think about was "oh god, this is going to be Kaiya." She is stubborn and no one can tell her what to do.

Well today is day one of potty training. How's it going? SHITTY! She is that child that you hear stories about. She has peed her pants 8 times, and pooped her pants once and not a drop in the potty since we started at 8:00 this morning. What a disaster.

I put her on the potty every 20 minutes (sometimes earlier). I feed her candy, chips, juice etc. all to entice her to stay there and pee. She is doing great at pulling her panties on and off and although we had a little hick up this morning where she didn't want to even sit on the potty, we are back to sitting there for about 5 minutes at a time. Still nothing. As soon as she walks away BAM! She pees. I am so frustrated!

I am about ready to throw in the towel. But I will stick it out till about Friday, if I haven't seen any progress then I will put it on the back burner for another month. Any suggestions?

Fun in the sun and potty training

I am beyond excited to go on holidays. I cannot wait to sit by the lake with a lemonade in hand while watching Kaiya throw sand. What I am not looking forward to is the 7 hour drive there, then the 7 hour drive back, yuck! I hope Kaiya is a good travellor, if not, I think I might have to bring some ear plugs.

After coming home from the lake Kaiya and I start the dreaded potty training. Am I pushing it too early? Is she ready? I cannot answer this question, nor do I think anyone can. It's hard to tell when your child really is ready. Some show signs, some don't. Some teach themselves, others need to be pushed. All I can do is try. Trial and error I guess.

I had a non parent ask me the other day how you go about potty training a child. All I could say is "I don't know, I guess I will find out." All I know is that I am excited to get Kaiya out of diapers, atleast during the day. Wish me luck! I may need all I can get. If you have any tips, I am open to them.

The weekend of campfires, Wicked, poop and sand

What an awesome weekend! I am exhausted and ready for another weekend to recuperate after this one, but it was well worth it.

Blair and I ended up double booking ourselves for this weekend about a month ago. Correction I ended up double booking myself.

We booked a campsite out a Sylvan lake for Friday and Saturday night not realizing that I had tickets with my mom and sister for Saturday night for the musical Wicked. I was not about to miss this maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to see it so we planned to camp together Friday, I drive home Saturday, see the musical, then drive back Sunday to go to the beach with Babe and Daddy. The campsite is about an hour and a half from our town so I didn't think it would be a big deal ( I was dreading it, but knew I could do it for Wicked).

Driving down on Friday was a sh*t show! We brought Nanook with us and we planned to have me drive home with him on Saturday and leave him home Sunday so we may all head to the beach (no doggies allowed remember). *Phew* that's a mouth full.

On the drive my two "children" fought the whole way! To me we might as well had two siblings back there because it was non stop bickering. Nanook was whining and barking because Kaiya was pulling his fur, Kaiya was whining and crying because Nanook was trying to lay on top of her. It was a MESS. I almost turned around and said, "stop it you two, or I am turning this car around right NOW!" but what good would that of done, neither of them would of understood what that meant.

Once at the campsite and set up Nanook was no better. he wanted off his leash to explore, but we all know Nanook. Also soon as you unclip him he is gone! So every 10 minutes or so I was hiking through the thick trees trying to untangle him, it was a disaster. If he wasn't tangled he was clothes lining us with his rope. If he was clothes lining us then he was whining because he wanted to get somewhere he just couldn't reach. needless to say, we will never take him again. Sorry buddy, you lost your camping privileges.

On Saturday the drive was uneventful, I ended up bringing home my sister in laws dog as well (they were experiencing the same frustrations with their pooch that we were) but the musical was AMAZING. the story line was changed a lot from the book, but it was still an amazing show. I highly recommend it. It had a lot of humour and special effects. The actors/singers were awesome and the story was great. 5 stars for sure!

Upon returning home at midnight I opened the door to find 2 excited puppies there to great him. A slight odor then hit my nostrils. Was this a smell of poop I can detect?! Flipping on the lights I was horrified and disappointed in the dogs to discover that someone sh*t on the carpet. Not just a little pile, but about 5. Oh doggies. I am not sure who it was but they both looked guilty. I would not be surprised of it had been both, one instigator and the other "oh thank goodness you pooped, I really have to go too."

Sunday, I left the dogs at home. Off to the beach! What a fun day. I made it back to the campsite in time to help Blair pack up and then we headed into Sylvan for a day of boat rides and sand.
Kaiya was thrilled to have a boat ride on Papa's boat. The water was choppy from all the other sea lovers (yes I realize it is just a lake) so the ride was very bouncy. Half way around the lake, with Kaiya on my lap, I began to feel something warm on my thighs. With Kaiya wearing a swim diaper, I figured it might of been a little pee. upon further inspection I realized that nope, it's not pee, it's poo. A lot of poop, all over my legs and my bathing suit and my shirt. Oh great. More F'in poop! dealing with dog sh*t wasn't enough, now I get sh*t on.

Back to the shore we go where babe is immediately passed of to Daddy and I take a nice long swim in the lake to wash off. YUCK!

All in all, I loved it. Can't wait for Kelowna next week.

Maid of the mist

So it only took me over a week to post my vacation pictures (lazy or busy... you make the call) but here is the last of them.

So on our last day in Niagara Falls Blair and I decided to ditch the babe with my parents and head to maid of the mist. I am so glad we did because it was a beautiful sight and an amazing experience. It really shouldn't be called Maid of the Mist though, it should be named "Maid of the you're going to get f'in drenched" because it was more of a down pour than a mist and it reminded me a lot of Mexico. We couldn't stop laughing.

Everyone loves Marine Land!

What's a trip down East without a visit to Marine Land. I have wanted to go here ever since I was small and I have to say that it was a little disappointing. More of an Amusement park than a "marine" land for sure. I expected aquarium after aquarium, animal and fish and invertebrates oh my, but what you get is one Orca, lots of Beluga's, a few dolphins, seals and one walrus. Ok and some fish in about 5 tanks. Very lame, but amazing to see the Orca in real life anyways. Oh and I got to pet a Beluga ( Kaiya was sleeping so I took her turn haha), very similar to a dolphin but more squishy (I guess it must have more blubber stored up for those arctic swims).

The Falls

What is a trip to Toronto without a stop in at one of the natural wonders of the world. We decided to take a few days and head down to Niagara Falls. It was amazing! Breathtakingly beautiful and surprisingly quieter than I thought it would be. I expected to hear nothing but roaring in my ears as we got closer. But we got to the very ledge of the falls and still I could hear everyone around me speaking normally. It was amazing. The size truly is over whelming and the mist is so refreshing on a hot day. If you are ever in the area, please stop and take a moment to reflect on how magnificent this world really is.

The US falls

The Horse Shoe falls

We really look like tourists here ha

Right at the ledge

The US falls at night. Very stunning!

That was one hell of a week!

We took off to Toronto for the week to attend my cousin's wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding, such a beautiful reception and the whole day was absolutely magical. They look so happy and in love. She was a beautiful bride and he was a handsome groom. This was the first time for Blair and I to meet the groom since it isn't always easy for us to go out there or for him to come out west. He is perfect for my cousin! He was everything I thought he would be and then some. What a marvelous couple!