Potty training - the final frontier

And so it begins. I've got the little potty and the one that fits on the big potty. I've got pull-ups, training underwear, big kid Dora underwear and vinyl underwear covers. My rewards include stickers, high fives and mini M&M's. I've got a training video for girls that includes the song "Bye, Bye Pee, pee. Bye, Bye Poo" with complementing book and doll with little potty that matches the video. My arsenal is full - if only she'd cooperate! We actually made some big strides in the couple weeks we started this and considering we've been extremely busy. Being very impatient by nature, I was going to give up the whole thing but we've turned a corner and now she wants to go on the big potty, has control of her bladder and has kept pretty dry all day. I realize this may go on for awhile with little improvement but I'm hopeful! She's very independent by nature and so this may work in my benefit with the potty "learning" as they now refer to it.

July trip to Calgary

We did a lot of things on our trip to Calgary this year but for some reason I didn't take very many pictures. Our main reason for going was, of course, to see Wayne's family as they all live there now. But it's such a fun city to visit and there is so much to do that it's hard to get it all into a week. We tried! We made a visit to the children's science museum, spent a day at the zoo which is fantastic by the way. We went for a hike in the mountains which rewarded us with this lovely waterfall you see pictured here on the left. We walked around Banff, the cousins played. The weather was typical Calgary - changes at the drop of a coin and plays with your head. One day sunny and 30C and the next it's hailing so much you have to shovel. We got a ride with Jake and Fran in their massive motorhome out to the lake where the family will be building a cottage to enjoy in the near future. We spent two nights with Wayne's brother Jeff and sisterinlaw Steph and four girls. Got a chance to meet the new pastors and their families in the area and had a fun cookout at the beach with them. We really appreciated this fellowship with fellow called workers in Canada and were grateful it worked out that we could be a part of this get together.
Here Zanna is playing in the water at the children's science museum.
We had a fun time in Calgary although maybe not very relaxing but it's great for the cousins to play together (there are 9 on that side now) and it's really neat to see their friendships developing. And as always is the case among this family, it's never a dull moment, often amusing and this trip was no exception!
Brent and Chantal and kids are in the process of moving to Texas for a few years so we most likely won't see them for awhile. Maybe the kids will develop a bit of a drawl - haha!