Day 155: Potty training and hiking

Suddenly time has sped up and we have less than a month left. So many things I still want to see and do. There are four main peaks around Canmore, and I want to climb all four before we leave.

Lady Macdonald is the impressive peak which dominates the vista from our deck. She definitely won't be the first of the four.

We started with a trip to Grassi lakes, which after a pretty steep climb, were stunning. Overshadowed by Ha Ling, one of the actual peaks, they are a real tourist atraction. We met several groups of walkers, a nun, two volunteers studying a bear (which we saw through their telescope), and watched a small child pitch forward head first into the lake, in a comedy fashion.

Obviously we were allowed to laugh, as parents who had suffered already that day. Charlie has decided she would like to not wear nappies some of the time, but is not entirely on board with potty training. Last week I found her straining in the front room, completely naked from the waist down, so in true positive parenting fashion, swept her up with a cry of; "let's use the potty!" as she left a trail of large rabbit sized droppings in her wake. All whilst trying to maintain the isn't this all perfectly normal toilet etiquette.

I managed to install her on the potty before returning to the scene of the crime and started gathering the debris. At which point, she shouted she was done, and as she had finshed, needed wiping and her three chocolate stars (we are using the bribery route). I abandoned the mission in order to help her, only to be interrupted by a shout from the front room, by my mother-in-law of; "there's another one here!" Unsurprisingly, my rather terse retort, through gritted teeth, was that Charlie was my first priority, rather polite for the circmstances, I feel.

Still, we have battled on, the morning of Grassi Lake expedition, we had two positive potty experiences (5 stars, despite my husband's disappointment that his meditation time is now disturbed with shrieks of pleasure at bodily functions, a running commentary and comparisons). So I decide to allow the trip with no nappy.

We arrived, played by the reservoir and picnicked with no disasters. However, as the tourist loos are little more than toilet bowls over holes in the ground, my fear of dropping her in lead me to suggest she could squat in the woods. Her answer was no. Unfortunately, my wordy attempts to persuade her were rather too effective, and she did it there and then, filling her wellies to overflowing.

The next hikes will definitely be adult affairs I feel.