Potty Training Boot Camp

I'm proud to say my almost 3 year old is potty trained!

Some of you have asked me (ok, maybe 2 people asked, but I want to document it either way) how we conquered the potty.

Well, first of all we waited until she seemed ready...she was MORE than ready.

Then...

 Stella and I had a potty date to walmart to gear up for the week at home in panties. She was very thorough while trying to pick the perfect potty seat. (we don't even use it anymore, but it made her more excited at first, so it was worth it)

 Then Stella picked out a treat she was rewarded with for peeing on the potty. Star Marshmellows did the trick.

 Loaded up. Notice she picked the princess seat. And yes, lots of juice. Stella normally just drinks water and milk but in an effort to get her "extra" hydrated so we could jump start the trips to the bathroom we loaded up on Cars Juice:)

 Of course we picked out the perfect panties...hehe.

 We had reading material just in case a little extra time on the potty was needed. Nothing like reading a little Bible to motivate you :)

And of course we had a BIG treat (ie: ice cream with gummy worms) when she had no accidents and FINALLY went #2.

Ok, so now you've seen all our supplies. This is what we did. I cleared off my calendar for an entire week and we decided to hunker down at home and play, pee, drink, pee, eat, pee,...you get the idea. I started the week by setting a timer EVERY 15 minutes and taking Stella to the potty. She HATED that! HATED it. She was excited to be in her panties,  but she didn't like go to the bathroom so often so I stretched it to 30 minutes...she didn't like that much better. So, pumping her full of juice and water she just started telling me she had to go and that was it. We were DONE with the timers and my constant nagging. Stella hasn't had one accident in the last month since we started this. Going #2 was a BIG struggle at first, but she's finally coming around. She wouldn't have accidents she just wouldn't go.

I realize potty training is different for every child and we waited LONG enough to toss the diapers. I'm glad we waited until she was ready because my strong will child could havemade this a wild ride.

So, there you go..that's how we did it. If you're entering this fun phase of "toddler-hood" GOOD LUCK!