it’s safe to say that ms. payton is officially potty trained. we have been down a long road of “training” and when i say that i mean we started right around 18-months, she was doing great and then the lil bro arrived. she wanted to be in diapers like her brother, and honestly, who blames her?  my goal for her to be potty trained was my birthday but instead i got it as an anniversary gift.

for us, waiting until she was ready was the key. luckily, her best friend, charlie, just finished potty training a few months ago so she wanted to be like him. the night before we started we took a trip to target to let her pick out the panties she wanted, a package of (princess) tangled. we already had about ten pair at home so adding this large package gave us enough stock to get through accidents. she was so excited to have her own special underwear. the key to potty training is to make sure your child feels special and important. here is what we did to ensure this training stuck forever:

– let your child pick out their own underwear. i had purchased a few packs and she was interested in them for a bit but her picking them out made it more fun.

– payton was over her training potty (we had the ducky potty by fischer price that would sing “woo-hoo!” and then a chime after going. it was great but she out grew it while we tried over the past year) so we got the child seat for our regular toilet. this step made her bathroom seem like her big girl potty. i recommend this.

– create a potty rewards jar. i asked payton what type of candy she wanted in her special potty jar and she chose m&m’s. i bought two large bags of m&m’s and a glass jar from target. we also picked up some dum-dum lollipops.

– one package of pull-ups. i clearly indicated to her that these were only allowed for nap and nighttime. stick to this.

once we had all this ready it was monday and we started our morning as usual, except i took her diaper off forever and we headed to the potty. she went pee-pee and then chose her undies for the day. after breakfast i waited ten minutes and then started asking if she had to go. for the first few times i had to make her go to get used to it. when she would go i would scream, give her a high-five, we would call daddy and she would run to her potty jar to pick out two m&m’s. the first day seems like all your doing is asking, “do you have to go potty?” day two we had a few accidents but it’s going to happen. don’t get mad at them. day three we were out and about. we got to target and headed straight into the bathroom, success! we made it through the store and then met a friend for lunch and she told me she had to go, success again. as each day passed it seemed to get easier. we had created a routine including funny sayings to get the pee-pee to come out. this was exceptionally helpful when she was fighting going. during the week she made a comment that the pee-pee was in her booty so i played off of that and when she was sitting down i would say, pee-pee, where are you? and payton would laugh and say, “it’s in my booty mommy!” well, come out, come out! and as soon as that was finished it would and she would scream with excitement. i truly believe that the reason it worked this time was the excitement. her cousins were cheering her on, which is huge because all she does is talk about them.

the ultimate reward for going both #1 and #2 in the potty is a solo trip to disneyland. my nieces and nephew had the same thing so we are continuing this with payton. it adds to excitement and ultimately more bribing. whatever works, works.

if you are out in public and the potty seems scary like it did to payton make it fun. i would ask her if she wanted me to go first. i wait for her to walk out of the stall before i flush the toilet because the sound was what was so scary. she loves seeing what type of soap they have (color, smell, foam vs. liquid) and the type of towels. it’s all a game.

if you recently potty trained what worked best for you?