No Longer on the Potty Train - Yay!

We boarded the Potty Train several months ago but we have finally reached our destination!

I was convinced long ago that Aubrey was totally capable of using the toilet and that she understood how to do it. She just didn't necessarily want to do it. I didn't stress about it since she wasn't even two years old yet, but I was getting tired of cleaning out her underwear since I did not allow her to wear diapers.

I started training her the same way I did with Owen. I made a sticker chart. And if you look at the above pictures you can see what she did with that sticker chart. It was not an incentive for her! She just tore it off the door and ripped it up.

In the very beginning she would even let herself outside on the patio, drop her pants and go. If she was a dog this would have pleased me.

She would go a whole day without an accident only to have half a dozen accidents the next day. Talk about maddening!

So why now does she decide to go? Well, it's actually quite simple. An elderly man at our church was sneaking smarties to Aubrey and she loved them. So I decided that she could have two of these tiny little candies every time she went potty. And what do you know . . . all of the sudden she "got it." Of course I believe she "got it" long ago I just had to find the right thing to motivate her! The beautiful thing about it is that she started to forget about the candy and instead asked if she could wear the "pretty panties" I bought her months ago. Because I couldn't trust her I was only allowing her to wear the thick cotton training underwear. Well after going an entire week without a single accident, I had to put her in the thick cotton underwear because I had some major laundry to do. All of the sudden she had two accidents right away. I couldn't believe it! By the second accident I had her pretty panties (as she calls them) washed and dried and gave her a pair to put on. As she put them on she said to herself, "I keep my pretty ones clean and dry." And she hasn't had an accident since - because I haven't given her anything but her pretty panties to wear ever since. What a stinker! She's been playing me this whole time.

In any case, she just turned two and I think it's safe to say that we have exited the potty train . . . until it's time for Evelyn to climb aboard.