*****BREAKING NEWS*****

I just got a call on my cell phone from Big...she's at Grandma's house while I'm working. The conversation went like this:

Big: Mama!! I go'd pee pee on da potty!!!!!

Me: WOW, Big!!! Good job!! You're so big!!

Big: *silence*

Me: You're getting to be such a big girl! I'm proud of you!!

Big: Mama! I go'd two pee pees and one poo poo!

Me: *giggling* Wow!

Then she promptly lost interest in talking to me and hung up on me. *shrug* So, yes...it's official. All of the grousing I've done over the last...umm, what's it been? A year now? Yes, the last year, seems to finally be tapering off. We are officially potty training, ladies and gentlemen...and with some significant success. Praise the LORD! This girl is a tough nut to crack!! Talk about stubborn! We tried stickers. We tried candy. We tried potty training books.* We tried praise, and singing, and special treats...in fact, you name it, we tried it. It's been a year people.** I was starting to wonder if she might be wearing diapers under her wedding gown someday!! Wanna know what bribe finally hit the jackpot? Princess underpants. I put them on her under a pull-up, so she gets to wear her fancy underpants (that I let her pick out) but we also don't have the huge wet carpet, pee pee on the leather couch mess that you get from going without the pull-up too soon...not that I'm speaking from experience or anything *ahem*. Genius, I tell you...pure genius.

*She did show some interest in the book "Time to PEE!" by Mo Willems. It has lots of funny little mice in it and mouse stickers at the end of the book for use on a potty chart or the like. I won't totally discount this book from playing just the teeniest part in her motivation.

**Please note that I did not pressure my daughter to potty train everyday, all day for an entire year. Even I, a first time potty trainer (Is that at all like a personal trainer? Wait, then where did these thighs come from? *sigh* Nevermind.) know that all that pressure does no good. We started at age 2...then, after no success in a week tried again at 2-1/2 for another week and took a break, and have periodically been trying since then when periods of interest seemed to spark within her. I have very little explanation as to why this time is the time...but I'm taking it, and I'm running, baby...faster than I've ever run before.