adventures in potty training

oh, potty training.

i hear these stories about people that potty-train their kids in a day.

that was NOT my experience.

i decided to potty-train jackson & bella at the same time, 

a few months before charlotte was born.

(hello baby cuteness!)

that took about 4 months.  

no joke.

they were finally both in underwear the week charlotte was born.

we've been daytime-diaper-free for awhile now

(minus charlotte, of course)

but have been in pull-ups at night.

we have tried incentives, encouragement, etc.

but none of it worked.

we were at costco the other day spending a fufillion dollars 

on charlotte's diapers, wipes, and 2 sets of big kid pull-ups 

(seriously... over $125)

and we said no more.

i'd rather buy pretty much anything than diapers with my money.

(i mean... you are literally just peeing your money away.....)

so now is the time.

cold turkey.

good-bye pull-ups.

i have told you how much i abhor making the top bunk.

so the idea of middle-of-the-night wet sheets gave me the shudders.

then a friend gave me this idea!

that's right... piddle pads!

made for dogs, but perfect for nighttime kid accidents.

so we took the money we would have spent on a month's worth of pull-ups and bought piddle pads along with big incentives for each kiddo.

they got to pick whatever they wanted.

at first bella chose a $150 princess kitchen.

mkay....not anything you want.

so she chose this:

(really?  anything you want and you choose kung fu panda?  okay...)

jackson was easy.

go to the CARS aisle.

we put them on a shelf right next to their door so they see them ALL day long.

they REALLY want those toys.

the first night (saturday) i explained what was happening and what we expected from them.

we gave them lots of encouragement and took them to the potty right before bedtime.

bella wasn't a huge fan of the piddle pad, but she (finally) went with it.

jeff got home late that night, and we carried our sleeping children to the potties for one last try.

that was hilarious.

but they did it.

i went to bed waiting to be awoken by a pee-soaked crying child.

but i wasn't!

bella woke up at 5:30 to use the bathroom, waking up jackson in the process.

(and was subsequently awake for the day.  definite downside of all this....)

first night = success!

we celebrated big and shared a bag of skittles.

last night, they did it again!

whoo-hoo!

i bought little whiteboards in the dollar aisle to put next to their beds to keep tally.

after 7 straight nights of dry pants, they get their prize.

they are doing SO good and i am SO proud of them.

and hoping they make it all 7 nights.

(cause i still don't want to clean wet sheets at any time of the night).

 charlotte is already telling me 'i poo poo!'... so i know her time is just right around the corner.

imagine me... diaper free!

sounds so fun, and so sad, all at the same time.

but for now... pull-up free just sounds good.