You can lead a toddler to a toilet...

...but you can't make her use it until she really wants to. Like every other developmental milestone she has embarked upon, Sophie would not be potty-trained until SHE decided it was time. We went through this with crawling, walking, self-feeding, EVERYTHING! The girl is smart. She is a fast learner. But, boy is she strong-willed. (I wonder where she gets it from?) We had been working on potty-training for the past year. Each time someone had a suggestion for us, my response was, "Thanks! We've actually tried that. She knows exactly what to do and how to do it, she just doesn't WANT to do it yet. When she decides to, she will." This past Friday night she decided it was time. I still don't even know how it happened- it was that quick. One second she was playing, the next she was sitting on the potty going. There was no turning back after that. We've had four successful days now with just a couple of accidents (which were my fault for taking my eyes off of her for one second). Here is our potty training experience in pictures:

This is Sophie a year ago, sitting on her new Elmo potty. She is very excited about sitting on a potty (and getting stickers), but has no interest in actually using it:

This is back in the summer when we bought her underwear. Again, very excited about wearing undies, but when she needed to use the bathroom she would cry hysterically, pleading for a diaper to go in instead of going on the toilet.

The products of yesterday's trip to Target now that Sophie has decided to start using the toilet regularly- new Ariel undies (Elmo was so last year), pull-ups for night time, a second potty seat for the downstairs bathroom, M&M's for rewarding successful potty trips, a princess tea set from Nana and Poppa because WE ARE ALL SO PROUD!!!, and resolve for the inevitable accidents:

We are on a roll here, people, on a roll!