No More Diapers

We have bought diapers or pull-ups nonstop since August 10, 2011.  Luckily our kids ages are spaced apart so that we didn't have an extended period of time where we had two kids in diapers.  But as soon as Kate was out of them, we welcomed Karsten into our family, so there was never a time where we didn't buy any diapers.  We have made it a solid six years, 5 months and a couple of days of buying diapers.

But NO MORE!  We are officially diaper and pull-up free in this household.

And all the people said "Amen".

After a full year of trying to get to this point, Karsten is potty trained!!

I'll be honest. Potty training has probably been the hardest parenting task to date, and either Kevin and I are just no good at it (entirely possible) or our kids are just super stubborn (also entirely possible).  We tried charts, we tried positive reinforcement, we tried the whole three-day method... you name it, we tried it.  Karsten just didn't care. But I finally figured it out!

For the sake of full disclosure, we tried bribing multiple times over the past year. We THOUGHT we had really good bribes too! We offered a trip to ChuckECheese, or to Carowinds. We offered candy, treats, and other goodies. While she was excited about those things, they apparently just didn't offer enough motivation for her to follow through. 

Then a few weeks ago, we were at the dinner table and I was talking to Kate about her behavior at school, which has been overall great but I wanted to give her an incentive/reward.  I told her if she went a whole month without negative consequences at school, I would take her to get her nails done.  Well Karsten heard this and quickly (and loudly) piped up with "I WANT MYYYYYY NAILS DONE."

And so, the ultimate potty training bribe was born.  And you guys, IT WORKED! Like immediately. Since that day, we have had one accident and that was it.  Praise the Lord!

The deal was that she could get her nails painted after 5 days, so exactly 5 days later we were off to the nail salon with one excited little girl!

 Pink with white polka dots, as requested. Best $12 ever spent. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this a year ago!