Potty Training Success!!!

Almost two weeks ago we began our first venture into the potty training world. I have to say that this phase of parenting was certainly not my favorite, however, I'm glad we persevered because we officially have one child out of diapers! We decided to do the boot camp type of potty training. I really wanted to get it over with and did not want it to drag on for weeks or months. I read a lot, and just kind of took bits and pieces of what I found to use. The day before we started, Allie and I took a special trip to Target together. I let her pick out panties, and pull-ups and m&m's. We talked about it all day long that she was going to go in the big girl potty starting the next day, she was sooooo excited. Then when she woke up on Sunday, we went all around the house putting her diapers in a garbage bag to 'throw away'. We put panties on her and that was it. We told her she would get one m&m for pee and two m&m's for poo and everytime she went, we drew a heart on her hand (she loves stamps but since I didn't have one at home, I just drew a heart on her hand with a marker) Then came the rough part. I hate comparing my daughter to a dog but it was seriously like potty training a puppy. There were sooooo many accidents, big and small. But looking back, Allie has been going potty in her diaper for 2 1/4 years without even having to think about it, so obviously it takes some time for kids to even figure out that they have the capability to hold it. It took four days of taking her to the potty, going, not going, accidents, m&m's, washing panties, washing the floor, TONS of hearts, etc. But I'm so happy to report that after that fourth day, she has not had ONE accident!!! We have left the house several times and she was even out with my mom and Matt's mom yesterday for about 5 hours and just did great! She does wear a pull up ONLY for naps and at night but the past couple of days she has woken up completely dry so I may end the pull ups soon. We took away all of the rewards too simply because we didn't feel like she needed them any more and she did totally fine. I'm so proud of my grown up girl!!! I do look forward to the day where we are COMPLETELY rid of diapers...in about 5 years, Ugh!!! :)