Put your body on the potty

My daughter is a bright, happy 2 year 8 month old little girl. She can count to 10, sing her ABC's, and put her shoes on by herself. She knows more about the functions of our digital camera than my husband and I combined. She ALWAYS wants to do what the big kids are doing, and enjoys doing things for herself- putting her shoes on, taking pictures, getting the mail, unlocking the house when we get home...she's a "big kid" for sure.

If she can do all of this happily and successfully, why oh why doesn't she have the slightest interest in potty training? We've been at it for months. We've read all the books. We sent away for the Pamper's potty chart. The Dora "You're a Star!" potty crown. We have M&M's on hand at all times to reward her for being such a big girl. Our house turns into a ticker-tape parade every time she does use the potty. When it happens, she screams for everyone within earshot to come running, FAST. We all throw our hands in the air and congratulate her, and she gets a "special treat" from the kitchen as a reward.

Some days it happens every few hours, she stays relatively dry and our throats are hoarse by the end of the day from celebrating so much. Other days it doesn't happen at all. Not once. She shrieks protests at me for even suggesting that we try to go potty on the toilet.

I'll admit, we've done some things to set us back . We moved to a new town, into a new house, twice in a six month period. We followed some advice from a parent newsletter that turned out to be disastrous. One day I read something about putting the (rhymes with soup) from the diapers into the toilet to show your child how the process works. I highly recommend NOT following this advice, because now she thinks she can do her business in her diaper and follow through with the next step (heavy sigh). Major setback.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in a huge hurry for my baby to grow up. I'm just sick of diapers. And I know we shouldn't rush this, she'll get there in her own time...I was just kinda hoping that time would be now :-) We're putting this whole mess on the back burner for now, we'll dust it off and start again in a few weeks maybe.

In the meantime, it's diapers and wipes for us! The Dora crown will have to wait.

Anyone have any good tips or funny potty training stories to share?