Celebration!

We have been in a state of celebration for the last 2 weeks. 
It has been a very long, hard haul.  It has been filled with screaming, crying, cold showers, bribery, grounding, a couple of spankings, candy, rewards, and many, many tears.
Potty training is not for the weak of heart or faint of spirit.  There is a reason you wait until your child is ready and move on from there.  All of our kids were potty trained within a few weeks, maybe months of turning three.  All but Heidi.  Heidi, Heidi, Heidi.  Perfect, "the good child", Heidi.  But not with this.  She mastered peeing in the toilet rather quickly.  It was the messier and stinkier portion of using the facilities that bamboozled her.  And it wasn't that she didn't know how.  There were days at a time where she would make it to the toilet instead of sneaking off to her room.  There was enough incentive.  She got candy every time.  She got praise.  The mom of one of her friends promised her a trip to Bounce It Up if she did it for a week.  "My butt won't let me!" "My tummy says 'No!'" "I don't know!" "Are you going to spank me?"
ARGHHHHH!!!!!
Not excited about our annual pilgrimage to Idaho and Utah, I told her that if she didn't figure it out before the day we were supposed to go, she and I would have to stay home.  We would miss Grandmas and Grandpas and cousins.  We would miss Lagoon.  We would miss the ocean.  For once the litttle monkey did not call my bluff.  The morning we were leaving, she came down and quietly sat on the stairs.  (Note-- she'd pooped in her pants the night before and the night before and the night before)  Usually, she gets up and bounds around the house greeting the day.  There she sat, quiet as a mouse. 
I came over and talked to her.  "Are you really going to leave me home?" 
"Of course not, Hi-Shay".
"Okay.  I'll poop every time in the toilet." 
And she has.  Every single time-- some times even more than once per day.  Glory be!  The whole culdesac knows about it.  She proudly tells complete strangers in the store, "I can poop in the toilet now and I get to go to Bounce It Up."  She got the blue baby doll at Kings that she's been coveting since the last time we were in Weiser.  Today she and Bailey are bouncing joyfully. 
Life is good.  Cause for celebration!