Berry Bribes

I've been weakly trying to potty train Romy.  I mean "weakly" because I'm not fully committing, following her around and asking her every five seconds if she has to pee or poo.  I've been told it's best to do it during the summer, when she can walk around bottomless and not freeze, well, her butt off.  But I am sort of tired of the diaper game, and she's over 30 pounds now which gets very heavy when you have to lift her to the changing table.  So my thing is bribes.  Many have suggested an M&M after she makes on the toilet, but the problem I foresee with that is by the time she makes it to the potty, all of her M&Ms will be in my stomach. 

Instead of food, I went into my stash of weird items from my childhood.  I originally tried to reward her with this:

One of my Barbies from my attempt at Barbie collecting as a teen.  This is Rollerblading Barbie.  She is wearing a fanny pack.

Romy is holding the box.  Note how the rollerblades have awesome sparking action.

This is Barbie and all her rollerblading pals.  Fanny packs, one and all.

I am annoyed this is turned.  The original photo wasn't, so, blah.  But here are the skates, excuse me, blades, with their sparking instructions.

Another non-originally turned pic.  And here's the caution: Use outdoors.  Do not use on furniture or smooth surfaces.  Another warning somewhere notes that they can damage flooring.  #1. Who plays Barbie outside? #2. WTF?

I'd like to throw the blades out, but I'm afraid they'll set my garbage on fire. 

Instead of a giant Barbie every time a pee was made, I decided to move on to smaller bribes.  Up until recently (until I ran out), Romy was rewarded with one of my old Strawberry Shortcake minis from the early 80s.  I was never a hoarder, but I have a small collection of my old toys, including a bag of twenty or so Strawberry Shortcake and friends (and they still smell!).  Here is a sampling:

I had a hard time remembering their names, but I found this thorough site on the subject.  In fact, according to this site, I had some minis worth $15!

We have now moved on to a cheap, easy, compact potty wall chart with funny star stickers.  But believe you me, I have plenty of oddball toys waiting in the wings.  My daughter is probably the only two year-old who knows who Bender, Calculon, Cornelius (of Planet of the Apes), Hellboy (who she refers to as "cowboy"), and Hank Hill are, at least in action figure form.  I knew we collected all that stuff for a reason.