Potty training Harper has been… a battle I was not winning. She’s smart, she’s verbal, she gets it, and she flat-out refuses. Her official title? “The Big Girl Baby.”

We’ve tried everything: stickers, toys, treats, even the promise of a beach house trip. Nope. She just looks me dead in the eye and says, “I’m not ready.”

But lately, Harper’s been on a new mission. She wants to be everyone’s best friend. She’ll ask, “Do you love me? Are you my friend?” about fifty times a day. Lynnlee is done with this interrogation, rolling her eyes every time Harper repeats the question.

That’s when it clicked, this kid runs on love languages. Stickers aren’t it. Toys aren’t it. Love is the motivator.

So today I asked her, “Want to be Mommy’s potty best friend?”

And just like that, we had a breakthrough. We went together all day, cheering each other on. There were a couple of successes and a couple of not-so-successes, but Harper beamed every time we were “best friends” on the potty.

Today I learned that even toddlers have love languages and sometimes, that’s the key to cracking the code.

Update… I was up late getting the Christmas book ready for release on October 7th and Harper finally peed!!