We just finished day 4 and I'm calling it a success! Here's what worked for us:
Day 1: Disaster. We pretty much just put underwear on her (Elmo undies that she picked out herself) and told her to let us know when she had to use the potty. We also tried to make sure we were putting her on the potty about once every hour. It was a complete disaster. At one point during the day, as I saw her standing in a puddle of pee with a brown nugget hanging out of the bottom of her underwear, I asked her if she went poo-poo and the response was "No mama, no poo-poo!" and then she proceeded to go play (I obviously intervened and cleaned her up, but the point is that it didn't bother her). I told Marc that I was ready to throw in the towel and he kept saying "Stay the course! It's only the first day!".
Day 2: We smartened up. We bought a timer and a bag of m&m's. The timer was set for every 30 minutes and she got 1 m&m for pee-pee and 2 for poo-poo. (I got a handful of m&m's for every time I had to clean up an accident) We had a few accidents, but she was definitely interested in the reward of "em, em!" as she calls them.
Day 3: Only one accident in the morning and she went #2 for the first time in the potty (I'm sure you can only imagine our excitement).
Day 4: One little accident in the morning, and when she realized that she dribbled she immediately said "Oh no! ELMO!!!" (because she was upset that her Elmo underwear got wet) and then ran to the bathroom as fast as she could and finished going on the potty. Today we went to the mall for a *quick* trip to the Apple store. Unfortunately, the store was packed and we had to wait a while. We were all distracted and lost track of time when Poppy came running up to me and said "Pee-pee mama! Pee-pee!". The nearest restroom was pretty far and she refused to let me carry her so I walked fast and she ran behind me all the way. Got to the bathroom and Elmo undies were still dry and she went on the potty. The whole drive home from the mall she kept saying "Elmo dry! Elmo dry all day!" She also let me know when we got home that she had to go. So you can definitely tell that something "clicked" today and she got the concept of the whole thing.
I would call that a success, wouldn't you? I'm so proud of her that she caught on so quickly- because as of day 1, I seriously did not think this was going to happen. And they say to try to stay home as much as possible during potty training, but we've been pretty busy so we've been out and about a lot and she still did good! (oh and for anyone thinking about starting potty training, you need to get the folding plastic potty seat for public restrooms - you just fold it up and keep it in your diaper bag) Wish us luck tomorrow!