Potty Training: The Tools We've Used Thus Far

• BabyBjorn Potty Chair--We have one in pink and one in blue.  And they follow us from room to room, upstairs and down.  They are even going on an errand with us this morning and will continue to travel with us for awhile.
• Once Upon a Potty--The boy edition and the girl edition.  A dear friend let us borrow her girl edition (Thanks, A & G!) and we began reading this book to I&K roughly one week before we started potty training.  We would just substitute Prudence's name with "Peter" when reading to Isaac...until Jonathan and I decided it just made sense for Kathryn to have her own copy and Isaac to have his own copy.  We would place them on their potties and read it the week prior to training.  Now that we are training, we only read it to them when they are sitting on their potties to shoo shoo.  (Please note: The book is quite descriptive and has pictures of pee pee and shoo shoo, but I think this has helped our two with their training.)
• BabyBjorn Potty Trainer and Stool--Back when Isaac and Kathryn told us they needed to shoo shoo (should have capitalized on that but that's hindsight), they liked sitting on the big potty.  We used this to help them feel secure.  The stool we use to wash hands and brush teeth.  When we transition to using the big potty, we will probably buy a second potty trainer and stool to keep upstairs. 
• Snap-EZ Eco AIO Trainers and Eco Stuffable Trainers--This company no longer makes toddler sized training products, but now makes children/youth/adult products.  I bought some of my trainer stash from a fellow UMOM and the rest I bought discounted before the company stopped selling toddler sizes.  What I love the most about these trainers are the snaps along each side.  If the kids happen to have a shoo shoo accident, we can very easily remove the pants by unsnapping the sides.   Plus, unlike Pull-Ups, when I&K wet...they feel it.  And unlike Gerber trainers, accidents don't require a complete outfit change.   
• Fisher Price Precious Planet Potty--This potty is our travel potty and lives in the back of our Expedition (along with a roll of toilet tissue).  At the moment when one asks to sit on the potty, the other wants to sit too.  So to keep accidents to a minimum, I carry both BabyBjorn potties when we leave the house.  Once Isaac and Kathryn are better at tell us when they need to go (and it doesn't seem to be simultaneous), we will simply carry the frog potty.  I purposely purchased the green potty as it was gender neutral. 
• Pottywise for Toddlers--I used a modified Babywise approach with I&K when they were infants to help with scheduling and sleep training so naturally I picked up a copy of their potty training book to use as a reference.  Although our potty training started with the bare bottom method, I think Pottywise has some good pointers on how to transition to teaching your child how to stay "clean and dry". 

Although these items have worked well for us thus far, my intent in sharing them is to only provide ideas on the wealth of potty training tools available to parents today.  I firmly believe when teaching a child something new, the parent needs to evaluate and determine what he/she believes will work best for his/her child and use that approach.  Each child is different and we should never believe that what works for one will automatically work for another!