Potty training my strong willed boy

Cooper is 3 1/2 years old. We've now been working on potty training for almost a full YEAR. yes, you read that right. Last February I was all gung-ho about it. We went and picked out big boy undies and a potty chair...Cooper's choice was a pink Minnie mouse design. BOY were we (I) excited!

fast forward 1 month. . Not only was Cooper NOT potty trained, but he could really care less where he pooped or peed. He didn't mind sitting in wet undies, pooped in pants or soggy socks.
So I admitted defeat and quietly put away all his big boy underwear and we went back to pull-ups. 2 more months went by and all of a sudden he started asking me if he could sit on the potty. I said no. He asked again and I said no again. I said NO alot. I'd learned a while back that reverse psychology works like a charm with my little man so the more I said no the more he wanted to sit on that dang potty. we did this for three weeks. One morning he asked me if he could go on the potty and I said YES! he was quite surprised but very eager and excited. That was a fun 2 days! Then he decided he was done with the potty and went back to taking care of business in his undies.

The following week we packed up our home of 10+ years and moved into a tiny apartment while our new home was being built. For the next four months Cooper and I butted heads about the potty. We finally got him to poop on the potty and after he realized that it wasn't going to kill him to do so he mastered it. So now it seemed that half the battle was won...if only he would pee on the potty!

We moved into our new home and the next four months flew by.  I put potty training on the back burner and Cooper seemed fine with that. Having a 5 pound soggy pull-up still doesn't bother him even though I tried intentionally to leave him in it a couple of times just so he would realize how uncomfortable it can be. My hubby kept giving me the "look" every night when he came home from work. He'd say "you know your eventually going to HAVE to try. You just have to make him sit on the potty every 15 minutes."
After a few weeks of these conversations his comments turned to "I guess I will just have to take a few days off to potty train him myself" (I secretly hoped he would!) 

I know, I know, I'm the parent and Cooper's the child...blah blah blah. Over the past year his lack of interest, his strong will and stubbornness and his defiance of the potty had pretty much defeated me.He would defiantly tell me that he just didn't care. He said he liked to pee his pants.
We kept trying to find something to use as motivation like a new toy but that wasn't working either.  Then for Christmas our Elf on the Shelf fixed our Wii as his parting gift (it had been broken for about 6 months) and Cooper's obsession with Skylander's was born. We knew he liked it before but all of a sudden we could see just how mesmerized he was by the video game, the giant skylander's poster that comes with the starter kit and the new inter changeable figures.  within a week or two he knew all the figures by name and would spend hours every day looking at the poster and telling me all about each character. I even got a fifteen minute video of him on my phone telling me in detail about each guy and what his special abilities are.
One day Clayton said to me, "this is it. This is the one thing that will get him peeing on the potty."  He sat down with Cooper and asked him to point out his favorite Skylander that he didn't own. Then he told Cooper that if he peed in the potty we would buy it for him. We finally had his attention but after a couple of days I could see that this wasn't enough motivation either so I took it one step further. I took away the Wii. I took away the skylanders figures and I folded the poster up and put it in a drawer.  I told him "these things are for boys who go on the potty and wear big boy undies."
He was pretty upset but I gave him the rest of the night to think about it. I wanted him to finally use the strong will for something good!!  The next morning we pulled out our long forgotten stash of underwear and said goodbye to pull-ups.
That was three days ago. Cooper has done fantastic! He's asked me if he can look at the Skylanders poster a couple of times but each time I've reminded him that as soon as he is potty trained he can have it. We've also talked in length about the new character he is going to get very soon. we've only had one accident at home and he's really proud of that. Today as he was skipping out of the bathroom holding my hand he looked up at me and said "I'm going to earn my Skylanders in no time at all!" 

I don't doubt you will little buddy. :)