I know it seems like I've taken a break lately, but that is far from the truth. Life has just been chaotic.

We still haven't painted the doors, or the laundry room, or the three pieces of trim in the kitchen yet. It seems we're falling a bit behind.

We have, however, taken care of some of the important stuff, like having a dinner party to celebrate the almost finished kitchen (and to mark the end of the Battlestar Gallactica season on the sci-fi channel -- I know there's still Friday's episode, but you don't have a friend who's a reviewer and gets preview copies :P).

I've been out of town at a business conference, and we've been working really hard at potty training Gabe.

I've learned a few things during the potty training process.
1. My kid is stubborn (hmmm... I wonder where he gets that.)
2. He's a very good negotiator
3. It isn't going to happen until he's ready

It's amazing and a bit humbling how you see bits and pieces of yourself show through your child's personality. Good and bad. Take the stubborness trait.

Every morning we wake Gabe up, which he isn't too happy about in the first place (this sounds familiar, too). We tell him it's time to get up and go potty.

He sits up, promptly says, "No, I don't want to," and covers himself head to toe with the comforter.

I pick him up while he's yelling and screaming, "I can't! I don't want to! No potty!" all the while knowing he's going to have to.

We get him in the bathroom, pull down his pants and get him to sit down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

When we first started, we tried to persuade him with chocolate. Hershy's kisses and miniatures apparently just weren't worth the effort.

The first time he went potty, we had a celebration of sorts with lots of laughing and cheering and hugs and kisses. We then presented him with his prize, to which he promptly replied, "Is that all?" with the saddest look of disappointment on his face. He ate his chocolate and moped slowly off to his room to get dressed.

Eric and I were crushed. After all this is a big milestone. So, we decided we needed to get better prizes. Now, he gets Thomas the Tank Engine trains and tiny plastic superhero action figures... but only in the mornings. He gets chocolate the rest of the day.

So far he's gotten, Jack, Alphie, Toby, and Salty from the Thomas line and Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman action figures. There were a few days we got away with no prizes. Until he realized what we were doing and started asking for them. We didn't want to disappoint him and suffer a setback.

This has been going on for about three weeks. He's been really good about going potty in the mornings at home, but not so good at day care with Rosie. Then, on Tuesday, he went three times at Rosie's. It was a good day.

Then there was yesterday. Rosie decided to bite the bullet and put him in underwear most of the day. He went potty four times and only had one accident. (Thank you Rosie!) He was really excited about the underwear.

So, when I got home last night, we all piled into the car and headed to Target to buy underwear. He picked out Thomas the Tank Engine ones and Spiderman ones. We also got him some talking Spiderman sandals ... as a prize.

So, this morning, he's off at day care, wearing his prized underwear, and we had no accidents on the way.

It's a very good day.