And now I'm having potty-training fantasies

So, in the non-news department, Max continues to be obsessed with all things purple, which is going on two years now. He will only eat blueberry yogurt and color in purple, although he no longer insists on keeping a gigantic purple bowl on the kitchen table or only wearing purple tops. He is also off spaghetti, and only wants ziti with sauce.

His latest other obsession: Cars 2. Not Cars, the original movie. Oh, no. Cars 2. "Arrrrs ooooh!" as he likes to say. Max now refers to himself now as Cars 2 Max, which is perhaps less catchy than Purple Max but does roll off the tongue more easily than Max Eats Spaghetti Sauce and Purple Car Wash Spaghetti Max. Once again, it is a good thing I never did legally change his name.

Over the weekend, Max and I sat down together in front of the computer because I wanted to get him Cars bedding for his birthday. We scrolled through all the possibilities. "Noooooooo!" he'd say whenever the regular Cars bedding popped up. I think he's taking bossy lessons from Sabrina. Anyway, we found some Cars TWO bedding and lucky for me, Party City had Cars 2 stuff for his birthday party on Saturday.

I did get the Cars 2 DVD the very day it came out, with the full intent of using it as bribery for potty training. Max hung out on the potty and watched a few scenes from Cars 2 on Day 1. After that, no go. In other ways, Max likes to be independent—he doesn't want me hanging around when other kids come over to play. But he has no problem with Pull-ups and refuses to listen to logical reasoning such as "Max! You're a big boy, and big boys pee in the potty!" and "Max, you don't want to go to college in Pull-Ups, do you? Because girls won't find that very sexy."

At the present time, the Cars 2 DVD (in its case) is taped to Max's bedroom door. Sabrina helped him put it up there, which is where he likes it and where it is not the least bit handy for potty training. And yes, I know, those circus-y letters spelling "M-A-X" have got to go only ripping them off would entail repainting the door and I am entirely too lazy to do that.

Remember how Ed McMahon would show up unannounced at people's doors to tell them they'd won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes? Like, it would be so cool if Lightning McQueen rang our doorbell to greet Max and tell him he needed to go potty and that he would get a million dollars if he did. And, yes, I have been reduced to potty-training fantasies. Meanwhile, I'll be buying a second Cars 2 DVD to put into the portable DVD player for our bathroom, so Max can keep the other one as door decor.

If any of you want to dress up as Lightning McQueen and show up at our house and give Max a million dollars for going potty, please do let me know.