Daddy's convinced that Ben's noodle must be fried with all the growing that is happening inside it these past few months. In fact, he is so busy planning, reenacting, and talking about the events of the day that it has been almost impossible for him to nap the past few weeks (and that makes everyone cranky!).

Today Ben before falling asleep recounted our trip to Happy Hollow park and Zoo "Daddy. Cows. Wet. Nose. Yuck. Ride. More. Car. Mommy. Daddy." Almost once a day, he also recounts his favorite activity (riding the train at the zoo) "Train. Zoo. Tunnel. Bubbles." (The train goes around twice, and the second time through bubbles! pour down on the kids. Ben was quite disappointed the dragon train at Happy Hollow didn't go twice around today, like the SF train.

After spending an overnight with Tyler & Lexie, Ben is also now quite obsessed with going on the potty. Jeff and I are realizing we may have to give in and help him get potty-trained in no short order (he's already quite happy with his poos that look like "snakes!"). This excitement, together with the vigorous and lengthy sessions of handwashing that follow, have also made settling down for naps quite a challenge.

Last week we moved Ben into his own "big boy bed" a toddler bed he helped pick out since he was jumping out of his crib and going "boom". In fact, he was so adept at it that he could scale out in less than 15 seconds and won a battle of wills over a 2 1/2 hour period with mom to try to get him to stay in the crib.

Today when he was talking to Grandpa Big Cheese we asked Ben to tell Grandpa about the big boy bed - he promptly said "Big Boy Bed!" into the phone and then ran with the phone to his room to "show" grandpa. He's already figured out how to show things to the camera on Skype (not the monitor, the camera itself...).

Next week our little baby turns two, hard to believe....