Ben is getting better at talking about his feelings - though he is still in the turbulent twos of lots of up and down feelings. Tonight he said. "I still mad. I go sit in brown chair and cry."

He is pretty obsessed with Richard Scary books - including "Daddy's old book" [the unabriged version of What People Do All Day that Daddy bought on ebay]. The power plant with all the turbines, the water wheels and grindstones are particular favorites. Ben was really patient tonight while I was putting Alex to sleep and showed me when I came downstairs that the cargo on the back of the train was the same as the cargo on the back of the tractor trailer on another page. Very observant!

But anyone who's known Ben for long knows that he has his Daddy's super memory. Today Teacher Kim told me that Ben still remembers which pumpkin is his (picked out two weeks ago). Neither of us were surprised - Ben remembers everything! Especially promises for ice cream...

We hosted Ben's 3rd and Alex's 1st annual Halloween party at our house today, and it got a bit "Mad Maxish" (Daddy's words) on the patio as 10 toddlers ran about with their costumes on. Ben loved wearing his lion costume that Grandma Zannah made him - in fact he's worn it everyday since it came in the mail last week = the tail with the bell is a particular favorite. The next morning Ben opened his play oven to find a slice of pizza and three sweet potato fries. Hilarious!

Uncle Sly Dog won Uncle of the Year award again today, as he got up at 6:00 am and proceeded to 1) take Ben by self to bagel store 2) accompany Ben to grocery store and bathroom! 3) walk Ben to playground 4) crumple in the chair in exhaustion 5) revive to prepare food for party 6) reign in all mad max children 7) clean up. Thanks Sly Dog!!

Last Thursday the whole family went downtown to celebrate "Light up the Night" in honor of our friend and Jeff's employee, Minna, who passed away two years ago. Ben was pretty pleased with the balloons that lit up, and impressed all the other Clickability folks by pointing out "Lights on Bay Bridge!" as we walked beneath it. But the true highlight was waving his 3 glowsticks around while riding atop Norm's (Sean's) shoulder's for most of the walk back. "I awake, I no go night-night?" he asked incredulously as it was clear he was going to stay up late!