"Happeee Babyyyy!"

He likes to wear this pink oven mitt around the house after nap time

Owen is quite the talker, he talks from the time he wakes up from the time he goes to sleep. Out of no where last week he started saying, "Happy! Happpee Babyyyy!"  I don't think he knows what it means (because he said it one time when he was crying, LOL!) but it melts my heart. I'm pretty sure he got it from me, because ever since he was a tiny cub I ask him, "Are you happy baby?" But I don't say it quite as often as I used to, so I guess he wanted to tell me that he is ;)

18 months has been both a blessing and a challenge. Owen is on the move, exerting his independence, talking up a storm and is very, very attached to me. We ended up cutting our trip to Maryland short because Owen FRRRREAKED out in the hotel room. We tried to put him down for a nap that afternoon, but he refused to sleep in the travel crib (same one we've always used on trips). So I let him sleep on me while he nursed for about 45 minutes and then off we went with our day.

That night we did our usual bedtime routine with him, but as soon as we laid him down at 9pm he started into COMPLETE HYSTERICS. We tried picking him up, rocking him, singing to him, letting him sleep with us - nothing worked. Around 1:30 we figured "forget it" and we took off his sleep sack and let him walk around. He continue to SCREAM, running around like a honey badger opening drawers, throwing shoes, pacing in circles, climbing over furniture. Totally inconsolable. Jeremy and I were pretty frazzled and worried about getting kicked out of the sold-out hotel, but I have to admit, his delirious actions were actually quite comical and we ended up laughing hysterically - since we were tired ourselves. Around 3:30 I finally nursed him to sleep and passed out in the bed.

I guess traveling is going to be a little challenging for my Owen (and his very tired parents) for a while!

If anyone has any suggestions for traveling with a fearful toddler - I'd love to hear them!

He also likes to wear this plastic ring (trash) from the diaper genie 

...and sometimes... he wears them BOTH :)