Owen and Drew - Together again!

Being the amazing daughters we are, my sister and I bought my mother tickets to see the Lion King for her birthday. But that wasn't even the best part of the gift. The real gift was... that Anne and I would go see it with her! Isn't my mom the luckiest mom in the world!? We are truly altruistic gift givers. Pure motives or not, our gift did get my sister and my nephew Drew from Michigan to Florida for 5 whole days! Seeing Anne and Drew is always very bittersweet because right from the beginning, it's hard not to think about the fact that they have to leave. My sister and I never fathomed the idea that we would be raising our children 1000's of miles apart from each other. Not being able to see her and Drew everyday is awful. It's almost easier when I don't see him for a long period of time. Drew is as big as Owen is small. We have the two extremes of the spectrum in one family. What is funny however is that sitting, they are almost the same height. When they are standing side by side is when you can really see the differences. I did have a little breakdown during one of those instances. Drew and Owen were standing naked next to each other and the skeletal dysplasia just seemed very evident in Owen. His hips looked turned in, his shoulders seemed rounded, his legs were very obviously shorter. I don't get the chance to carefully compare his body to other kids his age (not that I really have a deep desire too) and it was a little jarring to have his differences seem so pronounced to me. Drew and Owen seemed to get on pretty well. I don't think Owen quite knew how to take Drew and all his energy. Drew is crawling machine and nothing, including Owen, was going to get in the way. At one point, Owen had Drew's knee marks on his stomach. Drew also seemed to enojoy patting Owen on the head. Everyone exept for Owen found it hilarious. Drew is an absolute riot! He babbles and shouts and screams. He is constantly bursting out with strange noises. I also can't believe how smart this kid is. He says "light" (or "ite" in babyspeak) and actually points to a light! He also calls all males "dada", and anything resembling an animal "dodo" (meant to be "dog"). And, in order to further embarrass Owen, Drew saved a couple of firsts for his visit home. He said "Hi" for the first time and also clapped his hands. Speaking of embarrassing your family members. My sister pulled a big no no. She came home looking really good. I had heard the rumor that Anne had lost all her baby weight and then some but I didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. To add insult to injury - she was tan. She sucks. Aside from the constant raging jealously about how great my sister looked, it was an awesome visit!. Everyone needs to put "see the Lion King on Broadway" on their top 10 list of things to do before they die. It was incredible. I will only say, the very first scene had my mother, my sister and I in tears. It was that powerful.