Reunited and it feels so good!

Oh boy - do I have a travel nightmare for you guys! But let's not start out with the negative which, by the way, was the only negative of the trip. Let me just tell you how WONDERFUL it was to see my beloved sister and nephew! I have not seen that little bugger since January and at this stage of development, 5 months is a long time! We were lucky enough to sneak away for 5 days to visit Anne & Drew in North Port, Florida

Have you seen the T-Mobile commercial where they have the teenage cheerleader in a booth and they are monitering her talk time while she proceeds to go on for hours? (I included the link for your viewing pleasure). Drew is the 15 month old boy version of that. He has the vocabulary of a toddler and isn't afraid to use it. It is absolutely the most fun thing to be around. Listening to him talk was bar none my favorite part of the trip. He has the cutest voice and says everything in question form He says: "Dodo? (dog), mama?, dada?, baba? (bottle), bubbles?, brush?, nice?, baby?, mimi? (grandma), light?, Dan? (which he picked up while we were there), night-night? up? down?, lissy? (for his sis Alyssa), Stacy? and Ellen? (Anne's best friends), ditty? (for kitty, which I taught him), Melmo? (Elmo), nana? (bananas), noodle? and more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. My absolute favorite word he says? "Pop pop". It's not so much the word but how he says it. Its the only word he doesn't form into a question and the only one he whispers. It stands for grandpa which makes the fact that he whispers it hilarious. It's almost reverent, the way he whispers "pop pop" all quiet and serious. You would think he was the grand child of Don Corleone.

Drew will also "woof, woof" when you ask him what a dog says, moo for a cow and get this, go "Ohhhohhhh" when you ask him what a Seminole says! Because he was such a mynah bird, it was soooo tempting to want to teach him some...a-hem...more interesting words. Alas, we kept it clean, but he was picking up on "poopy" by the time we left.

Beyond his broad vocabulary, he is just the most adorable kid ever! He has this wrinkley nose little smile and makes a "freak out face". He is mellow and fun. I want to cry just thinking about the fact that I can't see him everyday.

How did Owen get along with Drew...hmmm....well....Owen was not too sure about Drew at first. Owen is very much in his head (is he too young for a shrink?) and Drew is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (hmmm, now that I think about it, this is strikingly similar to my sister and I). Drew really wanted to love on his cousin. He would pat his head, climb all over him and play with the same toys. Owen whined like a 12 year old girl so we told him to toughen up! The tide turned however, when Owen wrestled his bottle out of Drew's hands. He seemed pretty pleased to have asserted himself and mellowed a little after that.

Owen loved his Aunt Annie and her stepdaughters Alyssa and Carly. Owen is a sucker for the ladies and Alyssa and Carly had him captivated, as I am suspecting they will do to several boys as the years go on. They are truly stunning and wonderful little girls.

OK - the bad news about the flights. We flew out of Detroit Metro airtport which is about and hour and 15 minutes away from our house. Our flight was at 6pm so we left at 2:30 pm. Plenty of time right? Not so much. 1 mile before our exit, we hit traffic due to an accident. Long story short, we missed our flight. Because we booked through Priceline, Delta Airlines told us that they couldn't do anything. Priceline said that getting us on another flight was at the discretion of Delta. Does this sound like the runaround? Yeah, well it was. No one would help us so we ended up paying for another flight down to FLA. Flash forward to Monday morning the day of our return flight. I go online to print our boarding passes only to find that our itinerary has been cancelled. We have no returning flight booked. Unbeknownst to us, it is airline policy to cancel the return flight of a roundtrip when the departing flight was missed. I suppose this would make sense if we had simply not shown up at all but we did! We were at the Delta counter for 1 hour! They knew we got on another flight to Tampa! Priceline once again was awful and said they could not help us. Our only option was to book another flight back. Unfortunately this flight didn't get in until 11:30 pm that night and I worked at 8:00 am the next day. My mother, who should be up for sainthood by the way, booked and paid for our flight back. I don't care how old I get, I will never be too proud to have my mommy bail me out (well, just hopefully not out of jail)!

All in all however, every minute of the trip was worth it and I would do it again just to see Anne, Drew, Steve, Alyssa and Carly. My sister looks so beautiful (bitch!). The life she has built herself in Florida, away from her family, is amazing. She is one of those people who can go anywhere and adapt. She can walk into a room knowing no one and have 10 lifelong friends by the time she leaves. I wish I had more of that.

Alright, alright, enough talky talky and on to the pictures!

Drew's "freak out face"! Cousins don't shake hands, cousins gotta kiss!! Cat with her favorite boys! Blending into the Flordia scene with these cool shades. Daddy, Owen and the Florida sunset. Dan and Stever were nice enough to take the boys for the night so Anne and I actually had a girls night out! Looks like it started out pretty fun huh? Drew would point to Owen's diapers and say "Melmo?". Eventually he just started calling Owen Elmo. Drew is excited to have a bath buddy! Owen's making sure Daddy's face has plenty of sunblock on it.

Sun = endorphin = happy baby! Alyssa, Anne and Carly. How's this for a post baby body? My and my boy enjoying the Gulf of Mexico. Just to be clear, Owen is taking the binky from Drew and not giving it too him! These are our kids on Elmo! It's like baby crack!