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!

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.

Missing my sis

I really miss sister Anne and my nephew. All of the hullabaloo with Owen overshadowed the amazing circumstances under which Drew was born. A little back story to catch everyone up. Anne and I had a ...let's say "on and off" relationship when we were younger. We loved each other but we were essentially bratty sisters who picked at each other all the time. As we grew up and moved on to high school we became closer and closer. By the time were young adults we were absolute best friends. Anne can make me laugh harder than anyone and we are together, we have our own world going on (it can be kind of annoying). The only problem that we have is that we never seem to be in the same place at the same time. Because either Anne or I was in college, we have never had a significant amount of time together. The consolation was that we were never more than a few hours apart. A few years ago however, Anne moved to Florida due to the lack of teaching jobs in Michigan. What a blow for me! It was hard to watch Anne begin to build life for herself in another state. She had a great job, a wonderful boyfriend and an amazing new group of friends. She was aquiring everything I hoped she would have, but at the same time these things were cementing her life in Flordia. Flash forward to June 18th 2006. I had just found out I was pregnant a week earlier and had flown to tell Anne in person. When she picked me up from the airport, Anne told me she was a week late and thought she may be pregnant too. We went from the airport to the drugstore, came home and took a preganancy test (yes, I did too just to make sure I was still pregnant!). I will never ever forget the look on Anne's face when she walked out of the bathroom. It was a mixture of panic, hysteria and shock. We both sobbed and called our parents. My parents were unfailingly supportive as they have been our entire lives. So 9 months later, Anne and I are both very pregant and living in different states. Anne and her boyfriend Steve were living together and preparing for Andrew James "Drew". She managed to find surrogate family in her two best friends (and fellow mothers) Ellen and Stacy. Stacy was also pregnant and due in February. It wasn't easy however for Anne to be away from her family. I think the lowest point for Anne was when she received the news that Owen would not make it. Because she was so close to her due date, Anne could not fly to be with me. She was devestated on 2 counts. Not only was she going to lose her nephew, but she couldn't be with us to grieve. Luckily everthing worked out and 6 days after Owen was born, Anne went into labor. Anne's first experience with childbirth - not so great. I won't go into the gory details but let me just say - my mother called me after the birth and she sounded like she had been through a war. She had nightmares about it!! It was pretty bad. Now my sister is happier than she has ever been, engaged to be married to Drew's father and the love of her life (they are the same person in case that wasn't clear)and has one of the two most wonderful babies in the entire world. Through all the uncertainty there was never a consideration that this baby would not be brought in to the family. The strength of character it took for Anne to, not only overcome the bumps in the road but to not even see them as problems in the first place, is something that I could never do.I miss her and my amazing nephew everyday and wish that Owen and his cousin could grow up as close as their moms were. I am however, so proud of my little sister for being the extrordinary woman she is. I love you Annie Banannnie!

Drew's Home!!

At last, my sister and her son Drew are back where they belong in Michigan! My sister Anne had a son 6 days after Owen was born. What a story that was! I found out I was pregnant on June 11th of 2006. A week later I flew to Florida to see Anne. I wanted to tell her in person that she was going to be an Aunt and I bought her a personalized key chain that read "Aunt Annie". She picked me up from the airport and we both cried when I revealed my news. We then drove straight to the CVS to buy a pregnancy test as Anne also suspected she was knocked up. The strip turned pink and so began the most stressful year of my parents life! Anne and he fiance Steve gave birth to Andrew James 6 days after Owen was born. It's horrible having to be so far away from my nephew and sister but webcams help a little. Drew and Owen could not be more different. Drew is huge! He is 4.5 months and in 9 month clothing. He is 18 lbs and 27 inches long. 27 inches! He is the sweetest most laid back kid though (obviously aside from Owen of course). Anne and I actually got a sister bonding night on Friday. She happened to time her arrival to coincide with the Buick Open which means one thing - Beer Tents! We went out together for the first time in almost 2 years. We had a blast and were sisters in rare form.

This is from our first vistit to Florida in April. We call this "Gilligan and the Skipper"

Cousins gotta hug!

United in cuteness, bound by the common goal of making their parents crazy!