Chapter 3

                                       The Wonder Years!

Drew is growing up now, but we still call her "Peanut". She's such a little doll...most of the time. She is the Drama Queen of the Millennium. One minute she is giggling irrepressibly and the next she is stomping off with her pouty lip and tearful eyes. She's trying to get the potty-thing down but seems to take 2 steps forward and 3 back at times. She says many words and very distinctly but has not mastered putting those words into sentences. Every, so, now, and then she blurts out a phrase, but mainly its gibbery-gibbery-princess-gibbery-dog. She still loves for Grandma (s'pa is passe) to read to her (she's even into books that have a story) and she loves to listen to me tell her a story. Of course, Drew has to actually be in the story. She loves role playing...be still my beating heart. Characters include - the firehouse dog puppet, the white unicorn, the little lion (the one that first made her laugh as a babe) and sometimes her baby doll. One of my favorites is for her to take her "pink blankee" and put it over head like a hood and she plays "Little Pink Riding Hood Drew." She looks up at me with those blue eyes and says, "Gwamma, what big eyes you have." Too cute. When she comes over she hands me a puppet or stuffed animal and says, "Talk!" She will go on and on with them until Grandma says "enough!"

Sometimes she will get out one of the playsets, and I watch as she does character voices for her little people. She also likes to get out "the rug" and play cars. One night, when she was over, I practiced my puppet show. She was transfixed and wanted it again. But at the end...she cried! What? 

She can fairly well sing "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Old McDonald" - when I say OMD had a ___, she will chime in with a different farm animal and then make the noise. It is so darn CUTE! At Christmas it was Frosty the Snowman and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Then, she likes to play on the computer - usually Telletubbies or Clifford or My Little Pony. She LOVES horses. She has a whole herd of MLP's and unicorns (horseycorn or kingcorn). Then, there are real horses that she absolutely adores. When we were at Grant's Farm for Christmas, we could hardly get her away from the Clydesdale. She wailed when we took her away. That was a special night. We went with Danny and Sue in Chrissie's car. It was the perfect night to go see the Christmas lights. When she comes over she still likes to go outside whenever possible. Her and Grandpa sit on the porch and eat watermelon (wallmella) or red popsicles (circles). She can identify a circle and square and the letter W. She loves to color and still make that funny grunty noise as she colors. She still loves to take a bath when she's here and I blow soap bubbles at her while she's in the tub. She especially likes the bubbles that don't burst right away. Her favorite cousin right now is Danny. They play hard and well together...and noisy! Her favorite playmate at Leanne's, her sitter, is Peyton.

Grandpa loves to take Drew outside for a walk in the "bushes"...that' means up to the park. She loves the outdoors and would stay out there, if us old folks didn't give up so soon. Grandpa delights in pointing out the deer that appear at our back door. Drew loves animals...except bugs! She panics every time she sees one. I tried to teach her "Oh, pooh bug! You don't scare me...I'm a big girl now." The works...sometimes.

Birthday Drew and Summertime Fun