19. For the little brother

My little brother is a boss and ran his first half marathon for his 18th birthday, placing first in his age group. What the heck, right? Eighteen years ago I was home sick from school, and when I woke up, mom had gone to the hospital with dad and our family of five became a family of six. He was the most adorable, chubbiest baby who gave us story after story to work with, like when he pulled out a chicken drumstick (we were not having chicken that night) he had saved in the cushion of his high chair. Or when he stuck carrots in the VCR,  or when he got all us three older siblings in trouble when he managed to roll off the bed when we were supposed to be watching him. Story after story...like the year both Anthony and Alan were sick their birthday week, and my mom let them open presents in the middle of the night. Can you understand my confusion when I woke up in the morning to learn this??

I gave him a lot of grief in his older-kid years. Convinced that the parents and my brother and sister were going to easy on him, I took it as my role to be the stricter one so he wouldn't grow up spoiled. Add to that the mess that comes with being the sibling closest in age to him as he constantly copied me (this was one of my biggest. pet. peeves.) in the crafts I made, what I wanted to do, etc.

He was ten years old when I left for college, and I often want to still think of him as a twelve-year-old, his age when I last lived at home for a long period of time. I had started doing very sister-ish things, just me and him, like buying him food whenever we went out, dragging him with me to go on errands (really, what else did he have to do with his time?), taking him to the park in hopes that he would love being out side like I did. Many years I would buy him books, as he would enjoy reading if he was given a good book to read. I guess I was pretty insistent on passing on values to him, particularly as we would have discussions filled with questions, speculations, what-if's, and maybes.

Now he's eighteen but thinks maturely for his age. I think that comes in part from being forced to grow up when you have older siblings, but there's also something solid about him. He has excelled in so many arenas and knows to think critically. He has a number of not-so-great habits and rough edges that will develop as he grows older, but still -- I am convinced he is the best eighteen year old out there. Happy Birthday, kiddo.