Christopher.

My brother and I are 19 years apart.

That’s a lot.  Like, a lot, a lot. 

I am old enough to be his mom and not even in like a high school pregnancy sort of way.  I was in college and pretty much out of the house when he was born.  He regularly reminds me that I’m only a few years younger than his girlfriend’s mom.  Which?  Is totally awesome to hear, let me tell ya.

He also introduces me as his sister… the old one.

He’s lucky I love him.

He came over last week after school and I think it was the longest we’ve ever hung out and talked just the two of us since he was Finn’s age.  When he was little, he could talk for hours on end without taking a breath and it just never stopped.  Teenaged boys though?  They don’t talk much to old sisters.  He asked me about the blog and it made me realize that I tell you stories about my sisters all the time and I don’t much talk about the baby of the family. 

Our little Kissy-fer.

Once, he hit Elise in the eye with a baseball bat when he was probably four years old.  It was totally un-funny until he justified it with a “but I hit her with a soft bat!”  And Elise screamed, “It was the hard end!”  He had managed to jab her with the only piece of a foam bat that had a hard edge.  He is no dummy.  I don’t even remember now {and maybe Elise or Lynnie will fill you in with a comment} what she did to get a bat to the eye, but Lyndsey and I still laugh about my dad trying to keep a straight face and yell at him for it.  Anytime someone in our family says, “but it was a soft bat!” we all laugh hysterically. 

When he was ten, Dave asked him if he would like to be in our wedding.  His response was “only if I get to wear a tux and bow tie like James Bond.”  So, even though everyone else in the wedding was in a tie, we totally got him the bow tie.  How could we not?  He took that ring carrying very seriously. 

 

Now, he’s a senior in high school and handsome and cool.  He’s looking at colleges.  I just know that I will do the ugly cry when he leaves and he will just make fun of me and things will go on as normal.

He’s sweet and infinitely patient with his niece and nephew, even though I think that little one scares the shit out of him.  Usually she takes one look at him and starts screaming, but they’ve turned a corner… now she just looks at him with contempt, which I think he admires.  Finn pretty much thinks that he is the coolest person in the universe and tries to act like a teenager when he is around.  At his sixteenth birthday, he let Finn hang out with him and his friends.  That is the kind of kid he is.

I might be fucking up his “swag” when I say this, but I actually like who he is as a person.  He still does dumb ass things like throw basketballs at me because he’s seventeen.  Mostly though, he’s really really quick witted and intelligent and funny and even charming when he wants to be.

Just don’t tell him I said that.