Today is my brother Byron's Birthday. I won't say how old he is turning since it would only date me too. He is the youngest of my siblings, and of my two brothers, the one I probably hated the most. Hate is really a strong word but so I'll temper it by saying that he is also the brother who I missed the most when I was off at college.
I love to remember Byron as the sweet and cute little boy that he used to be. (He is still sweet but now that he is all grown up he is no longer a little boy with his cute little boy face.) I remember him bringing me his favorite stuffed animal to sleep with when I was home from school sick one day before he was even in kindergarten. When he was still too little to have his own chores, I remember teaching him to wash the bathroom sink as we pretended the faucet was a kitten.
Byron was also always game for "dressing up". What big sister hasn't dressed up their younger brothers? Leah and I did our fair share of dressing up Byron and Warren. As I was going through my albums looking for a great picture of Byron I found pictures from 2 different occasions when we dressed up Byron and Warren as girls. He made a very cute girl but out of respect for him, I decided not to share those pictures. (Or the picture of him dressed up as a girl when he was a teenager.)
Along with all of the fun memories of Byron, there are an equal or greater number of times I remember him being a pain. Annoying me, in particular, seemed to be one of his goals in life. So many times I remember Mom telling me that if I just learned to ignore him, it would take his fun away and he would leave me alone. Sometimes, no amount of ignoring would get rid of him though and I just had to endure. Case in point... Our family had a sailboat and both Byron and I loved to sail. The boat took 2 people to sail it so when I would come home from college in the summer and want to go sailing with my friends, I had to take someone else along. Being that Byron was six years younger than me, he didn't really have a life yet so he was always available to go. And, although he was willing to go, that didn't mean he was going to be nice about it. In fact, when ever he went with me, he would be a huge pain in my side, pesky little brother. But, if I wanted to go, I had to take him, and he knew that. In fact, when he was a little older and a little more mature, he admitted that to my parents. Thanks Byron!
Thank goodness everyone eventually grows up. Now Byron lives with his wonderful wife about 11 hours away from us and in a short while will but just 5 hours away. I can't wait. I always love it when he and his wife come to visit. We have a great time (and he doesn't try to annoy me anymore). He is even considering buying a sailboat and you can believe I will be visiting him as much as possible when that happens. And I'll be careful, when we're sailing, that I not be the bossy older sister as long as he isn't the annoying little brother.
Happy Birthday Byron. I love you!
3 comments:
Brenda,
Man, talk about some backhanded compliments :). In your defense, I will attest that everything you said about me being the most annoying is certainly true. I still laugh (albeit with a little shame) when I relate the story of you having to take me to go sailing, and me abusing the fact that I could get away with bloody murder and you couldn't do anything about it.
You could have shared some many other stories too, like me stealing the letter you were writing to Steve, running around the kitchen table with it, and making fun of you for your infatuation with Steve Loooovins. Oh, those were good times (Well, at least for one of us).
You'll have to send me the pictures of the butterfly. I didn't know what had happened to those. Thanks for the post. I love you too.
You shouldn't have reminded me of the other story. I had forgotten. But, you're right, there are so many more. Although they weren't good times for me back then, the memories of them now make me smile and even laugh.
As parents raise kids, they wonder if their kids will ever be friends. I'm glad that they grow up to be such.
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