Why I Love the 12th of October

(FYI, my computer is having major surgery so it can't drive for a while - that's why no posts lately.  The kiddo is kind enough to let me use hers tonight).

Once upon a time there was a 10 year old girl, who was the baby of the family.  She had 2 older brothers and 1 older sister, who were 6, 9 and 11 years older than her.  So she was really the baby.  For 10 whole years.

Then one day came the news that she was not going to be the baby any more.  But she wasn't upset at all.  In fact, she really was very glad.  And she really, really wanted a baby brother.

So one fine, beautiful October afternoon, her aunt showed up at school to pick her up and take the 10 year old girl home with her and her twin cousins. 

Because that 10 year old girl got her wish.

She got her baby brother.

And she still remembers that afternoon as clearly as anything.

It would be nice to say that she was always nice to that baby brother.  She wasn't always nice, though.

But she always loved him.

When he came, she found out for the first time in her life what it was like to get really, really worried about another little person.  Because before he came, she had never heard of babies who went to sleep and never woke up.  She didn't know such a thing could happen to babies, until her big sister told her.  So she prayed and prayed every day of her life that it wouldn't happen to her baby brother.

Once, when he was still a little, little baby, he had a really high fever.  The 10-year old girl, who's not 10 years old any more, can still see her mama sitting in that rocking chair holding and rocking that poor, sick baby.  And the 10 year old girl was scared to death, and worried sick about him.

Because she loved that baby brother more than anything.

It didn't take long for that baby brother to become the play purty for all of the brothers and sisters.

When he was  a little older and could talk, one of his older brothers would take him to ride in his Candy Apple Red 1966 GTO.  And he taught him to roll down his window at the stoplight when there were girls in the next car, and say, "Hey Baby, what's happening?"

And every night, he would literally be the center of attention, sitting in a cardboard box while everyone else slid him and turned him around and around in the box, until he laughed so hard he couldn't get his breath.

And the 10 year old girl and the 16 year old sister laughed until they cried when he got his first hair cut.  Because he had the most beautiful blonde curls when the 1966 GTO brother left the house with him to go to the barber shop, but it was a little buzzed head that came back in the house.  And it was so different that it was hysterically funny.

Unfortunately, the 10 year old girl would make him so mad sometimes, though, that he would have to call her the worst thing he could think of - a Bull Hornet.

But she always, always loved him.

And she still does.

Happy To You!

(Just for the record - he still makes us all laugh.  And the 10 year old girl who's not 10 years old any more doesn't make him mad any more.  In fact, they don't get to spend nearly enough time together.  But at least they have cell phones)