Today Is My Baby Brother's Birthday...

Ok...so he isn't actually a baby brother...but today is his birthday...Happy Birthday To My Brother Jim!!!

I think about his birthday today because when we were all at home...we had Christmas...and then three days later we had another party and more presents...for him...and cake!!!  I think I loved his December birthday more than he did. When he was really little I remember my mom laying him down on her bed and asking me to watch him so he wouldn't roll off...of course I got distracted and he rolled right off of my mom's bed and I thought I had killed him...he was fine.  He was such a pain to me as a baby brother...he would not take his afternoon nap unless I read him a story and sat with him...his favorite book was a huge green book of many different stories and poems...and I had to read to him...he would not fall asleep in his room...he took his nap on our front screened in porch on the glider and I had to help my mom out by sitting on the glider with him and reading to him until he fell asleep.  I remember this as pure torture...his favorite story was called "Quack, Said Jerusha"...this was the story of a mother duck and her babies...it rhymed and I know I read it to him every single day.  Once he finally fell asleep I could read my own stash of books...but I couldn't leave him until he woke up...my best friends in all of the world lived two houses down...and after an hour of Jimmy napping...they would begin to gather on our front steps to await his awakening...so we could resume playing.  One time we put him in an old baby carriage in their garage.  He slept soundly there for 2 hours while we jumped rope in the driveway.  I thought this a rather wonderful solution until my mom found out and I wasn't allowed to put him in there again...ever...hmmm.

Once he got to be a little bit older...I still sort of had to watch him...but he just sort of followed us around and played our games with us and was cute and funny and fun to be around.  My best friends only had girls in their family so having Jimmy hang with us was different and fun for them and fun for Jimmy, too. 

My baby brother Jimmy is all grown up now...he is an engineer...he travels the world...he has a wife and two daughters in college...sadly...he barely remembers Jerusha and napping on the glider and the girls he played with in our neighborhood.  But...he will always be my baby brother and I really don't even mind that I can still recite every single verse of Quack Said Jerusha...even in my sleep.