Brother is Coming! Brother is Coming!

My little brother is coming to visit this week.  And by little brother, I am referring to my 6'5" younger-by-13-months brother.

Thanksgiving when we were both in college...don't know the year, but it was a while ago!

He is the most wonderful person!  And he is a wonderful uncle!

Uncle holding Grace when she was 1 day old.

My brother is living the dream right now.  He will be 25 in April, he's single, he lives in an apartment with three other guys - read: pays about $200/mo in rent! - he works from home as a computer engineer for a company based in Virginia (some sort of government contract) and he drives a Lexus.  Nice.

Uncle took us to a Mariner's game last summer.  Grace had a near-blowout situation right as we were pulling in to town, and Uncle didn't even flip out when I had to change her on his leather seats!  After I got her cleaned up, he propped her on the trunk and we took this picture.

Brother is my polar opposite.  I'm a Comm Studies major, he's a Computer Engineer major.  I'm an extrovert, he's an introvert.  I am not always the nicest person in the room, Brother is.  I have a wicked sense of humor, Brother has a playful sense of humor.  I'm chocolate, he's vanilla.  You get the picture.

Graduation picture I took for Brother.

And yet, with all these differences, we are best friends!  We have our sibling tiffs, but my parents did a wonderful job of giving us a foundation of mutual love and respect, so when times get tough that is what we resort to.

Love.

Respect.

I often joke that Brother is the favorite...and sometimes he probably is.  I've always been the one to push boundaries and have probably kept my parents up at night a few more times that Brother, but I know our parents love us the same amount, but probably just appreciate different things about us.  Right?!  Isn't that how it works?  I don't know yet, I only have one child.  Sometimes it's hard for me to imagine my heart having enough room to love another baby as much...so since I am the oldest and my parents loved me first, maybe love me more, right?!  I think all the first-born's might agree with me there!

Family Reunion with all the cousins...hmmm, might Brother be the favorite because he's the only boy?!  Nah.

Anyway, Brother is coming down to help me at volleyball practice on Thursday.  The girls are very excited.  But not as excited as Grace is going to be when Uncle lifts her up to the ceiling, like only he can do!!

The kid can play some ball, I'll give him that.

I can't wait!