Happy Birthday Baby Bro!

Day before Yesterday, as in December 6, I remembered that tomorrow (December 7) would be my baby brother's birthday...I even shared the information with my son Ryan and agreed to remind him to call my brother Chris to wish him a Happy !

Today, as in December 8, I remembered that yesterday (December 7) I forgot it was my baby brother's birthday...talk about TRIFLING!

Twenty-nine years ago when I was about 12 years old, my mother hid her pregnancy from me, my little sister, and my two older brothers for seven months for fear we would be upset about it. To the contrary, when we were finally told, we were estatic. I even got her to agree to let me name the new baby and I chose Christopher which was the name of the first boy I ever loved back in third grade ;)

The Master of Disaster as I used to call him was born on the coldest, snowiest night imaginable, and I can still remember my uncle trying to unfreeze his car door locks at 2am trying to get my mother to the hospital to finally have this baby whose existence in my mother's womb had only been revealed to me two and a half months before... In the real morning, I was sent to school by my Grandmother as usual, the sixth grade, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening in my life. It was brutal, the not knowing what was happening...I never would have been able to wait nine whole months. I returned home that afternoon to learn I had a new baby brother. A more loved baby never entered the world, than my baby brother!













He was everything to everyone in my family and especially to me. I can recall as my friends one by one began to have babies as teenagers, my mother jokingly saying she had Chris so I would know what it meant to take care of a baby and would not fall into the trap of teenage pregnancy. Whatever her reasoning, without question, I fell in love with my baby brother and in a world where people who disappoint you appear to be the rule more so than the exception, I would have to say, my brother is the exception that proves the rule! He is always there, when you need him for whatever you need him. In a world where so many folks take, take, TAKE, he is a GIVER, plain and simple.

As babies tend to do, he too grew up. I left for college when he was five, but when I came home, it was less than two years before we had convinced our mother to let Chris live with me since I handled everything relative to him for the most part anyway and he spent all weekends, and summer vacation at my place already. This essentially resulted in Chris having two mothers, and I for one don't know how he coped, but he did. As much as I took care of him, he took care of me...maybe even more. From protecting me from any noise, light, or other painful intrusions during my migraines, to helping to raise my son, Chris was always there...being Chris. His graduation from high school was one of the proudest moments of my life and had a more profound effect on me than my own; afterall, my oldest child was graduating!!













Now, he is all grown up and in love with the girl of his dreams, my new baby sister Katrina. He has a new woman to take care of him, but just as my first kiddie crush for whom he was named did, Chris stole a large chunk of my heart the day he came home from the hospital, and no matter who I love, or who loves me, my baby brother will always have his piece of my heart to keep!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BRO...I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!