National Sibling Day

April 10th is national sibling day! A day devoted to showing appreciation for your brothers and sisters. After all, there are no other people in the world who understand your childhood, and are connected to you in such a way. I am lucky enough to have two siblings, a younger sister, 26 and a younger brother, 12. Today I am sharing a few of my favorite things about my siblings.

Robert

Robert was born when I was 15. Right off the bat, I was a “built in baby sitter” for my parents. My sister and I got a crash course in taking care of a baby and helping out my mom and dad. I love playing with him. He is so fun to talk to about silly things, things that adults don’t want to talk about. Like why clue has two different characters named after food?

Today, I see my family every Wednesday at family dinner at my parents house. I love hearing about Robert’s day at school, what games he is playing and all about his friends. Every week Robert loves to play board games with all of us. I have to remember that when I was his age, the ideas of just sitting around talking was so boring. So playing games, being silly and talking about things that he cares about is the best way I can connect with him every week.

Similarities:

• We are both picky eaters, he definitely out does me here but I hope he learns to eat more than just noodles with butter one day.
• We are both creative people who enjoy drawing, movies and a good story.
• We both love a good board game. The boy will destroy you at Checkers, Uno or Chess.

Emily

Emily and I have been so close ever since we were kids. We played together, made up stories together, and watched all the Land Before Time movies together. Growing up we were often time mistaken for twins, no thanks to the matching pink and blue Mary Kate and Ashley outfits we wore. As we grew up we both went through different phases. I sometimes I look at our lives from the outside in and think “wow if we weren’t sisters would we be friends?” While the answer may be no, depending on the season of our life, I know that we will always be close. I love my sister for all the ways that she is different than me. She is more social than I am, she is smarter than I am for sure and she has a confidence that I used to envy so much. There will never be anyone who will know what movie I am talking about instantly when I quote the line from some childhood no name movie we watched. No one will understand all of the stories we played and made up as kids. No one will know our parents like we do.

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Fun facts:

• We could never fall asleep on Sundays. we would stay up late talking, playing or crafting in our room until all hours. Still to this day when I can’t sleep on a Sunday night I think back to these memories.
• Emily was scared of Maleficent as a child, I used to use this to scare her whenever I could.
• Emily and I used to drive to school in my Papa’s 90’s pick up truck. There was a tape player and a hardly working radio. I don’t know why, but every song that was popular during that time became known as a “truck song”. This includes almost every pop song from 2011.

I love my family and never forget to hold them close. So on a day all about sibling love, I want my lil bro and lil sis to know how awesome they are. After all, without them I wouldn’t be a big sister. Celebrate your siblings today with a quick shout out on social media, send them a card or even better give them a call and just chat. It is all about the little things.

-MB