Little Brother turns 19 today!

Little Brother is all grown up today. Happy Birthday! Hooray!

Ooh, please excuse me. You've not yet been properly introduced!

Meet Mikey, aka Little Brother (pictured above aged 9).
He will occasionally be featured right here on this blog so I think it's probably best if you know a bit more about him. And what better time to do that then on his 19th birthday?

Thus, in commemoration of this eventful day and as a means of getting to know him better I give you:

19 Random Facts Regarding

MICHAEL: BOY (UN)EXTRAORDINAIRE

1. Prior to his birth, Best Big Sister Ever (that would be me) was asked what name should be given to her soon-to-be born brother. 'Michael' was chosen as an appropriate moniker on the basis that it was by far the most popular name in the St John's Senior Kindergarten class. 'Brian' came in a distant second, outnumbered two to four.

2. He was born 17 days early on 13 September rather than 30 September. I don't think he knows that actually.

3. If Mikey had been a girl he would have been called Elizabeth. I was not involved in this decision. He is aware of both of these facts.

4. He is the proud winner/recipient of the Sleepyhead Award from the Graham Park Kinder Playgroup 1991 (1992?) for always falling asleep during naptime, reading time, and playtime. Actually, he usually arrived at playgroup already asleep in his stroller... and didn't bother waking up.

5. Mikey claims he can sing really well. If 'well' means better than me, then yes, there is some validity in this claim. But I sing so poorly that really, I don't think 'well' is the appropriate descriptive that can be used here.

6. Mikey claims he is a better dancer than me. I beg to differ Little Brother...

7. Teaching Little Brother to drive was a huge challenge for two significant reasons: first, he initially drove like a little old granny and was always 20kms under the speed limit [sigh]; second, he did not understand the reasoning behind why he needed to check a blindspot before changing lanes [GASP!].

8. At his first official swim meet he blew away the competition and won most of his races by several body lengths if not entire lengths of the swimming pool. I was a witness to this and was very proud of Little Brother. (Tiny secret: he hadn't been placed in a swim category yet nor had any of the people he was racing which is why he won each race by such large margins, but that's not what's important. What's important is my brother is a winner, not a loser).

9. He was a sailor in the schoolboard-wide musical Anything Goes. And he was good. Really good, in fact.

10. The genetic makeup of his eyebrows takes after our mum's side of the family, except that his are darker (ie there is actually hair where his eyebrows should be - at least for the most part).

11. He has hardly any arm hair and his legs are really shiny - we both get the second from our dad.

12. He's a pretty good listener, except when he is sleeping which is typically 12 out of 24 hours a day.

13. He recently made the mistake - oh, I mean 'brave choice' - of getting a fauxhawk. Erm, yeah... that's all I have to say about that.

14. He snores really, really loudly.

15. When he thinks something is funny he starts with his normal laugh but then it progresses to a sort of breathless, higher-pitched laugh and then it gets up to maniacal out of control donkey laugh/cackle and then it goes silent as he pretty much stops breathing because he's been laughing too hard and finally ends off with a satisfied sigh of relief once he's regained control. Other than the actual sound of the laugh, you can tell the degree of humour he finds in something by how his nostrils flare.

16. Mikey 'married' Courteney, Elizabeth and, I think, Lianna on the primary school playground when he was five years old. Little Brother was quite the player.

17. He really, really likes video games (or whatever they're called), particularly by our mum's standards which means he buys too many of them

18. He has a really big heart and sometimes cares a bit too much about what other people think of him.

BUT

19. That's what makes him maybe the best Little Brother in the world. Well, maybe. I can see how Prince Harry's or Daniel Craig's* older siblings might have pretty solid cases there.

Three cheers for the birthday boy! Hooray! HOORAY! HOORAY!!

*I'm not even sure if he's actually got any older siblings, but I'm going to pretend like he does.