Not a little kid anymore

In less than 7 days my baby brother is going to be a husband. My brother may not be a baby brother, he is only 19 months younger than me, but in my eyes will always be the six year old that I would dress up for fun.

When he was six I forced him to let me dress him up as Santa. I took him in the bedroom, but red clothes on him, put a Santa hat on him, and took one of our dads socks and hooked it around his ears for the beard. I told him to go in the living room because everyone would love to see how cute he looked as Santa. So he walks out to the living room and everyone started awwing and laughing because he was so damn cute. Within seconds he was running back to the bedroom in tears. He thought that they were laughing at him in a mean way and it hurt his feelings really bad. So I talked to him and tried to make him feel better. After five minutes he was fine and went back out in the living room, sans sock beard, and pretended to be Santa. This is what I think of every time I think of my brother.

I was infatuated with my brother. I wanted to hang out with him all the time. What he did I wanted to do, where he went I wanted to go, and who he hang out with I attempted to tolerate. There were some people that he spend time with that I wanted to kick in the in-betweens because I thought they were taking advantage of my brother. I was the annoying older sister that had to make sure my brother was ok at all times. When my brother got older, and bigger than me, we started to clash. We would actually get in physical fights at times. No matter what though, that was my brother and I loved him. When I deserved an ass kicking he was the one to give it to me. When I needed support he would try to piss me off or make me laugh. Pissing me off would make me stop doing what I was getting made fun of for.

He had a few girlfriends in high school, and I hated every single one of them. None of them were worth his time or effort in my opinion. Six years ago he met his fiance. I knew her a few years before he met her, since we were in the same grade and had a lot of classes together. However, being a grade behind her he never really met her until after he graduated. I am not sure how since they had a nice sized group of mutual friends. They met at a mutual friends party and hit it off. When he brought her home for the first time to meet everyone I was so excited that he was with her. In my eyes she was perfect for him.  Total opposite of the past three girlfriends. I knew that they were going to last. I love being right.

Her and my brother were a perfect match. They both complimented each other. It didn't hurt that she loved my son and my son loved her. My brother told me about a year after they got together, when everyone was asking if/when he was going to propose, that when they got together she said she wanted a guy to wait three years before he popped the question. You can't say stuff like that to my brother and him not take it serious. When three years rolled around and he hadn't asked her to marry him yet every one was getting antsy. We knew it was going to happen, just didn't know how long we would have to wait. My brother was in school and wanted to wait until he had his degree and was able to take care of her financially. I went with him (read: begged him to take me) me he went to pick out the promise ring he bought her. When the commercials say "He went to Jared" by damn he went to Jared! He used their birthstones as the rocks on this beautiful ring.

While I was still in Arizona my mom had gotten on facebook and had seen that my brother finally proposed to his girlfriend. I was hurt cause I couldn't be there when it happened, but I was so damn happy that it finally did. My brother had proposed to the girl I couldn't wait to have as a sister in law.

I knew the day was coming for the wedding, but it didn't become real until I got the wedding invitation in the mail. That was when it hit me that my baby brother was not a little kid anymore. He was a man about to embark on the journey to family man. I will admit, I got a little choked up when I opened the wedding invitation. As the day gets closer it gets harder to talk about it without choking up. I know, 100% positive, that I am going to bawl like a baby as I watch my brother marry this amazing girl and go from fiance's to husband and wife. I'm going to have to take a TON of pictures so I remember the parts I cried through. They are getting married about 2 1/2 hours NE of where we live and it is supposed to be amazingly beautiful there. This place is famous for its outdoor weddings. I am so happy for my brother and sister-in-law.