A letter to my little brother. From Ashton.

Dear Alex ("All-yex"),

It's National Sibling Day and I just thought I should say something official about it. As everyone knows, I was here first so when you came along last year I had my doubts. There was some significant, immediate fallout following March 16, 2014 (your "birthday"). Parental response time to my every whim drastically increased and you, this tiny "baby" that all of a sudden just took up space in Mommy's arms, were to blame. But I think I coped pretty well and made the best of my bad situation from early on.



Now you are 1 and as you have gotten older and can at least attempt to keep up with me, things are turning out to be pretty fun. You are a good sport when I rip toys from your innocent little grasp and you sometimes share your snacks. When you don't I just steal them and you are okay with that because you know what's best for you. Good little brother. Also, I don't always mean to push you over but for the times that it was intentional, I'm sorry. But honestly, when I'm pushing my dump truck you should know by now to get out of the way.

So things are good. I'm happy you are around and would say we are friends. I did help you learn to walk by dragging you across the floor. You're welcome! And when I am sleeping, you tell Mommy to bring you in so you can poke me in the eye to wake me up so we can play. I'm so glad we have each other.

Because today is National Sibling Day, I've been reflecting on our time together and luckily for us, our mom does not know when to stop taking pictures so every move we have ever made is documented. I compiled a little brotherly timeline for us out of her ridiculous number of photos, starting from when we first met:

and then on to April...

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

 April

and here we are today, at National Sibling Day. I love you very much. I will make sure and wake you up tomorrow morning by bringing more cars than I can carry into your room so I drop them all about a foot from your head and wake you up. Can't wait to play!

Love,
Ashton, age "free"

p.s. You know I hate it when you knock down my towers, so stop doing that.