The Favorite Child...

Have you ever point blank asked your parents who their favorite child is? You know the routine as a child... you felt totally slided. You'd count the presents under the tree and mentally note that Tina had 1 more package than you. Or you were always the one who had to take out the trash while little Johnny just sat there eating cookie dough and watching Saved by the Bell re-runs. Every kid throws a pity-party and uses the "It's just because they're your favorite" card every once in a while. But deep down, you knew you were all on level playing field, right??

Allow me to introduce you to my family. We have a running joke that my brother is the favorite child. It's a running joke....because it still holds true! Just ask my sister. ;) My brother is the hands down favorite. He is the baby. He is the youngest of 3, the only boy, the "golden boy". He was always the funny one. My sister and I joke because my dad will literally break his neck to answer the phone when my brother calls (he has a special ring on my parent's home phone...) but any other time the phone rings, dad will literally just sit and listen to it ring while yelling at those of us in the house, "The phone's ringing!!!" Start a conversation with my dad or papa and inevitably, within 5 minutes you'll be talking about Taylor.

He is currently a junior in college. Kristen and I have both graduated and moved on and we are old hat! We're totally fine with that and realize that we too, once had our time to shine. I just don't recall my time to shine ever resulting in a personalized license plate on my mother's car!! You read that right... KEM34 has since been retired because she took so much grief, but the Tahoe did pay homage to the "favorite child" for a time. KEM34 means "strike'em out 34" get it? 34 is his baseball number...he is a pitcher...."K" means strike out in baseball....there ya go.

The best part is, yesterday was my birthday and through no control of Taylor, he was announced as the starting pitcher for yesterday's game. Ironic? Yes. Hilarious? Yes. Shocking? NO! I was not surprised in the least to hear that the one day in the calendar year that is all about me, was now shared with him. (I use the term "shared" loosely as it was a 70/30 split. You figure out the split...) He also had a HUGE test yesterday, so it was a pretty big day. Mom called me at 7:30am all cheery and singing the happy birthday song to me. It was sweet and fun and Maggie even chimed in. She told me to have a good day and then said, "And pray for Taylor! He has a REALLY big day today!" Of course he does! Luckily, the game was at 3:00 in the afternoon so we could watch the game and then go to dinner. I felt like Austin Powers...throw me a freakin' bone here!

He did awesome! Had a great game, pitched 7 solid innings, retired 15 of the last 16 he faced, got the "W" and everyone could be in a good mood at his celebration dinner....I mean, my birthday dinner.... :)

A pic from last night's game.

"Enough about me, let's talk about YOU! So, what do you think of ME??" ~ C.C. Bloom, Beaches