Never Grow Up | Nathan James

I’m gonna be doing something different for the next few weeks. I’ll be doing a series on my little siblings(maybe I’ll throw in my older siblings at the end. Maybe)! Just short thoughtful posts. Enjoy. 🙂

I remember the first time I saw my baby brother.

Okay, I’m kidding. I hardly remember that moment (my memory isn’t the finest, what do you want me to do.). In that moment, the course of my life as the baby of the family would drastically change. For seven glorious years, I ruled the castle. My word always went. That last m&m was mine.

I never dreamed that my seat would be overthrown by some scrawny kid. He was a teeny, tiny, clump of flesh- red like a beet and wrinkled like a prune. Adorable. *cough cough*

It wasn’t hard for me to adjust to his willfulness and bossy attitude. In fact, he would demand our attention with a holler; a high-pitched, nail-across-the-chalkboard cry, and I wouldn’t mind at all. So much for those 7 years to marinate my baby-ness, just to throw it out the door… and for a goofy monkey-like character no less.

The first several months were quite nice. I learned a lot.

I learned how to change a diaper fast enough so he won’t go on me, and how to make him drink his milk faster by putting my own puckered lips to the bottom side of the bottle- feigning enjoying his milk. I also learned that babies sleep... a lot. And, honestly, they do hardly anything else. Eat, sleep, and poop completely describes these little creature infants.

A year or two later, he’s a hobbling chubster with big eyes and a mean disposition for going shirtless outside. He was giggly and goofy, and loved to spend hours with daddy outside on the farm; checking the garden, feeding the chickens, and discussing proper father-son topics. Like where to go when there ain’t no toilet in sight. Because that is essential. 

And several years later, he’s a lanky kid- scrawny and big-eyed still… and goofy as ever! We’ve dubbed him “Nathan Jerboa”, for his big ears. (if you don’t know what a Jerboa looks like, here’s a pic.) He’s a total geek over animal channels. I’ll be washing dishes, and he’ll come up and give me a pop-quiz on my zoology knowledge.

He’ll even scare me from behind. What a dork. 😛

Of course, he’s annoying at times. And bossy. And sarcastic. And whiny. But he’s learning. And he’s growing. And someday, he won’t be around to be annoying or to scare me when I’m coming up the stairs… or washing dishes…or just walking from a room.

I won’t always be living under the same roof as him. I won’t always have him to boss around, laugh with, tease, and geek out over books with.

He’s gonna grow up, and in the blink of an eye, be gone. Life-ing on his own. Married. Having kids. Making them laugh and annoyed.

Relieving us… 

But life will never be the same when that day comes. When he moves out, when he starts a life on his own, when living with us will just be a happy memory… at least I hope it will be a happy memory.

He’s growing up. Too fast some days, and way too slow on others. There’s no way he was that teeny clump of beet-red wrinkles. Or that chubby shirtless pip-squeak. Today he’s a skinny boy, tomorrow he’ll be a skinny man.

I hate it when book characters grow up and change. Change in human beings is hard for me to take.

How much more for my own siblings?

“Oh darling, don’t you ever grow up. Just stay this little…”

-Taylor Swift’s Never Grow Up