It's nearly Easter.
Who doesn't love that mischievous rabbit? By the way there is a cute Peter Rabbit web site here.
But even more than Peter I think of my brother Mike.
Today is his Birthday.
Mike is among the nicest people you could ever meet. I often call him and tell him stuff he is probably too busy to hear but he always listens and gives me advice without judgement.
I looked for old pictures of us but quickly realized that being the youngest of six kids there are no good pictures of us. We are always wearing dorky clothes that are either too big or too small. But luckily we didn't care too much. We were good friends as kids and happily we still are.
Mike is kind of serious. He likes to buy tractors. Sometimes I make fun of him. And sometimes I just like to listen to him talk about the olden days and animals and farmland.
Once when we were young he wrote on his bedroom wall:
MIKE IS 5
The letters were two feet in height. Our dad wouldn't have found this cute in any way (the cuteness of such things wear away by kid #3) so I used my brand new scented eraser to erase it. It was shaped like a lipstick tube. He let me pick out his clothes for a week after that. I loved doing that and actually now that I think about it I still love picking out clothes. For Easter Mike, you should wear a yellow oxford with J Crew jeans and a pastel plaid tie, okay?
Mike and I each have lots of kids. Three of his are goats.
He has a beautiful daughter that is the same age as my own little girl. This is probably the biggest source of my homesickness for Connecticut. I wish our girls could be together for lazy weekends and holidays. 
Henry was trying to act brave in front of the girls. (H, M, R)
My kids are all dirty and rough and Mike's daughter is so pretty and poised.
Happy Birthday, Mike. I'm glad we both grew in Mom's uterus.
I miss you so much!
