happy birthday baby brother

Today was my brother's 10th birthday, and we drove out to Mission to my dad and stepmom's house to celebrate. I am 24 1/2 years older than my brother. When my dad called me to tell me my stepmom was pregnant, he asked if I was pregnant, too. Just because he thought it's be cool if his son had a niece or nephew who was older than him. That's my dad for you :)

Lately (since this past summer, so 6 months or so), my brother has been... annoyed? that he has 2 older sisters (Me and my sister who is 16 months younger than me. So, really, we're more like aunts). He wants to be the oldest. He's been pretty rude about it, too. My brother lacks social graces.

One of the cards my brother received mentioned that he'd be a teenager in just 3 years. My stepmother blanched. She is not quite ready for her kids to be teenagers! She said she misses having 2 year olds.

I, on the other hand, do not miss having babies or 2 year olds. I have been loving having 4 to 7 year olds, and I particularly love the stage my little sister is at right now, at age 8 1/2. I have been thinking a lot about having another child, a daughter, something that I've wanted since I had my son. Now, I'm not so sure. By the time I graduate and have worked long enough to be eligible for an EI maternity leave, my boys will be about 10. Do I really want to have an infant and two 10 year olds? Somehow, I think I won't want to go through the baby stage again, complete with an inability to communicate except through crying and tonnes of dirty diapers. However, we certainly won't know until we are there.

Lately I've also been thinking that I'll either have none, or I'll have two. I think children are better off with sibs who are close in age, who are peers. I mentioned this to my husband, and he said, "let's have none." I don't know how I feel about this, part of the reason we got engaged was because he was open to having more children. However, I have been joking about how I'd really like to have a 5 year old daughter right now, to go along with my two 7 year old sons.