Happy Birthday, Graham!

My brother is 20 today.

Graham is the middle child of five, so I actually had to look for a while before I found any pictures of him that weren't "littlest of the bigs" or "biggest of the littles" shots. The photo at right looks to be his fourth or fifth birthday and honors his irrational love of all things Aladdin-related. My mom made that cake, which, in retrospect, was pretty awesome.

I don't remember much from the day Graham was born, other than that I wore a pink-and-white striped dress to the hospital to visit him. He was such a quiet, mild-mannered little guy — I know he must have cried sometimes, but I don't remember him ever being anything but the happiest of babies.

Whenever we look through family pictures, someone always comments on Graham's baby pictures because he was always so inexplicably clean. There will be pictures where the rest of us are covered in mud or ice cream or frosting and Graham's clothes and face will be in pristine condition. I think we once found a picture of him with some spaghetti sauce on his nose and we had it framed.

Here we are — Ben, me, and Graham — in Maine ca. 1991:

Gettysburg, also 1991 (cousin Emily, me, Ben, Graham). This is before we got into serious Civil War reenacting, so our outfits are a little goofy. That Jeb Stuart hat of Graham's is particularly attractive.

So, anyway, happy birthday, Graham. Hope you're having a splendid celebration.