broseph's birthday.

let me tell you about my little brother, matt.

today is matt's 23rd birthday and we are happy about that, but if you rewind to matt's 0th birthday (that would be the day he was born, right?), my big brother and i were oh so not happy about that day. if memory serves me correctly, matt was born on, like, the hottest day ever. my dad was going to take richie and me swimming at the dow center, but matt had to go and selfishly break my mom's water. obvi, we were pissed and decided to hold a grudge for, oh, seventeen years or so. you don't mess with a kid's pool time.

when matt was a baby, we were at home and couldn't find him anywhere. after searching for a while, we discovered little baby matt in the basement with handfuls of cat food in his mouth. kid loooooved his cat food.

one of our favorite past times as kids was wrestling. because matt was the littlest (and interrupted our swimming that one time), he usually suffered the brunt of our wrestling moves. one particular move involved matt, his head, the corner of the wall, and lots of blood.

when i was a kid, i had my friend, ashley, over and we were playing hide and seek outside. i was the hider and she was the seeker. it seemed like she was taking forever to find me (and let's be real, i didn't have a very good hiding spot), so i went to find her. i ran into little toddler matt and asked her if he had seen ashley. holding up (i kid you not) a bloody pipe, matt said "i hitted her with my stick." sure enough, i walk inside and my mom is doctoring her bloody little blond head. thankfully he grew out of that hell's angels phase.

some other fun facts about matt:

matt is handy. whether i need a light fixture installed or a clock hung on the wall, matt is always willing to give me a hand.

he's quite the swimmer. he swam for four years at the collegiate level and currently coaches a local swim team.

i have a distinct memory of matt near tears as a kid in the middle of sears because my mom wouldn't buy him a pair of jncos. yes, jncos!

although matt has gone through some questionable fashion phases (jncos you guys!), he's actually become a pretty stylish guy. way to go, matt.

happy birthday, little brudder. i hope 23 treats you well.