It’s the little things (or ones) that matter.

I have a small family. For most of my life, it was just me, my mom and my grandma driving each other crazy. Then, 10 days after my 17th birthday, and 5 months before I graduated from high school, my little brother was born.

When people ask me if I have any brothers and sisters, sometimes I say no, mostly because I forget. We weren’t raised together and we never lived in the same house. However, he’s still very much a part of me.

Even though we share just half of our genes, he’ll never be my half-brother. When someone is family, they’re family… it doesn’t matter how much DNA you share. Also, he’s the only other person in my entire family that actually looks like me (despite the hair color). I thought I was adopted most of the time growing up because I looked like no one else in my family. However, Kyle, despite sharing just half of my DNA, looks very much like my baby and childhood pictures (except for the long ringlets and more girl-ish features).

It makes me sad that he’s not allowed to come stay with me on the weekends, that I only see him a few times a year, or that I only talk to him once or twice a month. However, I value the interaction we have.

Whenever I talk to Kyle, it makes me so happy. I know everyone says this about kids they know or are related to, but he must be the smartest kid his age. Plus, he’s hilarious. Par exemple:

1. In college, I took my boyfriend at the time to meet my dad and brother at a restaurant. Before we got our meal, he dropped a crayon on the floor. He picked up another crayon and started drawing. We wondered what he was drawing and why he kept looking under the table, instead of getting the crayon off the floor. Ten minutes later, he drew a big X on his placemat and said, “X marks the spot!” He’d drawn a treasure map to rescue the crayon. At three years-old.
2. My dad and Kyle came to pick me and my cats up from Brooklyn last summer before I completely moved back to D.C. For the first two hours of the car ride, Kyle kept talking about how excited he was that I was moving home.
   

   Me: “Me too, kiddo. I missed you a lot while I was gone.”
   Kyle: “Can you just move in with us? I want to see you every day!”
   Me: “Sorry, kiddo. My job is in the city.”
   Kyle: “But I love you so much!”
   Me: “I love you so much, too.”
   He paused for a brief moment.
   Kyle: “Nicole, what is love?”

   Even though I’m sure he didn’t understand to the full extent what he was asking, I’m still impressed to this day that he even asked that and was capable of questioning something like that at such a young age.

3. We talked the other night about him coming to visit me sometime shortly after school starts and his schedule gets really busy.
   

   Me: “You don’t sound very excited to visit me, or the cats!”
   Kyle: “If I was a dog, my tail would be wagging right now!”
   I laughed.
   Kyle: “And, if my tail was wagging, I’d be panting like this.” And he panted like a dog.

So, while most people think the kids they know are the smartest, I’m pretty certain I’m right about this one.