Happy Birthday, baby brother! Love from your sisters

Today our brother, Michael, turns 30! We just wanted to let you know how much we love you and how proud we are that you're our brother. To celebrate you and your day, here are 30 things we love about you:

Baby Michael

1.     We love your sense of humor. LOVE it. We will never be convinced that you are not the funniest person in. the. WORLD.

2.     We love that you're our Tall Paul. We don’t know where mom came up with that nickname or when that started but for some reason we all accept it.

3.     We love knowing what an amazing father you'll be. It’s only been a week and you’ve mastered the car seat, the video monitor, and poopy diapers (does he have to use the word poopy?).

4.     We love that you're sensitive and not afraid to cry. In the words of Graham from The Holiday, you are a majah weepah.

5.     Speaking of The Holiday, we love that you don’t have any problem watching chick flicks. And that you’ll even admit you like them. 10 Things I Hate About You anyone?

6.     We love that every Christmas you wear the same Bah Humbug cartoon sweatshirt that Grandma gave you when you were like 10. And even though the sleeves only barely reach the middle of your forearms these days, you still wear it and wear it proudly.

7.     We love that you are an awesome duet singer – it makes me miss you sooo much whenever I hear The Beatles’ “You Won’t See Me” on the radio!

8.     We love that you are still a mama’s boy and not ashamed of it – Sweet Baboo! – but NOT the type that doesn’t know how to cook for himself or do his own laundry.

9.     Along those lines, we love that when you were little, you gave Mom a best friends necklace for Christmas. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it-so precious.

10. We love that you will still occasionally write letters pen and paper style and that they are, of course, hilarious. Feel free to write me one right now.

11. We love that you went through a phase when you said you would name all your children after Peanuts characters. I’m still holding out hope that this might happen. I vote for Linus.

12. We love that you are super smart and talented – even though we feel like the distribution on that was a little unfair.

13. We love that even though you are so super smart and talented, that it took you 3 colleges, 4 majors (?) and 6 years to graduate with a degree in Philosophy. Go Illini! I mean Huskies! I mean Wildcats!

14. We love that you send us funny stuff off the interwebs and sign off, “You’re Welcome”

15. We love that you used to just call us collectively “The Girls”

16. We love that you once had that crazy beard that made you look either like Wiley the Hairy Man or a rabbi

17. We love that you used to have 2 sets of clothes – regular ones and ugly clothes you reserved only for work & church – oh the khakis & short sleeved button down shirts!

18. We love that over the years you’ve just done/said random things that we carry on even today – the weird hi pitched Byy-heee! at the end of phone calls and LUMUB at the end of emails

19. We love that you will email us important life decisions like this one:

“Man, I ate some cookies today at work. I saw that somebody brought some, and I was like, OK, I'll have one, and if it is crunchy, then I won’t have any more. But if it is soft, who knows? It was soft, and I had five. Shoooot.”

20.  We also love that you write songs about us and email them to us to brighten our day:

“stef, uh uh uh uh. STEF!! uh uh uh uh uh! whooz da bom?
ste ste ste stef's da bom! whooz da bom? ste ste ste
stef's da bom! That was a song I just wrote for you. If
you want me to sing it when you get home, I shirley will.”

21. We love that you used to have a Charlie Brown head. I really hope your son does too.

22. We love that you can incorporate song lyrics into everyday conversation. Get back Jojo.

23. We love that The Giggles live in your armpits.

24. We love that when you were little sometimes you would wear your shirt inside-out so that when you took it off it would be right side in.

25. We love that you let us dress you up like a girl and call you Michelle when you were little . That pic of you in the leotard and headband is one of our favorites!

26. We love that all of a sudden you’ll randomly become obsessed with making fresh bread all the time or homemade ice cream.

27. We love that you love our family.

28. We love that you love God.

29. We love that you love the new family you’ve created.

30. We love you cuz u da bom.

And Michael with  his own Baby

Best sibs

LOVE YOU BROTHER!!

love stef and kate