I am the oldest child of two in my family. Joshua is my junior by 18 months or so. During a conversation this week Joshie remarked, "I'm not sure when, but at some point, I became the older sibling."

We were having a conversation about experience; life experience and how experiences throughout life can yield wisdom. Josh believes he possesses more wisdom than I do, despite our age difference, because he has experienced more. Although I understand his argument, I don't completely agree. I will spare you a detailed explanation but I found his observation interesting and wanted to share. Now everyone knows my brother has experienced more in his 27 years than I have in my 29. He would appreciate that.

During the same conversation, the topic of having children was raised. Unlike his sister, Josh has always looked forward to having children. He used to boast that he would become a famous musician, move to Sweden and father lots of children with random European models. This was before he met Lauren. Now his plan is to become a successful attorney and have a few kids with his wife. Curious, I asked him how many children he thought they would have. He honestly said he wasn't sure, how could anyone really know, but he knew they wanted more than one. "Yeah, it would suck being an only child," I said. To my surprise, my brother agreed. "Yeah, It really would." I'm not sure why I was surprised. I know Josh loves me.

After hanging up I tried to imagine my life without Josh. No duets in the car, no one to cheer for at karaoke bars, no one to compete with, no one to discuss pop culture, politics and religion with, no one to clean up after (a task I gratefully relinquished to Lauren), no one to tease and have tug-of-wars with, no funny stories, and no chicken bawks to Yankee-Doodle, no code words or nicknames for the special people we know. So many of my life experiences, the wisdom I've gained, is connected to my brother, Josh. Even though he doesn't read my blog, he argues they are a waste of time, I thought I'd share how much I love being his older sister, something he can never change, no matter how wise he becomes.