Yes, I really am a second child!

     If you've met me, you may think I'm a type A personality. Which, let's face it, is true. But I'm also a second child.  During the holiday season, there's lots of reminiscing about childhood memories, and tales told of childhood misadventures. My most favorite childhood memory is about being a second child.
     My brother Mike is two years and two weeks older than I. When he started kindergarten, there was a first day of school picture (of course I didn't get one!) but as where we lived kindergarten was an all day - every other day affair, he was still home a lot of the time. If you're curious, this was because we lived waaay out in the boonies and they only wanted to run the school buses on one route, not send them out again in the middle of the day for a handful of pesky kindergarteners. Also an interesting fact, there was only one bus route for k-12. The. Boonies.
     However, the year he went to first grade was pay dirt! He was gone every day. Which means I got to hang out with my mom, just me, every day! Our daily routine consisted of this: We'd have breakfast with Mike as per usual. We, and the plethora of dobermans, would walk to the end of the long driveway with him and wait for the bus. We'd walk back, and have tea and toast! My mom would make a teapot full of Lipton, and since we only got three stations, and only one of those stations got cartoons, we'd watch the same channel every morning.You know what it was? Tennessee Tuxedo. I loved that cartoon. He'd scheme to get out of the zoo every morning while my mom and I would have our tea, snuggled under a blanket on the loveseat. Sometimes she would have bread or cinnamon rolls rising, but that's not what this memory is about. A pot of Lipton Tea, Tennessee Tuxedo, and my mom. Every morning. That's the joy of being a second child.