Brothers and their unspoken love

As the mom of three boys, I often wonder if "when they grow up" if they will love one another as I love my brothers.  (My brother, Dennis is just a mere 360 days older than me.  I am also lucky enough to have two stepbrothers who I adore and love very much.   Jeremy is almost 46 and Eric is almost 47.   I am the "baby' in the family at the young age of 45.)  We are pretty close in age as are my boys.

I only hope that my boys will grow up to love each other as I love "my bros". 

Right now, that could be considered questionable :)  I am kidding, really.

The twins are 14, and will be 15 next month.  With that being said, they are pretty "self involved"  with their own selves and friends.  Braxton with "a girl" and soccer.  Braeden is busy with marching band, and in his downtime YouTube :).

The twins have always been opposite on so many things.  Braeden is an introvert, Braxton is an extrovert.  They have always had different circles of friends at school.

There are a very few things those two agree on.

Short list as follows:

Bojangles, Carolina Panther's Football, the love of Nike, Adidas, Under Armour clothing, and shoes, their dislike of Science class,  and sleeping

And that's about it...lol

Now on to the point of this post...

I knew I needed to tell the other two boys about Braeden.  They already had some idea that "something was wrong".   Braeden's left hand issues are pretty noticeable and also the amount of school that he has had to miss.

(This is the twins first year of high school, and every class counts.  Braeden has hated having to miss so much school.)

I honestly thought that they both would hear the news and just go about their day.  I was wrong. I told Braxton while we were alone on the way to carpool to get Chaser on Tuesday.   He thought that during the car ride we were going to talk "about girls" and come up with boundaries for his newfound "friend that is a girl". 

Needless to say, I was surprised at how he took the news.  He took it harder than I truly expected.  He had a look of utter sadness on his face when I told him.   I thought, he would say, "ok" and resume back to his regular texting schedule with said "friend that is a girl" mentioned above.  But he didn't and we tried to navigate through the unknown together during that short car ride. (Keep in mind this kid is too cool for emotions and tears, and they were both present.)

I think I am doing something right with that kid.

On to Chaser....

Chase and I were on the back porch this past Friday, when I told him about things.  I don't think I gave him enough credit to be able to "handle" everything, and I learned a valuable lesson from him that night.  (To say the least, Chase is not my most mature child, and I had questioned if he even needed to know.  I didn't really think he would understand or "care".)   I was very wrong.

I told him, and then as he broke down in tears, I held him and we cried together. Once, he calmed down, he asked me the best questions about things that have happened thus far, and the things to come.   I answered them truthfully, and I am really proud of  Chase and his thought processes.  (I thought if it didn't concern FortNite, he wouldn't care.)  Happy that I was wrong about that.

Judging the reactions of both Braxton and Chase, I absolutely believe that my boys are going to grow up to love and value each other not only as brothers but as friends too.  And that makes this Mama very happy.

(Below are a few pictures taken from my phone of our family pics today.  Can't wait to see the photographer's shots.)

#BraedenBrave
#MrUnlucky