Out-Numbered

My wife has six hairbrushes and one comb. They all sit in a basket together, like a family of Sparrow, nesting in a tree. Two of these hairbrushes look untouched, perfectly clean, not even a strand of hair between their bristles. Two others are worn to the core, matted with hair, accumulated over a decade perhaps, maybe more. If you were to walk into our bathroom and spot them, you would wonder why she keeps the Dog's brushes mixed in with her own. “That's so unsanitary” (You would think to yourself.) We don’t have a dog. She is saving them. For what? I honestly don't know. Maybe she feels badly for them or maybe she just can't let go. "This was the brush I used on the night of my Junior Prom." Or “My Mom bought this brush for me on the day I first noticed I had boobies.” I can't even imagine the sentimental value. Girl stuff. I can only speculate. She never talks about them and I don’t ask… Maybe she's crazy. One of the hairbrushes looks like it has ...

This Out-Numbered is dedicated to my awesomely chill second kid. Happy Birthday! When my wife and I were first discussing the possibility of having a second child, one of the questions that kept coming up was… “Do you think we’ll love it as much as we love our first?” Hmmmm. Good question. Totally impossible to answer without sounding cold and heartless but a very good question. I honestly didn’t know the answer. But I always heard from my parents and grandparents that you love each child differently. Not more, just differently. Yeah right. What happens when one kid is smarter than the other? What happens when one kid is prettier? You always hear siblings say, “I’m the good one”. It’s inevitable. What if the new kid gets all messed up like Jan Brady? Or even worse, Macaulay Culkin in, “The Good Son”. You remember… In a quiet town... In a comfortable home... In a perfect body... Evil can be as close as someone you love. It didn’t seem fair. To make the decision even more difficult, b...