When Your Brother Turns 13...

     When your brother turns 13, you will probably want to preserve the day with photos.  He will probably not like being the subject of your pictures, and it may take you a lot of coaxing and begging to get him to smile nicely.  When your brother turns 13, he may be interested in the army and ask for airsoft pistols and pull-up bars for his birthday, but he's still that little boy who loves food and would probably enjoy Pringles as well.  When your brother turns 13, he'll probably inform you that he's now a teenager and it will remind you that at one time you thought it was awesome to be 13 (even though you never look back at that age anymore without a shudder).  When your brother turns 13, he'll probably not seem any different than he did when he was twelve, and it will make you wonder what happened to all those times when you were little enough to sit in the basement and play with playmobil all day (or those bitterly cold afternoons spent outside digging out snow tunnels when you could still fit in them). When your brother turns 17, he will likely look back on these photos and wonder why on earth he couldn't smile nicely for once, and he will wish he could go through and delete them all.  But when your brother turns 75, these old photos will bring a smile to his face, and maybe just maybe bring the smell of the candle smoke and the taste of the fruit pizza with them and a hint of the things that changed and were lost since the time he turned 13.