All growed up

It just hit me now, as I must have been tired last night when writing, just how grown up my 2 younger brothers are.

I met them for a bowling date, just the 3 of us, which in itself is quite the feat with our busy schedules as of late. We bowled 3 games (I whooped their butts in 2, lost by 3 points the other)...then we decided that we'd head out for a bite to eat.

Over dinner (they both had salmon, which they hated as kids) we talked about how work was going for all of us, talked about our mom, talked about how living on their own for the first time is going (mom recently moved out into a new house with her longtime beau). We had a nice chat, I laughed at them talking about how hot the waitresses were. And at the end of the meal, the eldest of the 2 pulled out his Visa and paid for the entire meal.

It really amazes me that these 2 boys, who I raised for the most part after our parents split up 7 years ago, are now grown ups. They have full-time jobs, make good money, and are responsible not only for a house, but for the 3 family dogs that my mom refused to take along (well, actually, it wasn't her that refused, but that's a whole other can of worms). When my youngest bro called after dinner last night to tell me that Bear had taken his cone off and ripped out the stitches on his leg (he recently had his dew claws removed) and that they were taking him to the vet to get him all fixed up again, it seriously brought tears to my eyes.

Without me realizing it, my little brothers have become men, and I could not be prouder of them both.