And it all began; my last few moments as the youngest child. Mom was sitting in the hospital bed, chewing on her crushed ice. Dad, Payton, and I were squished on a rock the hospital called a sofa. It was around 7 in the morning and still no baby. While dad paced back and forth wondering if this was his chance to get a boy, I imagined all the fun things I would do with my new little sibling. Of course, the little second-grader I was envisioned my new little baby brother or sister, dressed in my babydoll outfits and saying “goo-goo ga-ga.” It was a great imagination, but little did I know all the fun as the youngest child would be over.

Still waiting for the arrival of the baby, my sister, Payton, and I explored the gift shop and the hospital’s cafeteria. My grandma told us we could each buy something for the new baby, and so we did! Excited to show mom what we bought, we hurried upstairs, but no one was in the room. All dressed in his scrubs, Dad met us in the hallway and announced to the family, “It’s a girl!” The 7 pounds 6 ounce-chunkster, Brayde, entered the world and filled the spots in our hearts we didn’t even know were missing. Excited about my promotion as big sister, I was the first to hold the baby (besides mom and dad, of course). Little did I know, I was saying goodbye to all the future times as the youngest child; goodbye to the extravagant family trips; no more flights to Las Vegas or trips to Disney World as a family of four. We would no longer say “party of four” at restaurants and perfectly sit at a square table. Sadly, we said goodbye to the family Wii nights with the perfect amount of players.

We all had our goodbyes but focused mainly on all the new adventures to come. We looked forward to ruling the household with dad being the only male in the house. We looked forward to planning vacations as a family of five, even though the beach would be the farthest we would get (five is way more expensive than four)! As the family grew, we said hello to our new home and hello to mom’s new Tahoe. Hello to the endless amounts of baby doll clothes and toys I could steal. We said hello to changing diapers and to what seems like an infinite amount of dirty baby clothes. Hello to fighting over who gets to hold the baby and put her to sleep. Most of all, we said goodbye to the “before Brayde” era and hello to the new life as a family of five. Don’t get me wrong, a family of four was amazing and is the American Dream. But we quickly realized, a family of five was the Family Dream. Four is a great number, but the odd number suits us better!