It's definitely not common nowadays.
It was a late spring night that I will never forget. The most perfect baseball night a fan like myself could possibly ask for. It was one of those nights with that beautiful orange sunset. My friends and I had just gone down to "The Stadium" to watch our beloved Yankees get crushed by the Red Sox under the lights. It was a perfect way to get our minds off of the SAT we had bright and early the next day.
We hop back on the 4 train after the game and I receive a phone call that I've received multiple times before.
"You're a big brother again, Dev!"
With that, I found out that my youngest sibling, Gianmarco had been born into this world.
With the addition of Gianmarco, it brought our sibling count to eight including myself, which unfortunately is one sibling shy of being able to field a baseball team.
One would think that having one more sibling would just be a "whatever" type of thing. Those people are right sometimes—it doesn't phase me one bit. Having a family of this stature and size is what I've been accustomed to. It's what I know, what I'm used to, and what I love. When I received that phone call from my mother, I acted as if I was getting my very first sibling, not the seventh. There's something about getting that phone call that is out of the ordinary but absolutely beautiful at the same time. One gets a sense of joy that they don't get too often throughout their life.
Having eight children is something unheard of nowadays, and it's a testament to my beautiful, hardworking mother. Keeping track, loving, and having fun with eight children is definitely not the easiest thing in the world.
Eight kids. It's hard for anybody to wrap their head around that. Sometimes I'm kind of embarrassed to say how many siblings I have. People almost always have the same reaction.
"How crazy is that house?"
"Can't imagine what dinner must be like."
They're right. Sometime's it can be something like out of a Dr. Seuss book. Having such a large family with children all close in age never makes for a dull moment in the house. The ages range from 20 to two. We have children of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Everyone is their own person and has their own personality, which makes having such a large family that much more entertaining.
Mom is looked at as the "Queen Bee" of the house. A simple car ride with mom turns into a whole big fiasco, mostly because the little ones argue about who gets to sit in the second row of the car as opposed to the third row. Nobody wants to sit in the third row of the car. It's always been looked down upon. They view the second row as the VIP section. And when you get old enough to sit in the front seat, those are looked at like backstage passes, as close as you can get. Currently the front seat war is between my sisters Federica and Valentina, and I can't remember a day where there wasn't a fight about where they'd sit in the car.
School pickup is unique in itself. Six out of the eight of us go to the same school, Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Park Ridge, New Jersey. Mom has to do pickup for six kids, which requires a lot of time in the parking lot. Pickup is usually at 2:10 p.m. so mom has to get her usual spot, the closest one to the door. This requires her to get to her spot at about 1:15 p.m. When the kids get out, everyone piles into the car where the fight for the second row ensues. It never disappoints.
Regardless of size, we do everything every other family does. That includes going on vacations and going out to dinner. Vacations are beyond the craziest times.
It starts with the car ride to the airport. We need a 15 passenger van. Mom also does anything and everything for everyone to get through security and to the gate as quick as possible. That includes making us pack five days ahead of time so that we can ship our luggage to the hotel at our destination. There would be too many bags to check in at the airport. Plus there isn't enough space in the van to fit all the bags. The quicker we get through security and check in, the quicker everyone gets their snacks at the gate. Which, of course, is what everyone looks forward to. Getting food at the airport is always funny. We split into teams and go to our respective food spots.
Getting onto the plane is a breeze, but that's not before we have to figure out where everyone is going to sit for the plane ride. After check in, my step dad takes all the boarding passes and figures out the logistics of who gets to sit next to who. There is some crying and tantrums thrown once the finals results are in, but that all calms down once everyone is on their respective iPods.
There are rivalries in the house, there's no doubt about that. What I mean by this is that the same siblings fight against each other. The heavyweight battle is Valentina vs. Federica, Eva vs. Federica, and by Eva vs. Albert, which is my personal favorite. They are always entertaining. Recently Valentina and Federica fought over who had the most Instagram followers. Turns out Federica has more and the older sister, Valentina, wasn't too happy about that.
Going out to eat, there's always an instance where we go "Oh no! They can't sit next to each other." That usually ends up being for Albert and Eva. They somehow always end up sitting next to each other, and that cannot happen. One of them will end up putting salt in one's drink or stealing a french fry from one's plate, which is by far the worst.
Christmas is exactly how you think it would be. The cliche 7:30 a.m. wake up ensues, and it's usually Federica and Eva leading the charge. However, we always end up waiting for someone to wake up. This year it was Gianmarco, last but not least in the eight. If you wake him up out of his sleep, "it's like waking a bear," as mom describes it. You don't want to do it. Each Christmas morning we open our stockings to find out which type of wrapping paper we have. Each child is assigned a wrapping paper, and that's how we find our presents under the tree. The smart ones in the group go to the couch, claim their spot call "fives" then proceed to find out their wrapping paper type. That's usually the route I go. Recently mom has made us wear matching Christmas pajamas. That hasn't really set in well with everybody.
If I went on, I could write a book about what life is like in the eyes of a 20-year-old big brother. But what I have is a gift. We'll never be alone, and there will always be someone to call on in good or bad. We're a big family, but we're just like any other family.
