The Birthday Boy

Today is my husband's 35th birthday. I thought it appropriate if I wrote a bit about him in honor of his birthday, because without him there would be no blog. I know I said that about Georgia too, but without "The Sperminator" none of them would be here, so the credit should go mostly to him.

Andy and I met in college, but didn't start dating until a year after we graduated. It's a nice little story, but one I'll save for another time. After we got married we waited a couple years to start having kids and when Sonya came along in 2004, I realized just how good a daddy I had picked for my kids. One of the things I love most about him is how much he loves those girls. He's always helpful with them whenever he's here. They love him because he's the fun parent. The one who plays games with them and runs around outside with them. The one who will tell me they have too many sweets, but give them the extra scoop of ice cream anyway. He's the one who has a hard time telling his little girls, "no".

Every night, he'll call on his way home from work to see if they're awake. I will admit, I dread when they are still awake when he comes home. I dread it, because I get them all settled and into bed, just ready for sleep. At this point in the day, I'm done with them and need some time off. However, I understand that he doesn't get to see them all the time. He usually doesn't get home from work until 7:30 at the earliest. They get so excited when he walks through the door, and I'm pretty sure the neighbors down the street can here the shrieks of "DADDY!!" coming from our house at the end of the day. Then it's about half an hour of Daddy play time followed by another twenty minutes, at least, of trying to get them to where I had them before he walked in the door.

First they want to do "spinny". This is where he spins them around the room until they are all pretty "bizzy", as Lana puts it. Then after about the 5th time of that he tries to settle them down by singing songs with them. After that he leaves the room and we all hope for the best, but usually we hear from them, especially Lana, at least five or six more times. Still, they love seeing him and he them and for that I am willing to deal with them being awake just one hour more.

He also understands the work that goes into being a stay at home mom. He knows how busy I am all day with the kids and keeping the house running. He always encourages me to go out to dinner with the girls or for a massage on the weekend. If I don't feel like I can get to making dinner one night, he never gives me a hard time about it. Well not seriously anyway. He's always giving me a hard time about something, but that's because he's Andy and he jokes around alot. That is probably the first thing that made me fall in love with him. His sense of humor. He is, without a doubt the funniest, person I know. He jokes with the girls all the time too, even if some of the sarcasm is lost on them. Someday they'll get it and hopefully even pick up his some of his wit. My money is on Lana with that one.

I know this isn't exactly where he thought he would end up at 35. I didn't think it was where I would be either, but I'm starting to find that where we end up is where we should be. Without him I wouldn't have my three little inspirations. The reasons I'm writing again while getting to stay home and take care of them. Without Andy, I couldn't do any of that. I want to thank him for being such a great father and husband. I can't think of anyone else I would want to raise these three girls with. There is nothing I wouldn't do for him, because I love him, but also because I know there is nothing he wouldn't do for me. Happy Birthday Baby!