Happy Birthday, Eric!

Well, we made it back from our Florida trip all in one piece, as exhausted as we always are after such a trip, but it really was a wonderful holiday. I'll tell you all about it very soon, but in the meantime I have been super busy settling back in, getting my life back together, and preparing for my mom's visit this weekend. So stay tuned for Thanksgiving recaps later!

Today, however, is about my dear husband. Eric turns 29 years old today! Hopefully he will have a reasonably light day at work and will be able to leave early tonight so we can celebrate with a nice dinner out, but things have been busy for him lately, so let's all cross our fingers on his behalf.

I figured that in honor of the occasion I should continue the tradition I started on his 26th birthday, in which I make a brand new list of things I love about my husband (see here, here and here for previous installments). I try to come up with new things every year, so he better keep coming up with new ways to be awesome or I'll be struggling as the years go by. I'm sure he'll oblige!

My husband, the birthday boy, the love of my life, the apple of my eye.

29 Things I Love About My 29-Year-Old Husband

(in no particular order)

1. I love how excited he is to have a daughter. I know he would have been thrilled to have a son, too (and we both hope for one of those someday), but he is just over the moon about his little girl. It just makes my heart melt to see and hear how excited he really is.
2. I love that he says my pregnant belly is beautiful. Whether he really means it or not, it's nice to hear!
3. I love that he bought both a Batman and a Cookie Monster t-shirt last week.
4. I love that he surprised me with tickets to the Glee concert this year because he knew how much I wanted to go.
5. I love that whenever he sees me put my hand on my belly because Baby Girl is moving, he reaches over and puts his hand there to feel her move for himself.
6. I love that he has such faith in my talents that he is convinced there is a way to turn something I do as a hobby into a profitable business. We haven't figured it out yet, but it's nice to have that confidence behind me.
7. I love that he steals my body pillow in the mornings after I get out of bed. I especially love that he waits until I get out of bed to do this stealing.
8. I love that he spends what I consider to be insane amounts of time looking at golf stuff on the internet. (How much can you really research about golf???)
9. I love that not only is he always up to a challenge, but he thrives when he has something to work hard for.
10. I love that he always, without fail, treats me in a way that will be a great example for our daughter to see. I pray that she will see how Eric treats me and will accept nothing less from her future spouse.
11. I love that he doesn't hesitate to sing the random songs in his head out loud. We are a household that encourages singing!
12. I love that he always tries to have lunch with me during the week, even if he's really busy (our office buildings are next door to each other).
13. I love that when he stays up late to play video games after I go to bed, he always updates me on his progress in the morning.
14. I love that he has read 24 books this year, including Little Women at my request.
15. I love how wicked hot he looked in his Gotham PD uniform for the Batman movie filming.
16. I love that every Tuesday when we hit a new week in this pregnancy, he draws a new little picture to commemorate the occasion on our white board in the kitchen.
17. I love the way our current Baby Name Front-runner sounds when he says it. (And no, I won't tell you what it is!)
18. I love the sound of his laugh.
19. I love the way he looks in jeans.
20. I love that he uses punctuation in the labels on his browser bookmarks bar. (Ex: Twitter is on there as "Twitter??" There are also some with periods and exclamation points. I find this charming.)
21. I love that he always drives when we're in Florida (or on a road trip) because he knows I hate it.
22. I love that back in our high school days, he came to my school football games and band competitions to see me march. As a non-music guy (back then, at least), that could not have been all that fun.
23. I love the way that he makes pasta sauce. Not only because the end result is delicious, but also the way he stirs the sauce (he really puts his full body into it) and the way he offers me regular samples as it cooks!
24. I love that he wants so badly to be a good provider for our family.
25. I love the way he smiles at me when he first wakes up in the morning.
26. I love the fact that he won't eat anything that comes in a pie pan, mainly because this means that on normal Thanksgivings (when we are home and do our own thing) the entire pumpkin pie is MINE.
27. I love that he makes sure to get my attention so I can see when the dog is doing something especially cute.
28. I love that he threw me a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese when I turned 22, because I had never had a Chuck E. Cheese party in my younger days.
29. I love that at the end of a very bad day, just seeing Eric or hearing his voice can make everything better.

Happy birthday, my dear. I hope you know how very much you are loved.