Happy Birthday Haley

We’ve been together eight years babe, and boy has it been a ride. A facebook group started a thread where we could list 5 favorite things about our partner, and since it’s your birthday I thought I’d put it here to surprise you too.

Lets see, what are my favorite things about you…

You are Passionate-

You know your truth and you will stand up for it. You believe in me and support me to the hilt. You want to be there for our kids, so you pour yourself into caring for them. You have never been one to just say stuff, you follow through in real, visible, consistent ways. When you get interested in something, you think about it, often pacing across the room, and spinning around to pace back. And after thinking and dreaming, you talk, and talk and talk, voicing the thought process and thinking out loud. I love your passion, about ideas, about relationships, about life.

You let down your guard and get silly-

I know, you probably weren’t expecting this one. We can both be pretty serious people, maybe it’s a firstborn thing. But there is something about you that gets me to let go and relax. Maybe it’s the way you laugh and exaggeratedly flutter your eyelashes at me for no particular reason. Or how you get super-duper excited about your favorite shirt being clean and ready to wear. Or how you feel like cooking and chop up a bunch of things and put them in a pot and stir anxiously hoping it will magically morph into something,  and your elation when your concoction ends up tasting pretty darn good. It’s the way you laugh at my dry humor, and how your laugh is so loud that everyone in the room turns around to see what’s going on. You always know what to do to bring a smile to my face.

You are determined-

You saw this one coming didn’t you. Sometimes your ability to have extreme focus on a goal can drive me crazy. But you have an amazing talent for getting stuff done, it’s actually somewhat awe-inspiring. You are incredibly dependable, if you say you will be there you will be. If you say you are going to get something done you do. You really are the perfect compliment to my absent-mindedness, which I greatly appreciate. Your perseverance and determination make me believe that dreams are possible, because I have you at my side to help make it happen.

You are Beautiful-

I want to include this because I know how hard it is to believe in one’s own beauty. You are beautiful. From your golden hair, your massive blue eyes with the long lashes, to your long legs, you are beautiful. You have a smile that can light up a room. People are drawn to your compassionate nature and your ability to listen to their stories, just like I was over eight years ago. You give the best hugs. You have that soft place on your neck that is perfect for kissing, that curve in your waist where my arm can wrap around you.  When you walk in the room, my eyes are still drawn to you. Your kisses still send a shiver down my spine.

You are there for me-

Wow have you been there for me. Supporting my parenting research, learning how to be a parent yourself, and listening to me voice my depression for the first time. You calm my irrational fears over simple everyday things, you know when we all just need to get out of the house and go for a walk, or get some ice-cream. You have even gone grocery shopping with ALL of the kids! (Something I don’t even like to do!) You proofread my rough drafts. Sometimes you come to pick me up at the end of my shift, and I can’t stop the smile on my face when you walk in with the trail of noisy kids following along behind you. And those times where I break down in tears over anxieties, you are the one who can reach me, holding my hand, listening to my fears, coaching me through it. You give the best foot rubs babe.

Happy Birthday Haley! I love you so much. You are still my Favorite Person.