A Letter To My Better Half

From your diligent dispensing of ice chips during labor, to your early morning drives to keep Penny quiet when my head hurt, you are the best friend, dad and companion a girl could ask for. It must be hard getting up every day with the weight of being the sole bread winner on your shoulders, but it's a burden you've carried gladly for nearly a year now.
Our little buddy already looks at you with admiration. She tries to form words to talk to you, her face lights up when you play with her.
When you come home, I breathe a sigh of relief. I love our conversations, I know we will never run out of things to talk about.
We've had some heartaches, we've had more good times than bad, you always listen, you encourage and inspire me when I think I have nothing left at the end of a long week, or month, or year.
You never blame my hormones.
You never tell me to calm down.
You Do insist that I do laundry out of our scary basement, because you're too cheap to pay the laundromat, but I'm not holding that against you.
In a generation that is still deliberating about what our roles should be as parents, as men and women, you strike a perfect balance of respect, independance and chivalry.
I'm so thankful that Penny has a strong and good man in her life.
I'm thankful that I do too.
Someday we may have all of the stuff we ever wanted. We may be able to fly from coast to coast and stay at our beach houses. We may drive sexy cars and freelance write from anywhere we want. We may be on "House Hunters International" as we search for a flat in Barcelona.
OR we may still be in this silly rental house with its falling apart cupboards, its sometimes working phone lines and its never quite clean walls and floors.
We will always have love, we will always have conversation, we will always have our family, our drives to nowhere, our podcasts of This American Life and probably the minivan.
I take comfort in these thoughts as I take comfort in you.
I love you from here to South America, to Saturn, to the Moon, to Portland, Oregon to Tinton Falls, New Jersey and back to the sticks of Massachusetts.
I think you're doing a great job.