At latest count, I’d say there are about a thousand things that I do that remind Steve of the importance of specifity when writing one’s wedding vows. I have no doubt that his secret diary is filled with phrases like, “Refuses to put my sox away in color sequence” and “Can’t park the 4Runner correctly in the garage”. If I were to guess about one of the items he has written in red Sharpie, underlined with exclamation points it would probably be: Rearranges Furniture!! This, I have found to be the mother of all cheese moving issues we deal with – and as such, has to be handled with the utmost of delicacy. Which is why on Mother’s Day, along with all of my other lovely gifts, I was given explicit permission to dismantle and rearrange the living room. Truly, one of my more cherished opportunities.

And so it filled me with great sadness to realize that after all of his generosity and self-sacrifice on my High Holy Day, I have chosen to repay him by whisking myself and his first born child 1000 miles away on Father’s Day, and leaving him behind with our adorable, yet tempermental 1-year-old. It was a complete oversight on my part as I began jockeying around between vacation days at work and booking plane reservations. Before I knew it, I had done the one thing I had specifically intended not to do: be gone on Father’s Day. By the time I realized it, we had two non-refundable round-trip tickets booked, and the understanding that he had just added item 1001 to that secret diary.

So instead of reciprocating all of the generosity and selflessness he granted me – giving him a relaxing day of clean counters and all the fast food he can eat – I am reduced to sending him all of my love and appreciation here on these pages.

To my husband – the father of my children, the man who makes this crazy, overwhelming, endlessly challenging job actually doable – I say this:

I am reminded daily how infinitely lucky I am to have found someone so collaborative, dedicated and amazingly human with whom to raise my children, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful. Although Stella and I aren’t there with you, we are thinking of you and wishing you a wonderful Father’s Day.