52 reasons why I love my husband

You guys, I’m going to state the obvious here.

Babies change relationships.

To be clear, neither of us have any regrets and we’re absolutely in love. But right now our lives are dedicated towards Luca, and not enough towards each other. I’ve let the affection drop, and I need to get that back. We need to prioritise time for each other at the end of the day, and I need to make sure that he knows how much I love and adore him.

This 52 in 52 task couldn’t have come at a better time. The task was to “write a list of 52 reasons why I love and am grateful for my husband”.

So without further ado.

52 reasons why I love and am grateful for my husband

1. He gave in and let me eat my chocolate Easter Bunny while I’m writing this list (he doesn’t know I’m writing this list)
2. He’s so considerate of Luca and myself, always thinking of what he can do to make us happy
3. He enjoys the outdoors
4. He cooks for me so I don’t have to
5. He does all our budgeting so I don’t have to
6. He deals with me breaking the budget and hasn’t yelled at me yet (his disappointment is way worse anyway)
7. He surprises me sometimes with preparing breakfast for me so all I have to do is put it together in the morning, making it so much easier for me when I have to attend to Luca in the morning
8. He’s a great father
   
9. He’s a great husband
10. He helped me to change my life around substantially and turn me into a responsible adult (I still love fart jokes though)
11. When I decided I wanted to do a triathlon he was my biggest supporter, and was there waiting for me at the finish line when I completed my first race
12. He rode in front of me for 95km of a 100km bike race, taking the brunt of the wind to give me an easier ride (or he just wanted me to have a good view of his butt, which did also make the ride better)
13. Speaking of which, he has a great butt
14. He has a great smile
15. I love sitting down and having conversations with him about anything and everything
16. When he gets on his soap box about something it’s highly entertaining; I tease him about it but I secretly love his passion
17. His ability to make things (other than food) – a shoe box for the front door from the wood from the balcony at our old unit, repairing our camping trailer seams, the retaining wall in our backyard, all the other odds and ends, all the renovation work he did to our house, the various bits and pieces of LED lighting….the list is endless
18. His gardening skills
19. His ability to plan for things
20. His sense of style – he has a much better fashion sense than I do
21. His sense of humour
    
22. His willingness when we discuss our relationship and areas of improvement
23. His patience
24. His intelligence
25. His hugs
26. His kisses
27. His *censored* (bow chicka wow wow!)
28. His encouragement of my 52 list every year, and working towards some of the goals with me
29. The thought he puts into things, like my engagement/wedding ring that he designed
30. That he sometimes puts his own interests aside to give me the time I need to do something that makes me happy
31. He doesn’t complain about doing housework
32. He doesn’t complain when I haven’t been doing my own unofficial chores (we never actually divided anything up, we just naturally took on certain roles)
33. I have a phobia about people hearing me go to the toilet; I’m pretty sure he would have heard me making some rather crude noises in the toilet and he’s never said a word
34. He has absolutely no problem with going to the shops and getting feminine products for me. In fact, before the birth of Luca he had stocked up on probably 6 months worth of maternity pads (I still haven’t gone through them all)
    
35. He puts the toilet lid down and doesn’t complain
36. He encourages me to do the things I want to do
37. He encourages me when I’m doing something I don’t want to do (read: any time I’m attempting to cook something in the kitchen, I always get grumpy because I hate cooking and I force myself to do it on the odd occasion)
38. He supports me when I’m dieting/eating healthy and tries to keep me on the straight and narrow instead of falling off the wagon
39. He does the grocery shopping every fortnight
40. He’s extremely hard working
41. He doesn’t run away when I’m grumpy – he stops and tries to find out what’s going on and then tries to fix it (sometimes I don’t love this fact because I want space, but I admire his desire to make me happy)
42. How frequently he tells me he loves me
43. He never makes me feel ugly, even when I’m at my worst and struggling with my body image
    
44. The sourdough that he bakes is amazing to eat (and responsible for about 50% of my pregnancy weight gain)
45. We planned our wedding together – it wasn’t all on me and made things so much less stressful
46. He doesn’t complain when I ask him to get up in the middle of the night to help with the baby
47. I enjoy hanging out with him, whether it’s exploring or doing nothing at all
48. In the next fortnight I’ll be spending a lot of time on the Gold Coast to attend the Commonwealth Games; it’s inconvenient and time away from him and our baby, but he’s stepping up and taking over so that I can achieve a dream to attend the games
49. He’s a wonderful host when we have people over for dinner
50. The cakes he has made over the years are just incredible
51. He has surprised me with some wonderful gifts and treats, most recently a massage and facial package that was divine
52. He loves my dog, and respects the love that I have for her (although he can’t always understand it)
    

How hard was that?

Actually not at all! Admittedly I started chatting with a friend mid-list and she did inspire a few points once she realised what I was doing. Yet the speed that I was steaming through that list it wouldn’t have impacted me much. I wrote nearly this entire thing in the course of about 30mins, while watching tv and eating an easter bunny.

Since I wrote it I’ve gone back and edited it twice because I swapped some out. I could have written so many more.

Fact is my husband is amazing. I’m so, so lucky to have him.

Side note – I got sprung writing this list about halfway through when he came to say goodbye before he headed off for indoor soccer. (Item 53: he plays soccer; I love that). The look on his face was priceless, I could see how happy and honoured he was.

Mission accomplished.

Now, what are things that you love about your own partners?