Today my husband turns 26 years old.

I apologize for the blurry image, but Tony refuses to smile whenever a camera is within 100 feet of him. This smile was purely by accident, which is why I didn’t even have time to focus properly before I snapped the picture. But he has such a lovely smile, doesn’t he?

We didn’t start dating until January 2006, but it was this time of year in 2005 that I realized I was in love with him. He was my best friend then, and he still is. Only now I get to kiss him whenever I want.

There’s nothing that he wouldn’t do to make me happy, and I absolutely can’t wait to see him as a father. I hope our children inherit his generosity, compassion, and genius-level intelligence along with his beautiful blue eyes.

For his birthday, I surprised him with the remastered mono box set of all the Beatles albums. It was an extravagant gift by our standards, but you should have seen him moping around the house like Charlie Brown for the past few weeks since its release.

Usually, Tony will tell me what he wants for his birthday, and I’ll tell him to go ahead and order it since he knows where to find it and exactly what to get. For the past few years, he’s failed to ever order his gift. He thinks it through, plans on it, and then decides it’s not worth the money.

This year, I didn’t give him the opportunity to do that. I ordered the box set the day of its release, and kept it a secret for weeks. It may be an extravagant gift, but the happiness it brought him was absolutely worth it. It threw off our budget for this month, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Believe me, no one on Earth deserves it more.

This weekend we went to the art museum (free admission yesterday thanks to Museum Day), then we saw “Food Inc.” on campus (free), and ate at his favorite pizza place (courtesy of his parents who sent us money for a dinner out). And this morning I made him a delicious apple streusel coffee cake that you must try.

Happy birthday, sweetheart. I’m so very glad you were born.

For more pictures of the festivities, click here.