And The Award Goes To...

Steve Nichols for Husband of the Year!

Seems like the past weeks have been just a series of fires to put out. Thankfully, none of them have been truly major or anything beyond what you'd expect in a household with three small children. But Steve has been tied up with longer hours at work the past two weeks; and it's fallen on Firemom Al to ferry kids to innumerable doctors' appointments, discourage pants-wetting among the already-potty-trained, and encourage a certain reluctant (some might say lazy...I'm just telling it like it is here, baby girl...) piglet of a baby to SIT UP ALREADY!

One event I did have to look forward to was our small group's bi-weekly girls' night out. Great dinner at The Flying Biscuit with fabulous friends! But my sweet, selfless husband, knowing the kind of week it's been around here, additionally suggested that after I took Miss Libby to the doctor's this morning (yes, again -- sinus infection this time) I should leave all the kids with him for the day and go out to lunch all alone. And it was blissful. Salsarita's (I could eat their pico de gallo by the vat), Gone With the Wind, and a table for one. No whining about not liking _________ (name food here), no child pulling a table over on himself, no off-duty first responders coming over to make sure said child has intact sternum and normal pupils. Nothing spilled. No play place. I would never have thought to go out for a meal by myself. I would've called a friend or gotten a sitter so Steve and I could go out. But being alone was just what I needed, and Steve knew it.

So, Steve, for this and a million other reasons, you've just won Husband of the Year.