Brandon's First Father's Day

Breakfast at Nikko's - a little Greek place down the street from our house. 

Taking the bronco for a long ride down the coast. 

The Del Mar fair. 

Donuts.

Hot Dogs.

Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.

This was the 7th year in a row that Brandon and I have gone to the fair together. Each year we take a picture in the photobooth. We've captured our dating years, being engaged, being married, being pregnant, and NOW we have another miniature human being in the booth with us. 

Brandon, I always knew you'd make an amazing father, but I had no idea just how gentle and patient you would be. The love you show our daughter comes so naturally to you. From the first hour she was in this world, it was you who was swaddling her, changing her, and waking up throughout those first few nights in the hospital when she cried. I cannot wait to see you two together over the next 5, 10, 25 years.

You truly light up our lives.

What it's like to live with Amira

My name is Brandon, and I am Amira’s husband.

Since Amira first became obsessed with the world of blogging I have been bugging her to let me do a guest post. Finally, after weeks of asking she has relented. There was a catch though. She said the post had to be something whoever all of you out there are would be interested in reading. So into the rubbish bin went my hopes of posting a how-to on gun cleaning, or a do-it-yourself oil change tutorial. {You're welcome ladies. He really did have step-by-step pictures for a gun cleaning tutorial}

Did I say that the catch was that the post had to be something interesting to you readers? That’s true, but she went further. The post has to be about her—specifically, what it’s like to live with her. So here it is...
  
What it’s like to live with Amira:

Generally, Amira is my perfect match. We compliment each other in so many ways. Where she is anxious, I am calm. Where I am dispassionate, she is sensitive. Where I am a non-planner, she budgets and schedules. Sometimes she complains that we are too different, but I think it is these things that make our lives interesting and allow us to come
alongside and compliment each other. So there is the quick general stuff. Now for specifics.

The Witching Hour

Amira loves scary movies, but sometimes she acts too much like the characters in those movies. Nearly every weeknight around 9:00, often once she has put on her pajamas, Amira pushes her hair in her face, slinks across the room and pesters—no, stalks me like I am the only sane character in a zombie movie. She gets great joy out of doing this to me, and I call it the witching hour. For those of you who don’t know, the witching hour is the time of day when supernatural beings are supposed to be the most active and powerful; I think 3:00 am is the general consensus. Amira’s witching hour is much earlier. If she has any adventure in her, she’ll post a picture of what she looks like when the witching hour begins to take her over so you all can get a visual of what I am describing. {Um, no that won't be happening and he has successfully made me sound like a freak!}

The Dishes

Amira does the dishes pretty often, of course not as often as I do them, but often. {lies!} She has one handicap though. She will never clean the last pan. Inevitably, there is one dirty pan left on the stove that she will not clean. This makes no sense to me when she cleans everything else and even wipes down the counters.

The Moonwalk

We have been married for over a year now, and Amira still tries to keep me from seeing her butt by walking backwards. The more she tries to hide it, the more I try to look =)

The Photographer

Apparently blogging and photography go hand in hand. In a matter of months Amira has
become obsessed with cameras and lenses. We cannot go anywhere, cook anything, eat any
meal, or see a new sight without her taking fifty pictures and inevitably telling me, “Just wait, I gotta get the settings right.”

The Adventurer

Before she discovered blogging my wife’s favorite thing to do was to snuggle up in blankets and watch movies all night. That still might be her favorite thing to do, actually. I will say, though, that this blogging thing has sparked her adventurous side. All of the sudden she’s willing to go camping, so long as she can bring the camera and take as many pictures as she wants. This is true of all sorts of things she had no interest in before. Drive around in the dune buggy? Of course, she can take pictures of the scenery and us in the rear view mirror. Go for a hike? Yup, she’ll take pictures of Lucy running around peeing on everything. Pick up trash on the beach early on a Saturday morning? Absolutely, she’ll set the alarm, get up early and do her makeup so those pictures on the beach will look cute. I think I like this new adventurous spirit, even if she does always have the ulterior motive of doing things just so she can blog about them.

One of My Favorite Things

I could go on and on about the things my wife does and her idiosyncrasies, the things I love and the funny things that bother. But I think this is enough for now. I’ll end by telling what one of my favorite things about Amira is. She would be the first to tell most people that she is easily riled up. One of my favorite things, though, is that as heated as she might get about some event that came her way (or whatever I did to annoy her), she never stays angry. It is a virtue I think husbands all around should envy me for having in her.

Shoot, I didn’t realize this would turn into such a sappy post. Oh well. I hope you got some
interesting bits of info about Amira you can bug her about next time you see her at whatever blog event you all are attending.

I love you Shushi.