Last year, in honor of Father’s Day, I did 30 Reasons I Love My Man.

But over this past year, I thought of a few more.

Here they are:

1. When the kids were very small, he insisted on making each of their birthday cakes himself, from scratch. He made Rene a giant castle one year (with ice-cream-cone turrets) and — another year — made her a giant unicorn head (with twisted sugar chews as the horn). He’s also made race-car cakes and cakes with Elmo all over them for the boys. There’s nothing like seeing a grown man in your kitchen with frosting all over his hands and a frown over how he’s going to stack that third layer to give your 3-year-old the highest castle he can. …
2. When he’s on vacation, he never shaves. The resulting dark stubble around his jaw has now come to look like pure relaxation to me — and is just rugged enough and just sexy enough to make me look forward to it every time.
3. He plays the guitar in our bedroom from time to time to relax. He taught himself to play, but he’s been doing it for about 20 years now and can play a lot of songs. He also bought a ukelele about 2 years ago and is now teaching himself to play that, too. It sounds like the beach.
4. He looks great in his Levis. (Oh, did I say that one already?) Okay. … He looks great in his Levis sitting on a Harley.
5. He always rises to the occasion to be a dad. He’s always been involved with the kids’ sports — being in charge of sign-ups and picture days, too. But one year, he moved beyond the sports realm and took our daughter to get her dance pictures taken at the dance studio when I was ill. Although I wasn’t there to see it, the image I have in my mind of him standing there — making small talk with all the stage moms as they discuss hair and makeup — is priceless to me.
6. He brings me bouquets of flowers from time to time for my writing room. But the thing I love best is that he always pulls one flower out of the bouquet and gives it to our daughter.
7. He cuts his own hair.
8. He grills a mean steak.
9. He knows what basil is.
10. When we got our new dining chairs, our kids fought over who got to sit next to him at the dinner table.
11. He watches the Housewives series with me.
12. He has good taste in television and has insisted that I watch all these shows with him: Mad Men, Entourage, Weeds, Hung, and Modern Family. Now we make them into marathons that we watch together.
13. He taught our son how to drive this year. He also taught him how to order a corsage, make a date dinner, order a tux, and tie a tie. I think my son is in good hands.
14. He still makes me laugh every day. (Oh, I said that one already, too?) That’s okay. It’s important.
15. I still think he’s quite possibly the best father in the universe.

Happy Father’s Day, babe!