I’ll never forget calling my husband to tell him about my ultrasound appointment. He couldn’t come with me due to a crazy meeting schedule. When I called him with the news he was walking into a meeting, “Was everything okay?” he asked. “They look fine,” I said. There was silence on the other end of the call. “They?” And so in an instant, we went from no kids to twins and what I like to call “man to man coverage.” With twins there was no parenting inequality. We were in survival mode and my husband was doing as much, if not more, of the caregiving as I was. He has been an involved dad from day one.

Now our twins are seven years old and what I’ve most enjoyed is watching many of the personality traits that originally attracted me to my husband come into play at different stages of our sons’ development. When my sons were newborns, he was calm and steady when they were fussy. I remember one long flight where he spent the majority of the flight patiently walking up and down the aisle with one and then the other. During the toddler temper tantrum years he would gently pick them up off the floor or sit down next to them to read a magazine until they calmed down.

I’ve always admired my husband’s intellectual curiosity to learn new things or better understand how things work. When my sons entered their preschool years and were curious about everything—from which trucks roll down ramps faster to how many blocks they could stack without them falling down—my husband was right there with them, on his hands and knees, digging, building, knocking things over and doing it all again. He sparked and encouraged my kids’ curiosity.

Now my sons are age 7 and I love watching my husband teach them to care for those in our family and beyond. I’ve always appreciated that my husband is civic-minded and prioritizes helping others. I appreciate that even more now as he teaches our kids good sportsmanship and volunteering, and models how to treat people with respect.

Each day I feel lucky that my husband is such a wonderful dad, and as he demonstrates his most redeeming qualities with my children, I’m reminded of why I fell in love with him. And with a third son (now a toddler), I get the pleasure of watching this all over again.