Father's Day Fun

A Collection

of Images and Thoughts on

My First Father's Day Up Nort'

So, this past weekend was Father's Day, and like all other guys out there lucky enough to be Dads, Pops, and the like, I enjoyed the adulation of my family and the exaltations regarding my fatherdom.

Seeing as how our little enclave of the Becker Clan is sort of isolated in this lakey state, Melanie made it a point that the day was a special one and helped Cole express some of his own pleasure about me being his Pop.

I was given the morning to sleep in and slumber in the relative quiet of our bedroom while the last touches were made to my hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind, completely-Coley-made gifts.

My first home-made card did not disappoint. It was crafted by both Melanie (she did have to help the kid a bit) and Cole, who drew the interior art. (A first time effort with mixed media or media of anykind that wasn't food.)

Melanie and Cole seemed to have had a great time working on the card. But the real work of art was the gift that I got from Cole. It was his first ever finger painting.

It was a whole day of first creations for the little man.

Melanie had picked up a couple of white tiles after inspiration struck her for my gift.

She dressed Cole up in an old t-shirt and poured six of his ten new fingerpaint colors into small dixie cups.

As soon as she gave Cole
the tile and paint, he was off and running.

You can see that our natural artist is quite serious about his work.

At one point, Melanie tried to adjust the tile on the table so that Cole could paint the less used portion at the top.

He looked at her like she was nuts and turned the tile back to the proper position for viewing.

Cole seemed determined to produce a specific vision that he had for his first modern impressionist work.

As soon as Cole was finished with his painting, he moved it aside and took off the t-shirt. He was more than happy to talk about his piece once it was finished and spoke at great length with his Mom about the subtle shading techniques he used and the types of finger strokes that produce the best blends.

After reviewing it these past few days, we have come to the conclusion that it might be his impression of the view from our back window. The grass and groundcover in the forest behind the house give way to open sky and flecks of blue. He tends to spend a good deal of his play time at the windowsill playing with his toys and observing the trees. Perhaps, he will let us know later on.

After some general fooling around, we opened our Father-Son gift.

We have been wanting to go for bike rides since he could sit upright. Until now we have only been able to go on hikes and stroller rides, and not much else.

But now, we have the means to take rides together. We got a bike trailer. Coley already knew where his helmet goes. Safety first.

He helped me unfold it and put the wheels on it in the living room. Cole's Mom was good enough to point out the difficulty of removing the fully assembled trailer from the house (after it was assembled). But we managed to get it out the door and hook it to a bike and go for a ride.

And let me tell you, that boy is getting heavy. He seems all light and stuff on the flats, but once we hit the hills, you start thinking about feeding him just a bit less. My theory is that as we ride, I will lose weight and he'll gain it, so we'll have a constant training weight.

Seriously, we had a great time riding together. Cole rode in silence. I didn't talk. (wheezed a bit, though) And, we found a neat little park just a couple blocks from our townhouse that we can use until we move.

The capstone for the whole day were the nice strip steaks that Melanie and I got to eat alone at the end of the day. Cooked just right, both with mushrooms, mine with crumbled blue cheese, and both with a baked potato. It was practically criminal they were so good.

Happy Father's Day to all.