Dia de los Padres

My first Father's Day as a father was a delightfully relaxing day. We enjoyed Grandpa Fish's company Sunday morning (Friday evening and Saturday as well) and discovered that Olie is in awe of Grandpa Fish's deep, colorful reading voice. The prior day Charlie (Grandpa Fish) joined us for a tour of the Central Park Zoo where Olie saw his first llamas, sheep, pot-bellied pigs, goats, rabbits, macaques, seals, and penguins. He clearly favored the penguins where he beat on the glass in sheer delight at each passing of the goofy looking birds.

After Grandpa's departure on Sunday, we spent the early afternoon of that 95+ degree day resting on a blanket in the shade and the (slightly) cool Hudson River breeze in Riverside Park. Later Uncle Chris paid a visit and we enjoyed a glass of Frank Family Chardonay atop our building as evening descended. For Father's Day, Olie gave his pops two Johnny Cash CDs; the CDs held some 60+ songs that I didn't already own, which is somewhat of a miracle given my extensive Cash collection. Two new books also arrived, including one of my childhood favorites titled "Old Hat, New Hat" starrring the Berenstain Bears.

Onto Olie's first sign...The latest thinking on early childhood cognitive development posits that while language skills begin at 12-14 months, younger babies are able to express concepts via sign much earlier (some 4-5 months earlier). Since, quite naturally, "more milk" is an expression used often in our household it will be no surpise that "milk" was Olie's first sign to his mother. I missed the event, but have seen him making the hand gesture at other times. Gotta say, the boy appears to have his priorities in order.