First Father's Day

June 19, 2011

This year, there are many firsts to document, but most of them are Finlay's firsts.  It was Tyler's first Father's Day today and we had lots of firsts and lots of fun.  At one point, we were walking in the park with Finlay in his stroller (looking up at his dad with excitement while Tyler made silly faces for him) and I asked "Do you feel old, or strange, or shocked to be pushing a stroller through the park after picnicking with you own family?"  Tyler quickly responded, "My young family?  I feel happy, not old..."  We're where we want to be.  Enjoying the moment.  But every now and then I stop and look at us from the outside and think "Whoa, when did this happen?  I'm married with a baby!  Didn't I just graduate highschool?"

So we got up early, as Finlay is smiling and giggling in bed at about 6am these days.  We got up and I made our picnic lunch, we had a yummy breakfast, Fin played and then napped, we relaxed with coffee, and then went to the park after noon.  The park is only a block away.  We sat in the shade of a big yellow cedar and spread out our red blanket and gave Tyler his gift...well, part of it!  Due to the postal strike, the handkerchiefs Finlay and I picked out did not arrive in time!  But that was fine because, as Tyler put it, the fun of presents gets stretched out a little longer.

 Here is Finlay playing at our picnic.  He was so excited when we took him out of the stroller and he saw where we were.  He loves being outside in the grass!

Tyler got a real "dad" outfit!  Here he is trying it on in the park.

Looking fatherly.

For the picnic, I made a Herb & White Wine Potato Salad (one of my signature summer dishes), a spicy gazpacho (a fresh Spanish cold soup), and some Date-filled Tahini Cookies.  We also had some Phillip's Ginger Beer that Tyler had been wanting to try.  Finlay did not like the gazpacho.  He made some faces, spat it out, and even gagged a little.  He was happy with milk and a nap on the grass.  Tyler and I just enjoyed talking and laughing and laying in the sun.  Next, we walked to the petting zoo in the park.

First, we saw some little pigs!  They were so cute.  Finlay was pretty excited.  He watched them intently and kept looking at us as if to say, "Check these guys out!"

They are baby pigs.

Baby watching baby pigs.

There were ponies and donkeys and goats...

Llamas!

                                                       Here we saw some very cute goats.

    Finlay would sit there just kinda staring at them as they lay on the ground, but as soon as any of them would move he would get very very excited and flap his arms and grunt.

  Here we can see one of the goats has Finlay's attention.

 Beacon Hill Park is overrun by Peacocks.  They make a very loud squawking call that Finlay was very interested in.

This is taken in a little house filled with bunnies and guinea pigs.  Finlay is thinking, "Man, those are weird looking cats!"

Mum is looking at the camera while Finlay continues to stare at the weird looking cats (guinea pigs).

There is one section where you can actually go in the pen and pet the goats. Finlay was very interested but did not attempt to pet the goats.

I think Mum was a little more excited about petting the goats than Finlay!

We were walking towards home and we heard some music at the park's bandshell.  There was a Father's Day concert of Scottish folk music, so we decided to throw the blanket on the grass and enjoy some music. There was a lot of good music including some great covers of songs including Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (like the Gruff used to play) and Old Crow's "Rock Me Mamma" (also like the Gruff used to play). We had beautiful weather and an absolutely wonderful day!