Father's Day

Upon arising on Father’s Day, my children flew into our bed with wishes of “Happy Father’s Day!” They then announced that I had the honor of choosing where we would go out for breakfast. First of all, I was not aware that we would be having breakfast out – Betsy then revealed to me that we had little or no breakfast foods in the house – and second of all, Sam and Molly were trying to influence my decision by repeating their own faves for breakfast over and over again.

I decided that I wanted to go to The Pink Tea Cup in the West Village. The Pink Tea Cup is barely bigger than a hole in the wall, but is famous for their soul food. They also serve what are probably the best grits available north of the Mason-Dixon. There was no traffic in the city that morning and we arrived just a few minutes after their 8:00AM opening time. Having the place to ourselves for a few minutes, we also took advantage of the R&B and Soul-oriented jukebox to play some Aretha, Stevie, and Earth, Wind & Fire.

It was still early and starting to become a beautiful day, so we strolled around the Village. We ended up at a playground at Bleecker and Hudson, primarily because we were waiting for the Magnolia Bakery across the street to open. Magnolia is known for their cupcakes (made even more famous by Sex and The City), and this is what Sam and Molly had their sights set on. Betsy and I, however, also know that they have excellent banana pudding and deciding to continue our foray in culinary treats from the south, we shared a cup. And it was only 10:30AM!

The real treat of the day – what made it the best Father’s Day I could ask for – was that around lunchtime, we decided to try and get Sammy on his bike without his training wheels. We had tried this briefly a few weeks ago, but met with much frustration due in large part to the fact that I had not researched this task enough. What I have since found out, is that when removing training wheels, the seat must also be lowered far enough so that the child can place both feet firmly on the ground. I had not done this the first time around, and can only imagine the fear and anxiety of a 7-year old trying to figure out how to balance on this big moving metal contraption when they can only touch the ground by stretching out their toes.

Lowering the seat really did the trick, and Sam became instantly comfortable. He did stop me at one point because I kept telling him that once he figured it out, it would seem so easy for him. He proceeded to lecture me on the fact that someone such as myself who has done this many times before may find it easy, but that I should remember that this is new to him, and even if he were to find it easy, “the devil might make it hard.” Pretty heady stuff coming from a 7-year old.

I am not exaggerating that it took Sam all of about 10 minutes to figure it out, including how to start off from a complete stop. He’s no Lance Armstrong yet, but he kept at it and gradually got more and more comfortable. I was beaming!!!

I should have expected that Molly would want to follow in her brother’s footsteps and she insisted that I remove her training wheels as well. I lowered her seat and we had some limited success with her. Unfortunately, all best efforts kept getting thwarted by the fact that she was wearing sandals and shorts. The pedals, which have little nubs on them to hold a sneaker in place, kept whacking her in the legs and hurting her. I give her a lot of credit because she wanted to keep at it. She knew what to do, having watched me instruct Sam, and I would guess that another couple of trips to the park will have her joining her brother in the two-wheeled world.

For dinner, my brother-in-law Mark came over with his family and we were joined by my in-laws. I went up to Dinosaur BBQ and brought home a feast, topped off by a cake made by Betsy and an original Father’s Day skit created and performed by the four cousins. Not a bad way to spend this “Hallmark holiday” if you ask me.