My First Father's Day !

As much as I try to avoid falling into the huge trap set by Hallmark et al for celebrating 400 different things over the 365 days we have in a year, I end up being part of one or the other somehow. And to add to my list is my first Father's day yesterday. With the arrival of my son seven weeks ago into our lives, my wife couldn't help it but celebrate the occasion in my honor. I am no Ebenezer Scrooge when it comes to buying or accepting gifts but as I said, I hate to fall into the Hallmark trap of increasing the country's economics and my credit card limits just because we have to celebrate my sister-in-law's day or my step-cousin's day. My wife, as understanding as ever, got me a sweet little gift of a photo frame with a super-cute photo of my little boy smiling in it. The frame also says "Daddy Rocks!". Coincidentally, I had to do a lot of "rocking" to put him to sleep yesterday. :-) Now, the frame sits proudly on daddy's work desk.

My in-laws have been staying with us (that's a separate blog by itself !) for the last few months helping my wife with the delivery and post-partum. So, my wife and I wished her father for "Father's day" and gifted him with a perfume set. He was completely nonchalant about the whole thing. This was much better than the bewildered look that my parents gave me when I tried to wish them for "Mother's day" or "Father's day" some years ago. In India, such hallmark occasions were rarely celebrated in the past but are catching up real fast and now, my mom called up and wished me for "Father's day" yesterday !!!

The last few days have been very exciting to me since my son has started to recognize me and smile at me every time I talk to him. He has also started to play actively in his "activity gym". There is a monkey, a cat and a parrot that hang from a bar and they move up and down to some tunes every time he hits or kicks them. Somehow, he just seems to like (or hate) the monkey and so, he keeps slapping it consistently. He glances at the cat at times but completely ignores the parrot. Also, I think he may be left-handed (too early to judge, I know) because he seems to use his left-hand more effectively than his right-hand. Surprisingly, nobody in either of our families is left-handed.