A Father and His Son

Last week, I celebrated my first Father's Day. Harmon is seven months old, and to this day, it feels strange to be called Dad. But, Harmon tells me about it every day with his constant chorus of "da-da-da-da-da," which melts my heart.

I really wanted him to say "Mama" first, because Aimee has done so much for him and is such a wonderful, loving, caring mother to him. He just beams when she walks into the room and loves to giggle at her. We know he just can't tell her about it yet. He does, however, like to tell her, me and the neighborhhod, for that matter, when we are taking too long to get his food ready.

I received some very nice things for my first go-around as a Daddy, including some new shirts and ties, a wet-vac for the garage and a photo frame with three pictures of me and Harmon from his first six months, including one of my favorite early ones. Isabel gave me a gift certificate for a new pair of sunglasses. Ask Aimee how long those will last!

But the greatest present was knowing we have a beautiful family with a gorgeous, healthy baby boy who loves to give us big smiles and a bunny rabbit, Isabel, who was our first "baby." Both Aimee and I remark every day how big Harmon is getting. It seems like just yesterday when we were at the U-M Hospital and Aimee tried to sleep while I tried to believe the nurses when they said Harmon eating a half-ounce of formula was a good thing for his first few days.

Thanks, 'Nator, for making me the happiest Daddy on Earth!

Quick hits

Today, we picked up Harmon's six-month pictures. We thought they were cute but it seems none of our family members liked them. So, I guess, between the two of us, we'll have plenty to put in the house, in our offices, in our wallets and on all the kiosks on campus.

The U.S. sucks in soccer – like we didn't know that already. Kevin likes soccer a lot and was excited for the World Cup. I really don't like soccer, mostly because there are 10,000 other sports that are more fun to watch and follow. Plus, I don't understand it thus my ONLY interest in the sports is David Beckham. And, I can't stand a sport where there is so much whining and faking. A guy is taken off on a stretcher after the smallest amount of contact I've ever seen on a ball field and then, about two seconds later, re-enters the game to score the winning goal. Nice.

This is hilarious! The Knicks and Isiah! I can't wait to see what he's going to do to this franchise. They're already horrible so it's hard to imagine them being any worse. However, I have total confidence in Isiah's ability to run the franchise further into the ground. He's the opposite of King Midas – you know, the "everything he touches turns to gold" dude. Everything he touches crashes and burns – and it's hilarious! Even though I was born and raised in Detroit, I never liked Isiah much. I liked those white Boston Celtics with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, DJ, Chief and, most importantly, Danny Ainge (I love my Danny). And, this team and the Isiah-led Detroit Pistons often clashed so …

OK, quick Harmon update:

1. He's working in some other sounds lately, some nice and welcomed additions to the constant da-da-da-da-da.

2. He's is almost done with all the Stage 1 fruits. He started pears today and last on the list is prunes (yuck). After that, we'll move to Stage 2 foods. He's such a good eater. Only green beans have made him gag – we'll wait a while before making him eat those again.

3. He's getting a lot better at sitting up although he's ALWAYS pissed about it. He would much rather a) lay down and play with his feet or b) stand constantly.

4. Kevin and I have played catch with him the last few nights with his plush U-M football and he loves it! Kevin will throw it and I'll help him catch it and throw it back. Of course, if he wants to play tight end at Michigan, we should be focusing on pass blocking instead. Maybe we should move on from football and get a baseball.

5. On Saturday, Harmon will attend his first wedding (maybe he'll do one of his loud screams so we can leave) and, more importantly, on Sunday, he'll attend his first baseball game. My very stunning Detroit Tigers will host Kevin's St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park. It should be a great game (I think we get Bonderman's turn in the rotation), although Albert Pujols won't play in the series. I'm hoping the Tigers can continue their winning ways and that the Houston Astros can beat the Chicago White Sox so there will be some distance between the two teams. The AL Central is crazy!

OK, Kevin spent a lot of time on this site last night. I kept hearing laughter coming from the den!