It still sounds a little strange when people say "Happy Father's Day" to me. It's hard to believe this is my second Father's Day with our son, Harmon. But, as I watch my little buddy grow from an infant to a little boy, I know that I am the luckiest Dad on the face of the Earth. He is such a handsome little man, and grows both in size and personality every day. He is very well-behaved and, as I found out today, very fearless.Because it was hot today -- almost 90 degrees -- we took him to Jungle Java, an indoor play facility on the west side of Ann Arbor. We barely had time to take his shoes off before he was thundering up and down the ramps and slide. When we first got there, he was the only toddler and pretty much had run of the place. Harmon must have gone down the slide 50 times in the two hours we were there. He absolutely loved it, and save for the occasional glance or smile at us, really didn't need for us to be there. As more toddlers arrived, Harmon still journeyed up and down the ramps and down the slide. There was a little more traffic to deal with, but he was very patient, and allowed most of the new kids that had arrived to have their turns, too. Besides being very handsome and strong, he is also very polite and considerate of others.
While he was playing in the toddler area, I could not help but watch all of the kids playing in the much-larger jungle gym at the heart of the center. This contraption of mazes, nets, slides, pads, ramps and various other rooms must have been 100 feet long and more than 20 feet off the ground in some places. I just figured that Harmon was too small for it, but I went and asked the people in charge. They said, as long as he could crawl and keep up with the pace, he could go up in it. We really wanted to try, and less than a minute into the experience, I understood just how fearless our little 19-month-old has become.
Harmon was everywhere -- running, sliding, crawling, jumping and wearing his Daddy out! And, as much as I tried to play along and follow, he was always three steps ahead of me. There was even a small room in the gym that had a small basketball hoop and several balls. After helping Harmon throw down the first slam dunks of his young life, he wanted to take the balls with him on his journey. We finally made it to the top and all that was left was the huge, enclosed, twisting slide. I grabbed Harmon and down we went. He laughed all the way down, but I didn't want to get going full speed, in case there was a little boy or girl in the slide or at the bottom about to get an unwanted boot in the eye! We made it to the bottom -- albeit 20 feet short -- and Harmon crawled out and back to his Mama. I was sweating profusely, and as I write this, in dire need of an Advil or six. But, Harmon had a blast and even took a few more turns on the toddler slide before we left.All is all, it was a perfect Father's Day. I had received some of my gifts earlier, including a new Nike sports watch, much-needed pair of new "chocolate shoes," socks and Nike shorts. Harmon got me some magnets for my office area at work, and Isabel gave me one of our favorite DVDs, "Tin Cup." I am very blessed to have such a wonderful family. For a little while today, I was a little kid again and able to see what Harmon sees. Both us us will sleep well tonight.
