Virgil

I started this blog Sunday night (Father's Day here in the US, and I know other places) and right in the middle my computer picked up a dastardly virus and I couldn't open anything; everything was locked up. So Monday i took the laptop to the computer repair shop and I'm just getting it back this evening. So I finished up the blog to post it.

My wife technically counts last year as my first Father’s Day. Yes, while he wasn’t officially ours yet, we had technically picked Matthew at this time last year. But we weren’t allowed to visit the orphanage on Sundays, so I couldn’t spend any time with him. This past Sunday was my first real Father’s Day with Matthew.

My wife wanted me to spend some time with him alone. They’re always together during the week while I’m at work, and I don’t get any extended time alone. That was a good idea, and I spent all week trying to think of a father-son activity. What came to mind that I knew Matthew would just love was, believe this or not, a bus ride. Matthew’s favorite song is a kiddy song called “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.” He loves this song, and he rolls hands over and around to simulate the spinning motion of the wheels as kids are taught to do to this song. Whenever I have the computer on, Matthew points to it and says “buh” (he can’t pronounce the final “s” in bus yet) and expects me to put him on my lap and play all the youtube videos of the song. There’s dozens of videos of it, and he’s fascinated by them all. Here’s one of the cuter versions if you’ve never heard the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvzk5jkrEkM

So I was pretty sure Matthew would get a thrill on his first bus ride, and I decided to take the bus to the Staten Island ferry (we live on Staten Island) and take a ferry ride over to Manhattan. And so Matthew got his first boat ride as well.

My wife did have a little trepidation sending me off alone with Matthew on a complicated little journey where I had to control Matthew, manage all the travails of bus and ferry riding, steer the stroller, hold onto my knapsack with his diapers, cookies, bottle of juice, and wipes, while clutching my camera and snapping at whatever arresting photo catches my eye. Why do wives have such little faith in their husbands?

Well, here’s a picture of Matthew and me in front of the house just as we’re off.



That’s one of our better pictures together.

On the bus, Matthew was absolutely thrilled. He couldn’t stop saying “buh,” “buh,” “buh!” I think at first he couldn’t fathom what being on the bus meant, but ultimately he connected it with the song. The joy on the little boy’s face was precious. And he kept waving to all the people. Most of them in typical New York fashion didn’t even acknowledge him, but some did. There was even an older woman that the two kept blowing kisses to each other. I did snap a number of pictures on the bus, but the tinted windows played havoc with the lighting. I’m afraid they didn’t come out too good. Here’s one of the better ones:



The ferry ride was great too, an absolutely perfect partly sunny day, not too hot and with a breeze. I don’t think Matthew understood the concept of being on the water. He loved looking out the windows though and I got someone to take our picture up front with the downtown New York skyline behind. Here are the ferry pictures.







Actually one of those buildings is the new World Trade Center going up. It’s the first blackish building to the right of Matthew’s left shoulder.

And here’s a really good picture of Matthew relaxing in his stroller while we wait to disembark the ferry.



We then spent a few hours in Battery Park, which is right there by the ferry dock, a beautiful little park overlooking the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately when I set up Matthew to take of picture of him with Lady Liberty behind him, my camera dropped out because the battery was drained. I had forgotten to check if the battery was low. So I couldn’t get any more pictures. But still we shared ice cream and a beer. Well, I had the beer and I let Matthew take a sip…. He made a yucky face, but still we had our first beer together. Walking around he got a kick of watching the pigeons take off as you approached them. We would accelerate toward the bird and as we got close the bird (we New Yorkers refer to them as "rats with wings") would leap into the air and Matthew would freeze, stare at it in flight, and break into a giggle. Amazing what little things give kids such pleasure. We could learn from them.

Finally we had our portraits sketched by one of those artists in touristy locations, for a fee of course, but I thought it was worth having a final memento of our first Father’s Day. I took a picture of it when we got home. Here it is.



Not bad, but to be honest, I don’t think it looks like either of us. I like it though, and the perfect ending to a great day.