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I awake on Sunday to the sound of my son’s voice. “Here, Daddy. Here’s the card I made for you.”

He hands me a sheet of paper. Glued on it are several S-shaped packing peanuts, and glued on those is the cutout shape of what slightly resembles an elephant, painted brightly in thick globs of some sort of paint that surely must be safe for children. A pair of eyes — enveloped in black, green, and blue — peer out at me.

“It was his idea to make it 3D,” Shannon says. “He said he knew we had some S’s in the garage somewhere, and there was a whole bag of them.”

It hangs in my cubicle now, still slightly resembling an elephant.

The rest of the day went downhill, fast, so I’m skipping it here.

On Monday, Shannon declared I was getting a “Father’s Day Do-Over” because she had been in bed sick while the boy and I hung out.

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The next large chunk of the day didn’t go nearly as well. In fact, it featured lots of uncharacteristic anger from Benjamin and much gnashing of teeth by us. We went to lunch, where he fussed and fought and then, without warning, lay his head on Shannon’s lap and fell sound asleep. He remained so for about two hours, including his car seat and the living room recliner.

Shannon, drained after her first official day of not being sick in several days, let us go on without her. We headed to Gattitown for fun and games and pizza inexplicably made with smoked provolone instead of mozarella.

Tip: if you go to a similar games place, go to one that sells tokens, not one that puts credits on a swipe card. It’s easier for young kids to understand how much they have left when they’re using tokens. Plus, there’s no $5 fee just to start getting tokens. And, don’t go to one that requires that everyone setting foot in the door buys a pizza buffet. Unless, of course, you want the buffet.

The bumper cars were our favorite ride and the best value. Benjamin’s face lit up when he stood next to the “You must be this tall to ride alone” sign and easily cleared the mark. Pretty much all the games were twice the price of Chuck E. Cheese’s — for exactly the same games.

After I recharged our card at least one too many times, we availed ourselves of the buffet and sat in one of three themed dining areas. The darkened room looked like a movie theater with two screens up front, and Kung Fu Panda was playing. After the big “Sk’doosh” scene, we left Gattitown with big smiles.

Shannon called to let me know she was going for a girls’ night out, and later I got a replay of the angry Ben act from earlier that day. He calmed down and was rapt as I read several pages of Runaway Ralph.

Overall, it was a good do-over.

We think Benjamin’s recent turn to the dark side is due in part to Kindergarten withdrawals and to a growth spurt. He suddenly was ripped from Monday through Friday with a room full of kids (or at least a table full that he could reach) to the same period at home with Mommy. And, he’s had other symptoms of growth spurts.