This Sunday is Father’s Day and this year I am looking at it in a whole new way.

After my dad died in 1986, Father’s Day became a non-holiday, there was no reason to celebrate it.

My husband’s family has embraced me from the start, so by my early 20s I came to look at Father’s Day as a bittersweet time. We would celebrate my father-in-law by grilling delicious hunks of meat, corn, eat potato salad, pie or cake or ice cream and generally have a great time. My father-in-law would get tools and barbecue accessories or firefighter paraphernalia — he retired May 3 after 25 years as a professional firefighter — or a Home Depot gift card, maybe something for his Jeep, the kind of stuff you’d get a man’s man.

Quietly I’d think about my dad, try and remember him, all while chuckling at the fun gifts and silly cards and recovering from a good meal.

In some ways this year will still be bittersweet because my dad, whom I adored and whose death broke my 7 1/2-year-old heart into tiny pieces, is not here to celebrate as a grandfather.

But in other ways it will be completely new and wonderful because we can celebrate my husband. It’s his first official Father’s Day.

At some point when my father-in-law can mesh his schedule which, is filled with a mile long honey-do list, with that of his sons, it looks like they’ll go for a round of golf. That makes me happy because my husband loves to golf and I don’t want him to miss out on those things just because we have our pretty baby girl, Lyla.

I am looking forward to celebrating Jason as a daddy. We’ve always been a team, trying as much as possible to split things down the middle, though it hasn’t always worked out that way. When it comes to parenting, however, my husband is a great teammate.

Before Lyla began sleeping through the night — blessedly that started when she was 10 weeks old — we would take turns getting up with her for the 2 a.m. feeding and the hour and a half rocking her back to sleep.

There were some moments of strain due to sleep deprivation, but generally speaking we worked together pretty well through that period.

Now we take turns feeding her, changing her, getting her dressed, carrying her around, we work together to bathe her, but there are some special daddy and Lyla moments.

Every night he rocks her to sleep and puts her down in her crib. That’s daddy time and he loves it.

Jason has a goatee, which I love, and nowadays he will rub his beard against Lyla’s neck to make her giggle and squeal. Funny thing is when he kisses the back of my neck it tickles me, too.

Earlier this month Jason and I took a week off. We took Lyla to her first Mariners game. Daddy carried her all around the ballpark strapped into a baby carrier, her head to his chest, her feet dangling around his belly button. She enjoyed walking around the ballpark looking at everything from the viewpoint of chest high on Jason, who is 6 foot 3.

On a side note, the Mariners were really awesome to us. When we got to the park, the folks at the gates asked if it was her first game, and because it was they directed us to Guest Services. Once there, the nice Mariners employee filled out a certificate for her baby book with the important details about her first game, as well as gave us a Mariner Moose card.

“Oh, look at you,” the woman said, “all pretty in pink!”

Yes, she was wearing a pink Mariners ball cap, a pink Mariners onesie, jeans and pink socks. Pink is officially a neutral color to me these days.

Later on we visited the Moose and snapped a few photos. The nice person in the Moose costume even sat down and held Lyla, who was enthralled with his nose, so we could get a photo of just the two of them together.

The next day, June 1, we took her to the Seattle Aquarium after lunch at Elliot’s Oyster House on the waterfront. Again she was strapped onto Jason’s chest in a baby carrier.

Lyla loved the fishies and I think she really enjoyed being close to her Daddy all day. She would reach up every now and then and touch his beard just, I think, to be sure of him.

Another cool thing my husband has done for Lyla was make from scratch her first solid food — oatmeal seasoned with cinnamon.

Lyla took to it immediately and Ellie, Jason’s grandmother, tells our little girl that “Daddy made this oatmeal just for you. Yummy”

Oh, I wish you could see the look on his face when he holds her, when he makes her laugh, when she’s sleeping in his arms. It’s wonderful.

My husband is a great father and I don’t think Lyla could ask for better.

Now, when he grounds her again for getting into trouble when she’s 15, Lyla may feel otherwise.

But this year, on Father’s Day, I am thrilled to celebrate my husband, the father of our beautiful daughter.