What Dads Had in Store on Day Before

Mike Keyes of Mission Viejo will wake up this morning to a special breakfast of eggs, toast, pancakes and a smoothie, all carefully and proudly prepared by daughters Lindsay, 6, and Brooke, 4.

His Father’s Day gift, though, will be more routine: his annual bottle of Lagerfeld cologne from Bullock’s Men’s Store in South Coast Plaza.

“Dad shops for himself, and he always knows just what he wants,” Keyes’ wife, Lisa, said Saturday as she waited in line to make the buy.

She and other last-minute gift buyers conceded that shopping for Dad takes pretty much the same route each year. While kids can come up with all sorts of ways to give a special treat, such as breakfast in bed, finding an interesting gift taxes their young imaginations.

“It’s a little on the boring side shopping for Dad,” said Amy Gubman, 10, as she browsed with mom Wendy at Robinsons-May. “Mother’s Day is easier because I’m a girl too.”

The task was complicated by the fact that the Gubmans, from Irvine, had waited until the last minute.

“I’m really getting frustrated,” Wendy Gubman said as she and her daughter dug through patterned shirt-and-pants sets. They liked the clothes but couldn’t find the right size. Cologne was an option, but dad Mickey Gubman already has a drawerful.

His daughter finally settled on a tan-and-brown outfit and said she’ll supplement the gift with a breakfast treat: homemade waffles.

Other last-minute shoppers, however, had specific purchases in mind. Finding gifts for fathers who have hobbies or specific interests seemed to be less of a challenge.

Lisa Reyes and her sister-in-law, Veronica Diaz, marched purposefully past tables of men’s cologne and toiletries at Sears and homed in on the hardware department.

“They like tools,” Reyes said of her father and Diaz’s. She chose a set of four pairs of pliers and some small wrenches, and her shopping was done.

What if her dad already has that? “He can bring it back,” she said.

Diaz chose a large tool box for her father, who is a mechanic in Santa Ana. “I liked it, and I’m sure he’ll like it too,” she said confidently. “Dad’s a lot easier to shop for. Mom’s too picky.”

Having a dad who needs clothes for work makes Father’s Day gift-buying easier too.

“He’s a professor at UCI,” Bullocks shopper Angelika Aswad said of her husband, “so we’re heading to the conservative sportswear section.”

A brightly colored floral shirt caught the eye of daughter Alexandra, 10, but she reconsidered and moved on to active sportswear.

“It’s hard to think of stuff for Dad,” she said. “But I kind of know he’s going to like a tennis shirt because he does that all the time.”