In the Williams-Ohanian household, “Sunday means Papa Pancakes.” Or, at least, it did until last year. It was a tradition that Alexis Ohanian’s father had when Alexis was growing up. So he thought, Why not do the same with Olympia and make a fun, art-filled morning out of it? The tradition went from conventional pancakes to squeezy bottles and developed into collaborations with Olympia in 2022. And now, it looks like Ohanian felt it was about time his and Serena Williams’ second daughter got a taste of the family tradition!

Sometime last year, Papa Pancakes got less and less frequent. Instead of every week, we saw glimpses of Ohanian and Olympia only once a fortnight or a month. And then, there was pancake radio silence for months… until July. That was when he wrote on Instagram, “Don’t call it a comeback. I owed Olympia some Papa Pancakes, and she wanted Ariel 🧜🏽‍♀️” But it was a comeback, and it was just a month before Adira River Ohanian was born. Now, nine months later, Alexis Ohanian not only shared a first look at the grown-up baby Adira but also restarted Papa Pancakes with her.

May 19: the day Adira was inducted into the family tradition. And Alexis Ohanian ensured everyone knew the date. The Reddit co-founder shared a picture of his younger daughter on his Instagram story, enjoying a pancake he crafted. But it wasn’t just Ohanian’s creation. Adira’s elder sister helped, too! Before posting the picture of Adira, the 41-year-old entrepreneur posted a video of him and Olympia making a batch for their Sunday ritual, one of which was eaten by Adira.

This Papa Pancakes tradition, at Olympia’s request, has seen Ohanian turn almost every Disney Princess and cartoon character his daughter loves into pancake art. However, one of his most impressive creations was when he made one of his princesses his muse – Olympia playing the guitar! While that was the most impressive for many onlookers, the muse begged to differ. In his words, “I made @olympiaohanian playing guitar, and baby girl has NOTES for me now 😆 growing up fast.” 

Alexis Ohanian has always had a knack for drawing and illustrations. And seeing his pancake art, Olympia was bound to get interested, too. Within a few months of their collaboration – which started at the end of 2022 – Olympia was already flying solo. Commemorating the first time it happened, Ohanian was thrilled, albeit a bit emotional. Posting a video of his daughter making her own pancake, he wrote, “@olympiaohanian is now making her own design pancakes — has the torch already been passed???”

From there on, it seemed like the tradition had become Olympia Pancakes instead of Papa Pancakes. The 6-year-old started to experiment, prompting her father to share, “She’s starting to find her own pancake art style (then I get to make whatever I can from her leftover batter 😆).” Even if he had only the leftovers to work with, Ohanian made the most of them. And he has been since.

However, given how Adira has brought out a “maternal spirit” in Olympia – as Ohanian called it – the Reddit co-founder sometimes gets free reign. And in that time, he’s made “chicken and waffles” pancakes, “burger” pancakes, as well as “Tic-Tac-Toe” pancakes. But there’s also another pancake he made a month ago that could’ve been his best yet – and would’ve definitely given the Olympia-with-a-guitar design a run for its money. However, that was what it was: a could’ve been.

Ohanian wasn’t happy with himself after messing up a Serena Williams pancake

If Alexis Ohanian has set his mind on creating a particular pancake, you best believe he will execute it to perfection. That looked like the case when he made one featuring Serena Williams playing tennis – complete with a Wilson racket and Nike apparel. However, when he was all but done, when the only thing left to do was the flip, he messed up.

Sharing his botched attempt on his Instagram story, the Reddit co-founder bemoaned the what-could’ve-been pancake. Despite its messy, cracked appearance, the picture he made of Serena bore a striking resemblance to the 23-time Grand Slam champion during her prime. Even so, he couldn’t help but be a little irritated, captioning the picture, “Can’t believe I messed this flip up!”

The past is in the past, though. And with the way Olympia is following in his footsteps and picking up his culinary talent, it looks like Alexis Ohanian will have to fight to avoid the Papa Pancakes tradition changing to the Olympia Pancakes ritual. And who knows? Now that Adira’s joined the Sunday breakfast tradition, maybe it’s only a matter of time before she makes it her own as well!