Manuel, Manuel, Manuel

Manuel is soooooo excited about Isabella coming into our lives. Don't get me wrong - he nearly turned green when the ultrasound technician said, "It's a girl!" Manuel is a real guy's guy if you know what I mean. All macho, all the time and totally into man stuff, man shows, and hot women etc., etc., etc. Manuel would be perfectly content to have a house full of sons. Boys are what he understands and what he is comfortable with because he is one. Football, baseball, boxing, weight lifting, fishing are typical in the life of Manuel. So, "It's a girl!" gave him visions of cement rooms to keep her in and shot guns to point when boys come calling. He really got himself stressed out about it. All Manuel could focus on was Isabella as a teenager and how she would dress, act, treat boys, and how boys would treat her. The issue of boys is the big one. I think Manuel remembers what he was like as a teenage boy and suddenly all those fond memories are haunting him because he knows someday some boy will try all the same things on his precious Isabella. Probably serves him right ;-) But Manuel has had plenty of time to consider having a little girl - his "monita" he calls her (little monkey). I think Manuel now loves the idea of having a LITTLE girl. Note: the key word is little. The notion of a baby girl, a toddler girl, a grade school aged girl is wonderful to him but a teenage girl still gives him pause. And, oh my goodness, the double standard!!!!! You wouldn't believe the long list of things Isabella will never be allowed to do but if Jeremy or Andres were to do these same things Manuel wouldn't even give it a second thought. He knows and readily admits to the double standard but that doesn't change the way he feels about it. Thank goodness Isabella will have me and her tia to counter balance the double standard :-) She's gonna need it. Even though I give him a hard time about it constantly (playfully, of course) that fact that Manuel is already so concerned about Isabella's well being is comforting to me. But, shhhhh, don't tell Manuel. I intend to keep right on picking on him about this double standard/gender bias BS ;-)

Manuel's birthday was this past week. I'll post some pics. We also attended one of his friend's babyshowers. I'll post pics of that too.

Jeremy update: My son got his first bloody nose in boxing last night! But he handled it very well and I'm very proud of his efforts. He's working very hard.

Andres update: The new football uniform is really nice! He's going to look like a stud :-)

Til next time,

K