Iban Eduardo Sanchez Salazar was born at 09:37 Hrs. on January 27th, 2010. Yes, on my dad's birthday. It's been one helluva week.

My new nephew was born at ten and a half pounds, via c-section. He was the biggest kid in the nursery, but I've never seen a tiny baby, and Lalo's tiny enough to me. He's all cheek, and like Angel before him, he was born with my eyes. Yes, gloat, gloat, gloat. Seeing as how my eyes in turn come from my dad's side of the family, it's really something special. Helen was with my sister during the procedure. She cried, she was so happy. Said she's a grandma again. She's my sister's godmother. Mom waited it out in the lobby. She's always been squeamish. But she cried too, everyone was happy. I stayed at Helen's house that morning taking care of the kiddos and Do�a Victoria, Helen's mom. She's really old (turns 91 in a few weeks) and has had at least two strokes. Coupled with her Alzheimer's, she's bedridden and doesn't speak. Oh, she's also missing a leg below the knee. But I remember her when I was a teenager; sweet lady. I spoke to her softly and asked her if she remembered me. She shook her head.

I only took that one day off work. Mom took the rest of the week off, and goes back on Monday. I haven't been sleeping well. Last night, I hardly slept at all. The Dud's out of the hospital, and she needs a lot of help with Lalo, because she's in so much pain. She also got her tubes tied during the c-section, and she's really sore. She cries a lot because she feels so useless. Can't even get up out of bed by herself. I don't mind helping her; I just wish she wouldn't cry so much and put herself down all the time. I think it might be the postpartum depression kicking in. And it sucks that I can't even make her laugh because laughing hurts her wounds, and she cries even more.

Still, the part I hate the most out of all this is Alexis. Yeah, the father is in. He drove down to meet his new son, of course. I have no qualms about that. I just don't like the motherfucker. He and I usually just grunt in passing when we bump into one another. I wanna stick a knife in him sooooo bad...! Can't tell anyone how I feel, of course. That would just aggravate an already tense situation. Because believe me, we're all tense with him here. Dud wants a divorce, the kids don't understand, Mom tries to ignore it all away, and I'm here fighting to keep my tongue in check.

I'm so glad my father is dead sometimes. At least that's one of us that doesn't have to put up with all this stress. Then to boot, our favorite T�a (heavy sarcasm here) is coming over next week because she wants to meet the baby too. Yep, all the way from Houston, ladies and gentlemen, it's Cristina Hurtado! *internal groan* Damn, here I am, trying to bite my tongue, and she's gonna show up and ruin it all in less than half an hour. She will not keep her yap shut. She's gonna meet Talegas and throw all sorts of shit in his face, from my sister's suicide attempt to his failed fatherhood. That's great and all, and I might even agree with her, but it's really none of her business. It's not like she's ever been supportive of my sister to begin with. It's none of her business! And it's only gonna make the Dud get more depressed and angry, and Alexis will probably explode all over the old woman, which in turn will only make her pull out the "I'm-a-cancer-survivor-how-dare-you-you-sonnovabitch" card, and the Dud will start busting out the "you-selfish-bitch-you-always-treated-my-mom-like-shit" card, and then we're all gonna have a nice little meeting with the local police.

I might just be getting ahead of myself (I hope), but I know the kind of relatives I have (I fear).