Chapter 59

• I CAN SAFELY say I love all of Mateo’s family, but mostly Isabel. She’s like my mom’s twin. It was the cutest thing seeing Mateo and Celia blowing out their birthday candles. Yes, his mom actually had thirty-three candles on each cake. Mateo’s was yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and Celia’s was chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. She even had them in party hats. Mateo in a striped cone hat is a sight I will never forget.
• Watching Mateo today, I got to see another side to him: the brother who still teases his sister, the uncle who is goofy and silly, the son who is respectful and loving. Getting to see him in the context of his own family was a nice little glimpse of how he’ll hopefully fit into mine.
• After Celia and her family went home, his mom and dad hung around longer. His mother insisted she clean up, even though Mateo reminded her he has a cleaning lady who does it. She didn’t care. And when Mateo and I offered to help, she shooed us away with some nonsense that guests shouldn’t clean and neither should birthday boys. So we simply have to wait her out. But I sense Mateo’s patience is waning. If he shifts and adjusts his pants one more time, I’m not going to be able to keep myself from laughing out loud.