This is my boy, Roman.

Even at the young age of 2, Roman is a very boyish boy. He loves to watch sports on TV: baseball, football, soccer, even golf. Up until his current obsession with Thomas Train, he didn’t go anywhere without carrying his baseball bat and baseball. He becomes fixated on all kinds of electronic gadgets. And he loves to punch the heavy-bag that hangs in his lolo’s (grandpa’s) back yard. Whenever I try to kiss hm now, he pushes my face away and screams, “No!” I half-expect him to tell me, “Cut out that pansy stuff, Dad! Now be quiet, the game’s on.”

One day I was lying on the floor flipping through photos on my iPod while Roman was on the couch watching Barney. He got off the couch and lay down next to me to see what I was looking at. Then I flipped to this image:

“Ohhh,” said Roman, his eyes fixed to the little screen. “You like her?” I asked. He covered his mouth with his hands and giggled, “Heeheeheehee!” This is a picture that Kirin shot at the recent Miss Philippines California pageant we covered. The little girl is one of the child dancers that performed during intermission. When I tried to flip to another photo, my son started to scream. So I flipped it back. “Ohhh…”

I looked at him with my “aww, my little boy’s growing up!” look. And just when I was about to grab him and smother him with kisses, he jumped on the couch and gave me his “No!” face, leaned back and concentrated on Barney on the TV.