Caray, Caray!

Jean, LOL about Juan & Norma & the fence. Very true!

Also true about seemingly vast distances being covered on foot. We saw this same thing on LT, so I just shrug it off. As one might guess, there will be lots of meetings at the fence from here on out, and multiple modes of transportation will be used. Even if we don’t see one, I always assume there’s an SUV or horse parked out of camera range somewhere. ;-)

I’m a complete idiot for interactions between big, strong men & adorable little babies, so any scenes with Juan & the baby are precious. A gripe I have with LT is that (so far) we’ve had too few of these kinds of scenes with Hugo & Aurora. I hope Mario’s experience in PdG isn’t responsible for what seems to be essentially a “no live baby-wrangling” policy for him on LT. I say they need to fire “Blanket Baby” and make Mario suck it up & do at least a few more scenes with the real baby. She can’t be THAT averse to him; she’s female for heaven’s sake.. (Ok, I guess I can’t be sure about that last remark...)

I, too, was surprised at how quickly Norma melted in front of Juan, even to the point of blatantly defying her mother in public. You go, girl…

You summed up the Rosario storyline perfectly: Yawn. Aside from her & Armando (and Doña Raquel Uribe), I love the characters here & how this story is moving along. Having Oscar invest in Leandro’s store opens up more opportunities for scenes with him & Jimena, so I look forward to more fun ahead.
 

Howdy Juanchas ;)

Jean, did you ever see those old commercials with Nila Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) for drugstore.com? She was loving her bathtub so much that she started daydreaming about having her office in her bathroom, working on her laptop in the tub, etc., with the rest of her staff coming in and out of her "office." Can't you just see Oscar holding court and dictating orders from that tub?

Marie Celeste, I too saw Norma's Land Rover parked in the middle of the field somewhere in the side plot in my mind. Even Juan commented on her lengthy walk home (and we all know she never wears sensible shoes). Not sure I'd count on them having something as practical as a baby sling when they can't be bothered with cell phones or walkie talkies.

I think it is rare to find women who don't melt at the sight of a man (especially a strong and sexy one) holding a baby. I think it's one of those instinctual "preservation of the human race" things. I think the baby in LT is a girl 'cause I could have sworn they pierced her ears already (mine were pierced at 2 days by one of the nurses) but maybe I just imagined it 'cause she spends so much time playing with Ursula's.
 

According to the folks over on TW, the baby is a girl. Good spotting. I would guess it is common not to formally name a baby until he/she is baptized. I would guess that most people don't wait for 6mos to have the babtism. We have to wait for plot reasons. It's a good thing Norma doesn't go out much because the first question everyone would have is, 'what is the baby's name?' and she would have to explain every time...

Norma's shoes - I was going to mention before how funny it was to see Norma working in the dentists office wearing high heeled boots! I've never seen a dental technician in footwear like that!

Pepita's birthday surprise for Martin was really sweet. Gabriela is really a party pooper. Even Sarita was glad to see her abuelo having a good time and obviously Norma and Jimena joined the party.

I don't ever remember seeing the commercial you mention, Margarita, but I can imagine Óscar doing business from the bath. I'm sure Leandro wouldn't mind ;-). He might right in the tub too!
 

I tell ya, Norma wasn't the only one melting when she saw Juan with the baby!
Good for her for doing what's right for her child. I still don't get why she and Jimena live at Gabi's. They have jobs and could live independently.
Margarita - you KNOW Oscar would love to conduct business in the tub, while smoking a cigar! LOL.

Franco's role seems to be..not much. Give his brothers money, antagonize Sarita, while Juan is doing all the ranch work and Oscar handles the finances and wheels and deals. At least in Fuego, Franco sings.
 

I go home from work for lunch (on my bicycle!) and I watch part of PdG while I'm having lunch. It's very pleasant. I was watching today's (Thursday's) episode and it was getting to be time to leave. Then I see Juan lying awake in bed and Norma lying awake in bed and I can see what's coming so I start to fast forward on the TiVo. Well, needless to say, I was a little late getting back to work.

It really makes no sense that Norma would continue to refuse to go live with Juan especially when Gabriela seems to be going off the deep end. But whatever, it's a novela. I'm good with lovemaking under the stars.

Are the 'fruit sons,' I forget their names, bad or good? They seem to be a little resentful of the Reyes' good fortune already.

Loose lips sink ships - that Calixto is going to blab something at the wrong time. He is completely gaga.
 

I know Pepita is supposed to be a good person inside and her gesture for Martin was supposed to be sweet, but still, I would have been fuming at a party like that! It drives me nuts that they were drinking alcohol, and even Norma and Jimena joined in. I think it is terrible Martin drank so much that he had a hangover. It drives me nuts that he drank at all! I would not have alcohol in the house! Seriously, I'd be like Gabriela the party pooper when it comes to something like that! I wouldn't want to have her other characteristics, of course, but I do not approve of parties like that at all. I think it's bad enough that Gabriela and the others drink wine with their meals! Alcohol is a DRUG. Just because its legal doesn't make it right.

This show is pretty good, though, and holding my interest. And Juan is just soooo cool...
 

Jean: The “fruit sons” - Manolo and Manuel – are good guys. I think they just can’t believe that what Oscar told them was true, about the Reyes’ leaving the barrio to go live in luxury, so they’re probably just reeling a little. Once they see how well the Reyes boys treat them, they become faithful employees at the hacienda.

Loved this episode (61), except for Gabriela’s histrionics. We’d all be so much better off if Gabriela started listening to Prozac… Good girl to Norma for continuing to hold her ground during Gabriela’s tantrums about allowing Juan to see the baby.

I love watching Mario show off his horsemanship skills. What a man…

So Juan begs off of Rosales Party #2 and Franco & Oscar alone just don’t do it for Dinorah. Happily, on his night ride he meets Norma (who’d have thunk?), thereby saving her another long walk to the fence in bad shoes… this time at night, no less.

Not so happily, Juan’s horse & Norma give each other a good scare in the dark. The horse ends up on it’s feet, but Norma not so much. (I can believe people falling down when running away to avoid an oncoming threat, but she fell from a dead standstill. Too funny.) This was a good thing, since the horse is fine & once sweet Juan revives Norma & sees she’s ok, we get a lovely love scene under the moonlight. (I suspect that had the horse been hurt in the fall, he’d have responded to it in rather a different manner. ;-) I love the romantic scenes, but this one being in a pasture, I was a little concerned for them rolling over any horsey “hockey pucks”. Nothing like a close encounter of the 3rd kind with horse poo to kill a romantic moment…

Dinorah, being ever so unhappy that Juan bailed on her parents’ anniversary party, stomps over the Hacienda Reyes & gives Juan piece of her mind, and attempts to help herself to several pieces of him. After having to physically push her away, we see Juan has really messed up now. This is going to come back & bite him in the hiny like no wild horse he’s ever seen…

I love how Franco is totally over Rosario, and wasn’t afraid to stare her down at the Rosales party. Little Brother is growing up…(sigh)
 

Ahh, love under the stars....

Marie Celeste, I think part of Norma's shock is that the last time someone appeared out of nowhere while she was all alone, she got raped. They don't hammer the subject like they do in FeLS (and I'm not sure she's ever even told Juan about it) but it's not the kind of thing one is ever completely over and I think that contributed to her fainting.

I agree with grandpa, Norma needs to "do her business" or get off the pot with this relationship in stead of just staying on the fence (figuratively and literally). I understand her need for the occasional booty call (we all have needs) but not with the father of her child. Saying: "I don't know that I want to live with him" after all that's happened and is currently happening between them is just plain unhealthy and will hurt everyone in the long run - herself included. If she loves the guy, and sees that he loves her and her kid, maybe she just needs to finish standing up to her mom and start building a home with what is truly now her family - her son and the man she loves. Just saying...

I actually like Rosario (even though she occasionally whines and makes her share of stupid mistakes) and I think she's a great performer, but I gotta agree with the Rosales women that she was the wrong musical act to book for an anniversary party, especially singing about breaking up! Kudos to the wife for saying: "if you want us to make it to the next anniversary..." I think I would have done the same thing (unless hubby booked an equally sexy and talented scantily clad male, then at least we'd be even).
 

Margarita,

I agree that Zharick León (Rosario) does a great job playing a performer. She does an especially nice job with her dancing, I will say. However, she isn’t a singer. The majority of the female vocals are done by Ana Maria Forero, who appeared briefly as a backup singer during Rosario’s recording session not too many episodes back. Andrea Villareál (Panchita) & Lady Noriega (Pepita) do their own singing but have only a couple of songs each in the show.

I was thinking more about why Norma and Jimena don’t just up and leave their mom’s ranch to join the Reyes boys. Although I didn’t get it completely myself, I eventually decided it could make sense on a couple of levels: 1) They both still harbor anger and don’t completely trust the Reyes men after discovering their initial pretense; and 2) As we see down the road a bit, Fernando Escandón seems to be steering things at the family ranch in a bad direction, and all three daughters feel compelled to stay on site to keep an eye on mom & the family business. (I kept thinking that they could surely keep an eye on things during the day even if they spent nights with their men, but perhaps this “family ties above all” is a more Latino mindset that I as a gringa just don’t tap into as deeply. Quien sabe? Am I wrong?
 

Every time Gabriela tries “ordering” or “not permitting” with Norma I wonder why she’s still at the family hacienda. Even though she’s learned to stand up to her mother I think maybe Norma and Jimena might be a little afraid to live alone. Their mother has raised them to believe they need someone looking after them.

I liked it when Martin told Gabriela her problems with Norma would be over when Gabriela learned to respect Norma’s decisions.

I felt really bad for Martin that his family forgot his birthday. I’m glad Pepita showed him someone was thinking of him.

I’m so happy Franco seems to be done with Rosario. I was afraid she was going to be all over him after finding out he was rich. I really find her tedious and I fast forward through all her singing and dancing.