Dad poses for hilarious 'man-ternity' photoshoot and we really hope this becomes a thing

A father-of-two put a hilarious spin on the traditional maternity photoshoot by posing for his own "man-ternity" snaps. Francisco Pérez—better known as Paco among his friends—was more than willing to give it his all when his photographer friend, Martyn Wilkes, approached him with the idea of doing a parody "pregnancy" shoot. "I had been recently doing lots of maternity work, and I wanted to do something different to break things up and have a bit of fun," Wilkes told The Huffington Post. "I have known Paco for four or five years and admittedly often jested about his rather large stomach, which resembled a pregnant mother."

From the outfit and props to the poses and location, Wilkes had a complete vision in mind and Pérez helped execute it to perfection with total commitment to playing the part of an expectant father. Paco radiated with a paternal glow as he gracefully posed in a field of flowers dressed in a blue sarong, flower crown and some fabric draped across his chest. He also had a ring of flowers painted on his round belly, along with the name "Noelia." Wilkes—who has a daughter and son of his own—revealed that there is a rather entertaining story behind the name artistically scribbled across his friend's stomach.

According to the photographer, the story involves Pérez's 27-year-old daughter, Natalia. It reportedly dates all the way back to when Natalia was born and his wife sent him to officially register her under the name they'd agreed upon: Noelia. However, with a few too many beers downed, when Pérez scribbled the name on the official forms, his drunken penmanship was misread as Natalia and the name stuck. Paco—who also has another daughter named Virginia—is said to have wanted to feature the name "Noelia" in his photoshoot to make up for the time he messed up his younger daughter's originally intended name in her official records all those years ago.

While the #pregnantpaco shoot took place back in 2016, the photos of Pérez lovingly caressing his belly have taken a life of their own on social media. The photoshoot goes viral across platforms on a regular basis and continues to make people smile whenever they happen to chance upon them. This, for Wilkes, was the original motive behind planning and executing the shoot. Although he'd also hoped that the project would create good publicity for his work—which it has—"the main thing I was looking for was to make people laugh," the photographer explained.

Wilkes posted the photos of #pregnantpaco on his Facebook page with an equally hilarious backstory. "The most precious thing in this life is to give life, to pass on our beauty...to experience the most amazing gift given to us by mother nature. Paco is expecting a beautiful baby girl called Noelia, with only 5 weeks left to go, his dream of becoming a Father is finally coming true," he captioned the album titled "Waiting for Noelia..."

Here are some more snaps from the project to make you smile today: