Spain Dad, a baby blog

We had our first doctor’s visit today, and we are happy to report, we have a healthy baby! We got to see and hear the baby’s heart beating, and s/he even moved around a few times while we were watching the ultrasound. God is good.

April had what she’s calling her “first strange food craving” of her pregnancy tonight—a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I eat at least one peanut butter and jelly sandwich a week on average. I import containers of Jiff peanut butter from the States. Tonight April tells me, as she takes her first bite, “This is [...]

I want to have a city baby. The problem is I’m not sure what that would look like. I’ve only known only family who had a city baby, and they lived in Amsterdam. I lived in Madrid. Most city people who have babies move to the suburbs. They have suburban babies. I know lots of [...]

Today I updated my definition of a status symbol. In the past, as in yesterday, if you had said “status symbol,” I would have said “SUV,” or Sports Utility Vehicle. The Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Toyota Land Cruiser, the list goes on. Every car company has one (no, my mistake, many) to choose from [...]

Tonight at Spanish class we corrected out semester exams. I talked to Eva, our teacher, after class. She was amazed, as I am, at how well April and I did on the written exam, and how poorly we did in conversation during the oral exam. I left the school building scheming once again at how [...]

I’ve been told that in Spain people take pride in where their children are born. To be born in a particular city or province means that for the rest of your life you will always be from that one place. A few days after we found out April was pregnant we decided to tell our [...]

Yesterday I came home from the university around three o’clock in the afternoon. April said she would be home after class around one thirty. I unlocked the door to our apartment with one hand, rolled my bike into the apartment with the other, and after a flutter of helmet, keys, shoes and sweatshirt, found the [...]

No, I’m not referring to the goo that comes in jars. I’m sure there will be time to experiment with that later. I’m talking about the food mom demands for the baby before the baby is even born. What she eats, she tells me, the baby eats. It’s the closest thing I’ve received to a [...]