Spain Dad, a baby blog

This is the second post in a two part series about Alleke’s friend Erica from the bread shop down the street. Read the first part here. Erica wasn’t a babysitter. She wasn’t a close friend either. She was the woman who worked at the bread shop and played with Alleke when we came in to [...]

April walked into the office this morning with Alleke in the baby wrap and our little friend Peaches from the UK in her arms. “What do you think?” April asked. I shook my head. “I think you want another baby just so you can wear two baby carriers.”

This story is part of a series about Alleke’s friends at the bread shop down the street. This morning I ran into Erica on the street. She was dressed in her normal clothes, not her uniform from the bread shop. “I just got off work,” she said, anticipating my first question. “I’m just running home [...]

Jump! from Kelly Crull on Vimeo. I don’t have the heart to tell her she hasn’t actually gotten her feet off the ground yet.

Pumpkins Photo by Tambako the Jaguar. I stood at the doorway to our bedroom in my slippers and watched as April lifted Alleke into the stroller, set two warm pies wrapped in tin foil in the back, and rolled into the hallway, closing the door behind her. I stood there for a moment smelling the [...]

I listen to the footsteps as they cross the hardwood floor, crackling like a bonfire. They stop at the edge of the bed, and I open my eyes and blink into the darkness. A shadowy figure sinks a knee into the bed, climbs over me, and burrows under the covers. I lie there, thinking. I [...]

My parents used to go for walks, just the two of them, when the weather was good. My brother and sister and I were never invited to go with them, but they couldn’t stop us from watching them from the tall windows in the living room as they wandered down the gravel road among the [...]

Alleke learns her first word. Can you guess what it will be? Alleke’s first word from Spain Dad on Vimeo.

I watched from the couch with a book in my lap as Alleke disappeared into the bathroom. She returned with a washcloth wadded up in her hand like a fistful of cash. She glanced at me, then walked into the middle of the room and sat down. She dropped the washcloth on the floor, stared [...]

Adoption, an Alternative to ChildbirthApril and I first met in a carpool ride to a junior high band competition. Later, we went to the same high school and became friends sitting next to each other in band, whispering to each other between songs. We were a very serious couple, even at 16. April still remembers [...]