Spain Dad, a baby blog

One reason I was looking forward to our trip to the US was because I thought Alleke would improve in her ability to speak English. Being around people who only spoke English, I thought she might begin to differentiate between English and Spanish and see that they were not one language, but two. On Saturday [...]

The buzzer rang. I looked up from the open suitcase in front of me, then got up, walked over to the window, and leaned over the couch so I could see the street below. In the glow of tail lights I could see the shadow of a man standing on the sidewalk in front of [...]

I collapsed on the couch. I had been unpacking boxes all morning. The stack of cardboard by the front door was my witness, and Alleke, who had stood by my side watching. To her, I was the magician, pulling things from our old house out of a box. From the couch, I could see the [...]

Watch Happy 28th Birthday April! on Vimeo. I gave April a hard time because I had to buy two packages of candles in order to get all 28. We made carrot cake. Here’s the recipe (cake and frosting).

I stood at the front door of the shop and looked around. Then I spotted her. Alleke had run off the street into a lingerie shop and was already at the back at the cash register where a woman was bent down next to her. The woman saw me at the front door and smiled. [...]

I was in an Ecuadorian restaurant decorated like the inside of a boat, eating a fried banana and talking with friends, when I happened to glance over and notice that Alleke had squatted down next to the table and was pulling money and credit cards out of an open wallet. I looked around the room. [...]

Thursday afternoon April and I sat down with our calendar. It wasn’t until after we circled dates that we realized we were booked solid for three weeks. We had close friends visiting from Sevilla and the US, a weekend in the mountains, a work trip, and we were moving to a new apartment. Each event [...]