Spain Dad, a baby blog

Teo’s first attempts at standing up on his own. (YouTube video)

Teo eats solid food for the first time… In case you’re asking the question: “Why are you letting Teo play with an avocado instead of feeding him baby food with a spoon?”

“What’s she doing?” I asked. Alleke was sitting in her high chair, which was fastened to the end of the table. She was bent over the metal pole that runs the length of the high chair and holding onto it with both holds. “I think she’s trying to bite the pole,” April said, looking closer. [...]

I read a story to Alleke every night before she goes to bed. Sometimes we read more than one – if we have extra time or if I feel like untangling the words on the pages of a Dr. Seuss book – but no matter what, we always read a book called Playtime Peekaboo! I’m [...]

Putting a baby to sleep is like learning a second language. It’s a lot of hard work, and if you have to do it, you will, but if you don’t, you won’t. When I first moved to Spain, I was surprised to discover how many English speakers had been living in the country, but had [...]

I have no proof Alleke can crawl. All I know is I set her down on the far side of the living room to play, I sat down on the couch to write some emails, and five minutes later she was at my feet playing with my shoelaces.

Earlier this week we helped our friends Phil and Lydia move into a new apartment. At one point I was carrying a couch cushion past the kitchen, and I had to laugh because there among the open cardboard boxes was Alleke sitting on a blanket playing with toys while April emptied the fridge into a [...]

Update: I found this video a little hard to see, so for those who are interested, I’ve uploaded a higher-quality version. You may have to wait a minute for the video to load before you can watch it.

I cut off a piece of banana and set it on the table in front of Alleke. April and I were talking between bites, but we stopped to watch Alleke carefully reach for the banana and put it in her mouth. It was like watching that carnival game with the mechanical arm that the person [...]

This morning Alleke held my fingers and walked from the couch, through the living room, down the hallway and past the kitchen to the guest bedroom where April was sorting baby clothes in 14.3 seconds.