Spain Dad, a baby blog

April sat on the floor stacking blocks with Teo in her lap while I sat hunched over the table with a ruler and a pencil and a piece of paper. I made measurements, drew lines, cut out shapes and arranged them in different ways on the paper, until finally I pushed back my chair, stood [...]

April, today is your 30th birthday, and you asked me to write something for you. So, earlier this week when I sat down to write, my first thought was, I wonder where we were ten years ago? and then realized we were actually in Spain, visiting for the first time. I found the journal I [...]

October 2 – David C. Jacobson – U.S. Ambassador to Canada by US Mission Canada. After Teo was born in mid November, my family appointed me as the official ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Teo. April, especially, seemed only concerned about homeland security, in other words what happened inside the four walls of our [...]

I met April at the front door of our apartment buildling. She was standing in the snow with Teo asleep in a sling inside her coat and pushing Alleke in the stroller, who was busy admiring her mittens. As we walked down the slushy street together towards a friend’s house, April handed me a white [...]

Tomato & Bagel Knife by The Marmot. I turned the key in the lock and opened the door into our apartment. Alleke scampered by and climbed onto the couch. Before I had time to take off my coat and hang it up, Alleke was already jumping up and down like a cheerleader and chanting, “Daddy’s [...]

This post is part of a series telling Teo’s birth story. Click here to start at the beginning. I don’t think I knew what a “natural birth” was until it was almost over with. In terms I suppose only a man would use, a natural birth meant that the doctors and midwives left us alone [...]

I will be telling Teo’s birth story over the next few days. Let’s begin with the taxi ride to the hospital… Taxi by Daquella manera. I didn’t say anything to the taxi driver about my wife being in labor when we climbed in the back seat of his car, but when I told him to [...]

Watch How to Make Paper on Vimeo.

I woke to someone tapping my shoulder. I opened my eyes and blinked in the darkness. April must have come to bed, I thought. I felt the bed shaking underneath me. Is she laughing? I wondered. April leaned over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, trying hard to get out a few words between [...]

For those who are curious about what it’s like to give birth in Spain, I got to sit down with April this afternoon and interview her about her second pregnancy and how she’s gone about choosing a birthing center in Madrid. This interview is also available to listen to as a podcast. Kelly (Spain Dad): [...]