Spain Dad, a baby blog

West Africa by babasteve. Byron and Lisa are some friends of ours who live in Tanzania, and for many years lived among the Maasai people in Kenya. For a short time, they lived with their kids in Portugal where April and I would visit them once a year before Alleke was born. They would invite [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

While many of my friends and family in the US are making snow angels, here in Madrid I’ve been leaving the apartment in a t-shirt. It feels a lot like spring already. The cafés are putting out tables in the square, kids are chasing each other around the playground, and young people are lounging in [...]

“Open up,” I said. I leaned over the changing table with the miniature toothbrush and aimed it at Alleke’s mouth. She pushed it aside with both hands, turned over, and lifted herself up on all fours–all at once like a tumbling gymnast. “Nigh nigh,” she said, suggesting we skip this part of our nighttime ritual. [...]

I’ve been getting to know Dave Taylor of The Attachment Parenting Blog, and recently he commented on how much personal information I’m willing to share about my family with you, my readers. Eventually our conversation turned into an interview on his blog about privacy and confidentiality when it comes to blogging about family. You can [...]

The first time I contemplated Alleke’s spirituality was at the dinner table. She was staring at me from her high chair while I prayed, and I realized that although I had no idea how to make God make sense to a 5-month-old (let alone myself most of the time), Alleke was still watching me, and [...]

So far in my thinking, I’ve discovered there are two basic parenting styles. Parent as Expert In the first parenting style, the parent is the expert. When the baby is born, her mind is like a blank slate without any rules for understanding the world around her. The parent, in contrast, knows the rules from [...]

mens bathroom Photo by ChrisDigital™. “Did you see a changing table in the women’s bathroom?” April asked. “No, no changing table,” Grandma said. She pursed her lips together in an apology. “But it seemed clean enough,” she added. “I guess I’ll have to change Alleke’s diaper on my lap,” April said, taking one more bite [...]