Spain Dad, a baby blog

We had two girl names picked out for Alleke when she was born. April had her favorite, and I had mine. Neither of us was willing to give up our name right up until the very end, so we did what all indecisive people do, we decided not to decide. Well, actually, we agreed to [...]

Probably the most common question April and I get when we meet someone in person who has been reading Spain Dad is, “How do you pronounce your daughter’s name?” So, for those of you who have been wondering, you can click on the button at the top of the left-hand sidebar that says “hear Alleke’s [...]

I need your help. April and I decided months ago that if we named our little girl Alleke, we would call her Ali for short. What we didn’t decide for sure is how we would spell Ali. I’ve been using A-L-I as the spelling for the last week. I like it because it seems like [...]

Calico Kitten Photo by NYCMotherPie. When I was little there was this calico kitten that came by our house. She would sit at our garage door every day and meow because she was hungry and didn’t have a home. She was just too cute and too tiny, we had to keep her. She became our [...]

I’m sitting on the couch in our living room looking at a series of three paintings hanging on the wall. The paintings are not ours. They belong to our landlords. I doubt they are worth very much, but they are originals. They’re signed and dated. All three are landscapes, and although they don’t say where [...]

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but every month I look forward to paying our water and electric bills. The reason I don’t mind paying the bills is it gives me an excuse to go and visit my landlady at her antique shop. Her name is Encarna. She’s Spanish (from León) and middle aged with [...]

I have narrowed down my list of baby names to two. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not going to tell you what they are. You’re just going to have to wait. Besides, if it makes you feel any better, April’s still shopping around. She’s an options girl. But I’ve got my names. [...]

April and I decided yesterday that we are still going to pick a boy name even though we’re 110% sure we’re having a girl. (Yes, we are enjoying being overconfident and presumptuous.) It’s not so much that we want to have a back-up name as much as every kid deserves to know what his or [...]

We’re happy to announce that so far our parental instincts have been working well! We discovered at the doctor today that we are for most probable certainty having a baby girl! Both of us have been thinking it was a girl since the beginning and it was nice to be confirmed in that. So we [...]

On Monday I told Kelly Wills that April and I had gone to fnac, a large bookstore in Madrid, to flip through baby name books. “I’ve learned that it’s not a good idea to tell family or friends your baby names,” she said, “I have two baby names, and I made the mistake of telling [...]