Spain Dad, a baby blog

Taking Alleke to the market is like imagining a world without money, where the only real currency is friendship. The market is a two-story brick building with probably fifty stalls inside where individual vendors sell fresh fruits and vegetables and meats, or in the case of our friend Antonio, cheeses. Antonio is an old bachelor [...]

I stopped by the bread shop on Tuesday and told everyone it was my birthday. I’m 29. Everyone cheered, Erica gave me kisses, and Cristina said, “Wait, I’ve got something for you!” She ducked behind the counter and reappeared with a handful of candy bars and suckers. “Here,” she said. “They’re for Alleke.” I left [...]

This is the second post in a two part series about Alleke’s friend Erica from the bread shop down the street. Read the first part here. Erica wasn’t a babysitter. She wasn’t a close friend either. She was the woman who worked at the bread shop and played with Alleke when we came in to [...]

This story is part of a series about Alleke’s friends at the bread shop down the street. This morning I ran into Erica on the street. She was dressed in her normal clothes, not her uniform from the bread shop. “I just got off work,” she said, anticipating my first question. “I’m just running home [...]

“Should I?” I asked. April looked up from the magazine she was reading on the couch and shrugged her shoulders. I bit my lip. “I can’t decide,” I said. “It would be a strange thing to do, especially if you don’t know someone that well.” I looked at April again. She was reading her magazine. [...]

This is the second post in a series of two. To start from the beginning, read the first one. “I’m running out to get some bread,” I yelled down the hallway towards the kitchen where April was making lunch. I picked Alleke up off the floor where she had been busy kissing a Care Bear, [...]

Baguettes Taste-Off Photo by ComeUndone. “I found a babysitter,” April said as she walked into the dining room where I was clipping Alleke into her high chair. “Really?” I said, looking up from what I was doing. April set a tray of food down at the other end of the table. “You’ll never guess who,” [...]