Spain Dad, a baby blog

“Why is she crying?” Josie asked. I sat down on the couch next to Alleke and lifted her into my arms. “Because Alleke has to say goodbye to her cousins, and she’s not going to see them for a very long time. Not until Christmas.” Alleke screeched again like tires skidding through an intersection, then [...]

I watched DJ copy his spelling words onto lined paper. s-c-a-r-e-c-r-o-w t-o-o-t-h-p-a-s-t-e a-w-h-i-l-e c-h-e-r-r-y k-a-p-u-t I stared at the last word. “Kaput?” I asked. I looked at my sister who was making rice in the kitchen. “DJ has some Dutch spelling words,” she explained. “You know, the words we still use around here.” I raised [...]

Legos by PPDIGITAL. April sat on the couch with a book watching her two nephews construct guns out of legos. The two boys worked quietly and carefully until they finished, at which point they stopped to admire each other’s work. Hunter, the older of the two boys, ran upstairs to find a snack, and DJ [...]

One reason I was looking forward to our trip to the US was because I thought Alleke would improve in her ability to speak English. Being around people who only spoke English, I thought she might begin to differentiate between English and Spanish and see that they were not one language, but two. On Saturday [...]

My new nephew is here! Charlie Alan was born Sunday at 7:43 PM CST. He weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 20.5in long (3,7kg and 52cm). Charlie is my sister’s fourth. Hopefully I’ll have a photo up soon. In the meantime, here’s my sister Monica and her husband Jeff.

Our time in Iowa is coming to an end. In nine days we will return to Madrid. I gave my family the opportunity to write a short letter to Alleke about getting to know her over the last four months. Here is what they wrote: Grandma TGOne night, when grandpa and I were taking care [...]

Alleke and Cousin Josie Photo by kellyandapril. “Good to see you’re carrying through on your New Year’s Resolutions,” Jeff said to Josie. Josie slid a plate full of nachos onto the table and climbed into Grandma’s lap. She picked up a tortilla chip and put it in her mouth. “What was her New Year’s Resolution?” [...]

Us and Ang Photo by kellyandapril. Marrying April is one of the smartest things I’ve ever done–of course because she’s a great listener, she’s intelligent, she’s got a cute squishy nose, and she loves me, but also because my wife happens to be cousins with half my high school graduating class. We are from Iowa [...]

Alleke wearing barrette Photo by kellyandapril. My mom had called everyone to the table for Sunday dinner. I was the last one to set down my magazine in the living room and make my way to the table. Apparently some things hadn’t changed since I was in high school. My niece Josie, age 3, stopped [...]