Spain Dad, a baby blog

“Why do you want mommy?” I asked. “What does mommy do that I don’t do?”

“She does lots of better things that you don’t do,” Alleke said.

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 [...]

“Do you want to get married and have kids?” I asked Alleke this morning as I watched her pick up the box of milk with both hands and tip it into her bowl of cereal.

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 [...]

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 [...]

To start at the beginning of this story, click here. Totem Pole Vancouver by Kevin Grahame. “I think we need to hire someone to clean the house,” April said as she stood in the middle of the living room bouncing Teo and surveying the aftermath of three weeks at home with a newborn. The breakfast [...]

Totem Pole Vancouver, originally uploaded by Kevin Grahame. I stirred awake to the sound of Alleke sobbing from her bedroom. “Daddy,” she screamed, trying to escape a bad dream. I opened my eyes. I was sitting in the rocking chair in the living room, blanketed by shadows, with Teo asleep in my arms. I struggled [...]

nest•ing in•stinctn. refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) and can occur in human mothers as well. April stopped and set down the shopping bag in the middle of the sidewalk. “You’re going [...]