Spain Dad, a baby blog

The woman in front of us was holding her sleeping daughter in her arms. Her husband was in front of her pulling their luggage and pushing a stroller with a sleeping baby through the herd of backpackers and the men picketing with their signs for hotels and cars for hire and wine tours and excursions [...]

I sat on the couch with a pen in my hand. I was supposed to be editing my book proposal, but instead I was watching April stand on a Wii balance board. The balance board is an accessory for Nintendo’s Wii video game system, and it’s a white slab that looks like a household weight [...]

Especially when April loves nothing more than to travel, and Amsterdam is one of her favorite cities on the planet, and I offered to keep Alleke at home with me while she was gone. The idea was to send April to Amsterdam for a weekend conference while Alleke and I stayed in Madrid. April often [...]

Cemetery where my grandpa was buried on Wednesday I walked down the steps of the church and across the lawn, passing through the scattered headstones to the plot of black dirt. My grandpa was buried here on Wednesday. The wind beat against me as I shivered and crossed my arms, marveling at how everything, including [...]

Balancing a cup of tea, I cracked open the door and slipped into the back of the room. The lights were dimmed, but I could see shadows of people sitting around tables, all looking towards the front where light rained down on a man on stage. He spoke into a microphone about something that was [...]

I was an ocean away from my wife and daughter on Mother’s Day. We had decided beforehand that they should stay an extra week in Iowa with family, even though I had to return to Spain for work. I got back last Friday, which meant I was home alone for a few days before Mother’s [...]

Always After Me Lucky Charms Photo by tlindenbaum. “What do you want to do tonight?” I asked April, falling into the couch next to her. She looked up from her book. “I don’t know. We could call Shani and see what she’s doing.” “Alright” I said. I dug in my pocket and tossed her my [...]

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 [...]

Sometimes the most simple lessons we learned as kids are also the most simple lessons we learn as adults. Up until last week Alleke has been sleeping with us in our bed. We don’t use a crib. We have one, but it’s still in pieces in our storage space. Last week, however, we decided it [...]

buttered and lightly toasted, please Photo by Lex in the City. “Happy birthday,” I said. April yawned, nodded, and shuffled past me towards the kitchen. I was sitting at the dining room table with my laptop, and I watched her open the fridge and pull out a box of orange juice. “Why don’t we go [...]