Spain Dad, a baby blog

I’ve watched so many episodes of Caillou in the last week while our family has been sick that I can’t get Caillou’s whiny little voice out of my head. I think I may have done some permanent damage. I’ve decided they should come up with a TV rating for shows like Caillou called “Not Suitable [...]

Last night we were watching TV before bed, and April had Alleke on her lap. The show we were watching seemed relatively harmless until one point when the main character’s skin melted off his face, and he turned into a talking meatball. I grimaced, and April put her hand over Alleke’s eyes. When the scene [...]

Today I found my first good reason to let Alleke sit in front of the TV and watch movies all day. April, Alleke and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast in silence. It was nearly eleven o’clock in the morning, but all three of us were still in our pajamas and looked like [...]

Nic knelt down on the floor in the living room and lined up all his cars along the front of the rug. He said Alleke needed some toys. “April, what’s your favorite character from Cars?” Nic asked, pointing at his line up. I recognized each of his car as a character from Pixar’s latest animated [...]

Pursuit of Happyness in the 22nd Century Photo by krobbie. “Two tickets for the Pursuit of Happyness,” I said. The high school kid behind the counter took my card and swiped it. While the machine printed our tickets, I took April’s hand in mine. She smiled. The kid handed me the tickets with my card. [...]

Alleke in baby carrier Photo by kellyandapril. Last night I tried putting Alleke in the baby carrier with her face forward. She’s just tall enough now for her eyes and nose to peek out the front. She looked like a little ninja master with the bottom half of her face masked behind the black fabric [...]

Over Christmas we visited our friends Jesús and Rachel who live in El Puerto de Santa María, and they gave us two seasons of a television series called Joan of Arcadia on DVD. The show was on CBS in the U.S. for two years, 2003-2005, and won numerous awards including the Humanitas Prize and People’s [...]

“If I told you giving birth wasn’t painful, I would be lying to you.” I should have thought something was up when our midwife said this. I think she was trying to give a disclaimer for the the VHS tape she was pressing into the VCR. She pressed play. The film appeared in black in [...]

April says I taunted her for monthly to grow a belly. She says it’’s because I’’m a visual person, and I have to see something to feel right about it. It’s true. I wanted to see her pregnant belly. Now that I’ve got the belly, I’’ve decided I’m going for the pregnant belly button too–you [...]