Spain Dad, a baby blog

Grab your backpack and tag along with Alleke on her first day of school… Watch Alleke’s First Day of School on Vimeo.

I emailed my friend Joe to see if he had any advice about sending Alleke to the preschool where he sent his daughter last year. He wrote back later in the day. I read April the email while we were sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea, and Alleke was sitting in her [...]

Tapas Bar by ixtlan “Daddy?” Alleke said, peering up at me from under the restaurant table. “Yes Alleke?” I asked, nodding a thanks to the waitress as she set down a plate in front of me. “I need to go to the bathroom,” Alleke said triumphantly. I took a closer look at the plate of [...]

Last night Alleke and I hiked down to the beach to the look at the stars. We lay there in the sand side by side looking up at the sky, spread out in front of us like a map of a million cities. Eventually I turned over and asked Alleke,”Can you count the stars?” She [...]

The stroller was parked at the front door, and I sat on the couch stuffing a backpack with Alleke’s things when she walked over and handed me her blankie. “Put this in the backpack,” she said, “because I want to sleep with it on the bench tonight.” I’m sure I would have had no idea [...]

Welcome back to Alleke’s Cooking Show. In the spirit of summer, Alleke would like to show you how to make a cold pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade. Like all toddlers, Alleke’s recipe includes carefully counting all the lemons, licking the sugar off her fingers, and of course taking the first glass to mom for a taste [...]

I set down my knife and fork and turned around in my chair to watch Alleke and the handful of other kids who had come with their parents to dine at this restaurant, which amounted to a few checkerboard tables in the corner of an empty square at the end of one of the tiny [...]

Alleke is a proud graduate of the Amy Swacina School of Dance in Madrid. In other words, we leave Alleke with Amy (our ballerina friend) while we go to Spanish class, and they twirl around together in her living room. Here are the results: Watch Alleke dancing ballet on Vimeo.

365.164 – Smile! by dyanna. I stood there with my arms crossed and stared at the goldfish that had sunk to the bottom of the fish tank, shipwrecked among the pebbles, and all silvery like a coin dropped in a well. I always thought goldfish floated to the top when they died. Maybe not right [...]

I’m not exactly clear on Alleke’s rules for the game, but we had fun anyway… Watch Hide and Seek on Vimeo.