Spain Dad, a baby blog

It was my day off. Alleke was at school. April was in the shower, and I sat on the couch with Teo asleep in my arms smelling the back of his neck. His neck smelled like the beach—not clean or refined, but earthy and rich, salty and sweet, all blended together by nature. Smelling Teo’s [...]

In case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to try to work from home while your toddler is supposed to be taking a nap. Press the arrow below to listen in… Alleke kept this up for a good 45 min. until I gave in and let her watch TV. This is not an ideal world, [...]

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 [...]

A little boy and girl were shoveling sand into cups and serving them as lemon ice cream to anyone who walked by. I pointed them out to Alleke, who was pretending to ride a motorcycle on a spring, and asked if she wanted to play with them. Alleke always says yes when I ask her [...]

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 [...]

Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 by Cubbie_n_Vegas. I expected to be in Madrid this morning, but I’m in Atlanta. I was one of thousands of people stuck at the airport. A delayed flight, then a missed flight, and eventually standing in line for four hours to rebook for the next day was everyone’s story. I [...]

Alleke sat at the end of the bed and held her blankie. She watched as I lowered the curtains, dimmed the light, and kneeled down next to her. “I want to tell you something before you go to sleep tonight,” I said. I ran my fingers through her hair. “Tomorrow dad is going to go [...]

I kid you not: McArabia, McDrive by amerune. April and I like to play this game at the end of the day where we ask each other what was the best and worst part of the day. When I got back on Saturday, April asked me the same questions about my week in Morocco. The [...]

T-4: One Hundred Seagulls… Photo by Poldavo (Alex). I walked through the sliding door into the arrivals hall. I was almost home. I looked for the sign to the metro, then set down my bag to look for my ticket. Out of the corner of my eye I could see someone walking my way, so [...]

When Alleke was born, I had no choice but to be her dad. April was slow to recover and slept almost as much as Alleke did. While April slept in her hospital bed, I had to to figure out how to hold my daughter. Then came the dirty diapers, and the sleepless nights after that. [...]