Finally at home. It was great arriving home. For Alex it was the first time and that almost two and a half months after being born. Finally we escape the fuss and can relax a bit.

Alex seems to like Las Palmas. After his cold experiences in Holland he was clearly agreeing with the warmer climate. He still makes himself being heard every now and then, but still. Thanks to the mild climate there seems to be a blanket of peace covering our family right now.

This weekend I made a quick visit to Madrid. Just to have a look at Alex and hold him for a while. It was very nice to see him again and be able to hold him. His weight is now 3700 grams. He is no longer a thin baby and his dark blue eyes are getting lighter. A beautiful baby.

Sadly I could not stay long and right now I’m already home again. The little one will have to take care of his mother for the next two weeks and then I will go and help him with this task. I hope these two weeks pass fast.

I was shocked. After Alex’ birth they gave me a little book. The book contained all the steps I needed to follow to report the baby and register his as a Spaniard. Following all the steps should eventually result in a Spanish identity card.

Well, I really found out. The two weeks I got off from work right after Alex’ birth were completely spend in traveling between various agencies. In Alcala, the birthplace of Alex. In Alcorcon where we were staying. In Las Palmas we we needed to register Alex on our address.

Today the little one is exactly one month old. He is registered in the town hall and is entitled to medical care. Ana got a few months off and I was able to justify my two weeks off. The only thing that still needs to be done is a few trips to the city halls in Las Palmas and in Alcorcon to get his identity card. This should be the last step and then we finally have the possibility to fly. First we’ll fly to Holland and then towards our home in Las Palmas.

In Holland we’ll try and get the Dutch citizenship for Alex. The procedure is explained on the website of the Dutch embassy in Spain, but it did not really clarify things for me. In October I’ll be in Madrid and I will pay a visit to the embassy to find out more, and if that does not do the trick I’ll try again when we are in Holland.

Alex is growing a lot and I’m happy that Ana send me some pictures every now and then so I can keep up to date of recent developments while being separated from my son this month. Here is a picture of Alex’ version of Blue Steel.

The first two weeks have flown by. The first four days we were guests in the hospital. This was by far the worst time for both parents and child. We needed to get used to Alex and Alex needed to get used to living and to his parents. There were a lot of insecurities and Ana was still very much affected by her operation. The vast number of family visiting (even though it was meant so well) did not help us to relax.

But after a few days things went a lot better! Ana’s milk supply began to take off and Ana’s drip was removed. When we left for home (Alcorcon) we were all very happy. After this we have to learn fast, coping with a lack of sleep and coping with a responsibility we have never known.

At his birth Alex weighed 2500 grams. When we left the hospital he weighed only 2300 grams. A week later Alex had reached 2640 grams and today he weighed a very good 3000 grams!

My two weeks of holidays have passed. A part of my time of was spend arranging the mountain of paperwork that needed to be processed. The other part was spend with my new family. Very little sleep, lots of worries and uncertainty, but without doubt the most impressive and beautiful thing that ever happened to me.

The coming month I’ll be in Las Palmas, doing my job. But it feels different that it used to… my mind and thoughts are still in Madrid.