thanks mariposita.

hey sheila, thanks, i looked it up and yes, that is the one i was told about.

saludos,
jer...

just wanted to be the first to say CONGRATS TO BECKY AND ANGEL!!!

Chica gave birth at 5pm today to a healthy babby!!!

baby weighed in at 3,300 kilos (that is 3 kilos, 300 grams to thos who use outdated weight measures and not 3 thousand 300 kilos ).

unfortunately, the message that i received on my cell neglected to tell if it is a boy or girl

keeping us in suspense i guess

saludos,
jer...

Thanks for the congrats jer!

Now, next step.

Does anyone know how to go about registering the birth with the US Embassy in Madrid? How long do I have, can I do it online, etc?

Anyone? Anyone? We are planning a trip to the States in May which means we also need to get the little guy his very first passport!

Congrats on the birth of your baby boy. I am nearing the birth of Jackie , and it is unbearable, 5 weeks to go and I can not take it anymore. If you go to the US Embassy website it should give you all the info you need there. The lines at the Embassy are not usually long. Congrats again from Sheila and Cesar

Hi Rebecca,

I am also traveling to the US with my baby so I am working on getting him documented as a US citizen. It's a two step process (which can be done at the same time). Everything has to be done in person at the consulate. First you get a document that is called a consular report of birth abroad. Here's a link that further explains this document: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_828.html

With this document, you can apply for a passport. Here's the link on passports: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html

A couple of things to point out. Both parents and the baby have to present to apply for a passport. The other is that you have to prove that you lived in the US for at least five years of your life. I got copies of my high school and college transcripts for this.

I am hoping to get this done in the next couple of weeks so I will report back on anything else.

Also, congrats on the baby!

Rebecca

Hi Noia --

Thanks for those links... they are very helpful.
I will definitely be posting back to let you all know about our progress.

How's your little guy doing? Post a pic or two!

Hi Chica,

We finally had time to make the trip to the consulate to apply for our baby's passport. The whole process took less than an hour since there were only a couple of people getting passports. I also applied for his social security number at the same time.

Here's a list of the documentation I provided:

my passport
my husband's DNI (or passport)
Libro de Familia
child's Spanish birth certificate
high school and college transcripts

They ask for the dates you lived in the US to prove that you lived there for at least five years. For me this was easy since I didn't leave the US until I was 20, but if you are someone who moved around, you may want to refresh your memory before you fill out the form.

The passport is supposed to be ready in a week, I'll let you know if it takes longer.

Hope you can get yours done without any problem.

Cheers,

Rebecca

Hi Noia,

Thanks for the update. I was just at the US Embassy in Madrid this morning to get clarification on the accepted documentation (aside from school transcripts).

I was told that to register the child's birth, the American parent must present proof of his/her residency in the USA for five years...two of those five years must be when the American was older than 14. Acceptable documentation proving this includes high school and college transcripts, military records and paycheck stubs. Copies of back tax returns are NOT acceptable proof since tax returns are filed from overseas all the time.

The woman at window number 11 was very friendly and helpful. She gave me all the needed forms which include:

• general information about filing a report of birth
• informal translation forms (translation of any foreign documents do not have to be sworn translations)
• application for consular report of birth abroad
• application for social security card

I had already downloaded the application form for the passport. I was told that the whole process should take between 3-4 weeks from the time the paperwork is submitted.

I'll check back once we have gotten all the documentation together and have submitted it.

Sheila and Cesar -- just a couple more weeks to go and Jackie will be here with you! Careful! She might surprise you like Angelito did and come early! Where are you giving birth? It's incredible to see the changes in our child...almost daily! I would love to get a new parents' play group going....let me know if you guys (and anyone else) are interested!

Quick Update:

I picked up the passport and report of foreign birth abroad certificate yesterday, so it was a week turn around. Maybe the consulate in Barcelona is faster since they don't do visas.

Hope you get everthing done quickly,

Noia

Hi Gang --

Checking in again...sorry for the lapse in posts, we are really trying to get into a normal swing of things. For those who are new to the game (like us!) prepare for pediatrician visits every two weeks until your child is two months old...and also visits to your OBGYN every two weeks for the first month and a half. Then of course... all the trips to the pharmacy to get that cream you didn´t realize that you would need when the baby gets dermititis...sopositories for when he is constipated...a formula change when he shows an allergic reaction to the one recommended to you by the hospital...upgrading the nipple size of his bottles...upgrading the bottle size... and the list goes on and on!

Do yourself a favor and buy a few of the jumbo packs of the wet wipes and diapers each time you go shopping. Believe me you go through them very very fast. Don't spend a lot of money on newborn clothes and don't pay attention to the sizes on the labels. Angelito has already outgrown his 0-3 month pjs and onesies and just turned 2 months old this week. Time flies, doesn't it?!

We took him for his two month vaccinations today at the vaccination center on Nuñez del Balboa. Poor guy...he had a reaction to the vaccinations as the doctor said that he might.. and his cries of pain were more than I could bear!

Happily, we have hired a babysitter who we are pleased with. For those looking, we found her on Canguro en Casa. She works at a daycare center now and is studying maestría in educación infantil. She is very attentive and affectionate with little Angelito (is that redundant or what?!).

Today we also finally submitted all the documentation to the US Embassy to register his birth (so he has rights to US citizenship), apply for his US passport and a social security number (so his grandparents in the states can open a bank account in his name and start his college fund!! ). A very painless process, just a lot of paperwork. They told us the passport and birth registration will take about 10 days and the social security number about 3 weeks...

Will definitely post back when the documents are received to let you all know of the turn around time.

Greetings to all...we will try for a picnic in the park when volleyball starts up!

quote:

She is very attentive and affectionate with little Angelito (is that redundant or what?)

Not at all as attentive means she looks after all his physical needs, and affectionate means he gets lots of cuddles. Some childcare providers can be one or the other, but only the good ones are both.

hey Bonnie (Chica, correct me if'm wrong), i think you missed the discreet language thang there.

i am pretty sure that Chica was refering to "little Angelito" when she said it was "redundant" since the "ito" on the end of "Angel" is the diminutive suffix, hence implying "little Angel" in one word. so, saying "little Angelito" is overkill and hence redundant (although VERY cute ). it is a bit like saying "little little Angel".

somebody slap me as that was way to didactic (not ot mention geeky as hell ) an explanation

Chica, great to see you so well and hectic but take heart, only 18 or so more years of this

saludos,
jer...

This brings back memories of the first baby I had when I was 15. He's living in Paris with a Nanny. I see him once a year.

Shawn

It's official! Little Angelito (there´s that redundancy thing again!) is now a bonafide US citizen. His passport along with his consular certificate of birth arrived promptly at 8:55 am on Monday morning April 17th via MRW courier service. A little bit longer than the 10 days that the embassy predicted, but we will let that slide since Semana Santa came in between.

I have to admit my disappointment that after the approximate 130€ that we spent between all the fees, we still had to pay the 7,95€ for the courier service when the documents arrived. For those going through this process, make a mental note to yourself about that. It seemed a bit cutre to me. The very least the Embassy could have done is include the charge up front in all of the initial fees so we didn't have to go scrambling for the money when the courier arrived...or tell us that we would be paying for that.

We are still waiting on his social security number which should be arriving any day now.

For those wanting to raise your children bilingually, it is never too early to start. Angelito's introduction to English began in the delivery room. I recently read a fascinating article in Time magazine about early infant development where it mentioned that between 0-3 months of age the baby has acute audio skills that it loses as it gets older. These audio skills are imperative in linguistic development and give the infant the ability to hear and produce the native sounds of a lanugage. The longer you wait before introducing the child to the language, the less "accurate" so to speak will his/her accent be. If anyone is interested in reading the article, send me a PM or email through the board and I will get it to you!

Merry childraising to all of you!

How's the progress coming jer?

Hi There! Our family is growing by leaps and bounds! Last night we became proud parents of two precious kittens of just one month old! They are free to a good home... check out the classifieds to see the details and a picture.

Now for the real deal... time for an update on Angelito (who said new parents only talk about their children?!).... just another picture so you can all chart his progress!

AngelRuben_11_semanas.jpg (299 Kb, 20 downloads)