sLOVEnka: Garden Party

I'm ready to go, Mama. (Is there anything cuter than headscarves on babies?)

Last weekend we attended another birthday celebration. It was for our friend, lovingly referred to as Doctor because he is a, well, a doctor. He administered my epidural with Lily and I could have hugged him for it. Tomáš only uses the name Doctor when he talks about him. When he addresses him he calls him Jurček (pronounced yoor check), a nickname for Juraj, Slovak for George. And sheepishly I got almost no pictures of him at his own birthday, but we had a grand time, Slovak village garden party style. The locale was a 150-year-old house where Doctor's girlfriend's father was born shortly after World War Two. The weather couldn't have been better. Sunny and warm. Perfect for grilling, lounging, chatting, eating and playing with kiddos.
It was our first time away from home with Lily any distance worth mentioning, and I have to say I was nervous. I had experienced total meltdown with her a few times and did not want to repeat that experience without the possibility of running straight home. And wouldn't you know my fear was realized in a most fantastic, two-hour episode of purple-faced, inconsolable crying. Complete and total desperation on my part. But wouldn't you know we also survived it? After a nice long walk in the stroller she finally calmed down and fell asleep. For half an hour. But it turns out that was just enough to bring back our little angel, who from then until we left sat happily in her stroller, watching everything with great interest and playing with daddy.
We had steak and salad with homemade sheep cheese and strawberries and peas and tiramisu and homemade whipped cream and everything straight from the garden. Total bliss. Tomáš asked me if I liked it and I said I loved it and he said, ''you can say so.'' You see, I still have the most horrible hangup about speaking. People probably think I'm either mute or a total snob because even though I'm thinking the nicest things, I hardly speak a word. But that's a topic for another post, which is already in the works. I do apologize to all those affected by my silence. I really love and appreciate you. I do.