Uncle Raf

Uncle, according to Wiktionary, is a brother or brother in law of someone's parent... but, it's also commonly used in Asia (and in southern U.S., apparently) to define a "close male friend of the parents of a family".

So, according to the latter, I just became uncle for the 2nd time.

The first time was back on January 24, when my bro Andy and Maria became parents of Lydia, a pretty pretty little girl. Since then she has changed a lot, and living nearby, I can enjoy seeing her rather often.

Her baptism is taking place in Athens, so I surely will enjoy the ceremony, some good local food and the places... I really enjoy the deep Mediterranean life style, the feelings, the sights and sounds, the smells and fragrances, the way you can also find them in certain places in Spain and southern Italy.

Then I became uncle for the second time on June 21, when my bro Tad became the proud father of Tian. I just came back from Slovenia, where I went with the purpose to see my new little nephew. He was supposed to be born at the end of the first week of July, but he obviously had enough and decided to get out earlier. Unfortunately, when he was born, his body was unable to retain any kind of sugar in his blood, to an extent that he had even no hunger. So he had to spend the first 3 weeks of his young life in a Ljubljana hospital attached to all sorts of tubes delivering him the necessary food and medicines.

Luckily, with time his body found the right balance, and although he is still rather weak, he was released from hospital just few days before my planned visit, so I was able to see him and enjoy his company. Needles to say both Tad and M are really happy, and M really looked good after her pregnancy. It was a pleasure to see them all, together, HOME.

So uncle Raf now is happy with his cute nice and nephew. And he couldn't be any prouder...