Babies and Family

In keeping with the bland and hackneyed style of a bad travelogue, I will go ahead and state the obvious: Family is extremely important to most folks here in Serbia (as though the inverse is true in the States, or in any other country for that matter...) Nevertheless, no matter how bland and hackneyed, nor how obvious, the truth is the truth. So here are a few pics documenting evidence in support of the Truth. They occur in two sections: Babies (or, Our friends starting their own families) and Nata's Family (members whom you may not have met).

Part I: Babies

This is Tadija. He is Ina's little man. Sadly, Ina has yet to be pictured this year, but you can refer to past posts if you really need the visual. We have only seen Tadija once so far on this trip, mostly due to the fact that he and his parents live far away and are busy taking care of him... But he looks like a little version of a full grown Serbian man... with puffy cheeks. He is so cute and super social for a baby. 

Not pictured: Dimitrije,who is Maja's son and is also incredibly cute and social for a baby his age.

And this mischievous face belongs to the one and only Dušan, Nataša's son. He was the first baby of the friend group here, and he is about to turn 4! He was just a wee little baby when we first moved here for that long stint in 2009. He is just as hyper active now as he was then, but now he moves on his own volition, so he is a lot more fun!

This little guy is Vuk (a name which means, "Wolf"), and he belongs to Mirko and Iva. He is incredibly shy when anyone first meets him, but Nata and I have become two of his new favorite toys, as evidenced by the picture above and the video below. We have a lot of fun together!

Part II: Natalija's less frequently photographed relatives.

This incredibly tall fellow is Miša, short for Miodrag, and he is Natalija's brother. He is only fourteen and now towers over both of us by a head's length or more. Miša is a very funny, very smart, and very talented fellow (runs in the fam, I guess). He studies piano and just got recognized for perfect grades throughout his entire school career thus far.  

The Milutinovic crew: Sveta, Nata, Miša; Father, daughter, son. A tall, smart, talented bunch! We go out to visit Sveta at his house to have lunch and spend the day sitting in his garden catching up and listening to him play guitar. He is semi-retired and plays in a traditional folk band in the Old Bohemian section of Belgrade, known as Skadarlija.

The cousins! Roby and Danny are permanent and permanently loved fixtures in our lives both here and in Texas. This particular photo was taken during the intermission of an opera gala concert that Vesna dragged us to (which we all enjoyed more than we expected). A good looking group if I do say so!

So there you have it... Babies and Family. In reading this over, it occurs to me that it may seem a little weird that I included Natalija's friends' babies in the family post, but that is exactly how it feels. It is as though Nata is an aunt to each of these kiddoes, and even though we are here for a short time every year, it is nice to be a part of their lives and vice versa.