Mila's Baptism Day, Part 2

Sorry for "tomorrow" turning into five days later. We took a wonderful little family trip to Arizona which, while too short, was so much fun for all of us. More on that later! For now, here's the rest of May 22nd, 2011. Mila's Baptism.

After the baptism we headed to an agriturismo outside town, on the road towards the beach. Agriturismos are popular in Italy, they're family-run establishments that cook elaborate multi-course meals that take hours to enjoy. Slow food. This one was just down the road from the sea, set back from the dusty dirt road in an olive grove with fruit trees dotting all around. It was beautiful.

We changed Mila into her party dress for the luncheon (a very bridal thing to do, no?) and everyone sat at a long table. Food was served family-style. Unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember many menu details! It was of course a happy blur, but I do remember some very delicious empanadas of which I wanted to hog the whole plateful. That's all I've got--of the several rounds of appetizers, then different pasta dishes, followed by a myriad of seafood platters, then meat (suckling pig?), and then the cake we brought for dessert followed by the usual limoncello and mirto shots until the final hurrah of every Italian celebration, espresso. Besides the cake I only remember the empanadas. Steve is no help because he's only remembering the wine, and "there was a lot of fish." (Duh, we're on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean.) That's not to say that everything wasn't delicious and eye-rolling amazing--but between canoodling with my girl or making sure she was being canoodled by others, trying to talk to and thank everyone, and nursing Mila throughout the meal-- well, I guess those food memories just fell out of my brain. Really as long as Mila was happy, I was happy. And she was. Nibbling on a little bread, a lot of Mama milk, and scarfing down every last drop of attention that came her way.

 And all that attention must have been exhausting, since halfway through Mila just rested her head against her Nonna's shoulder and took herself a little nap. 

Mila's cake read Dio Benedica Mila. God Bless Mila. It had a zabaglione filling inside (I do remember that much!).

When she did get restless there was no shortage of people to take her on walks around the property. Here's Steve and my Uncle Franco.

 There were a few other extended families there celebrating their childrens' First Communions (May is First Communion season!) and the little girls absolutely fawned over Mila, swarming around her like bees whenever we went outside (where they were playing in between food courses). It was the sweetest site, sweeter still because unfazed Mila seemed to fancy herself as one of the girls :)

After everyone had eaten we trickled out and relaxed a little outside, taking pictures and unbuttoning our top buttons in order to breathe after our eating marathon. Until I tripped while holding Mila and announced it was time to leave. Tired mama.

 And that was Mila's baptism day. I still can't believe it was an entire year ago. Would you just look at my chubby baby with the then-gummy smile? My heart hurts. I think I'll go wake her up and give her kisses now.