Luca's Birthday (1)
I decided not to mention that our kid had finished every last bite of his meal and then chucked the empty bowl.
Feeling oddly sheepish about it, I just went back to staring at my phone.
For other children, I read, the arrival of those first teeth could bring on a brutal bout of teething pain.
Well, of course. Teeth pushing through soft, tender flesh—how could that not hurt?
Our Luca had just powered through it so calmly that I never even noticed.
Apparently, though, the canines and molars were the ones that really hurt, and that was almost certainly what Luca had been suffering through today.
"I wonder how many days this is going to last."
"It depends on the baby. Charlie had it for about three or four days, I think? My memory's a little fuzzy."
Fortunately, Luca seemed to be getting the full benefit of the medicine.
He polished off his lunch with his usual gusto and didn't hurl the bowl or the spoon even once.
If anything, he looked thoroughly satisfied with today's meal; he beamed up at me and shook the empty bowl in both hands.
"Ah-ah!"
"Yeah? Was it good, baby?"
I snatched the bowl out of his hands before it could go bouncing across the floor.
Even while I wiped his mouth and hands with a towel, he was bouncing his feet and looking utterly pleased with himself.
I lifted him down from the chair and pulled him into a tight hug.
"You're such a tough little guy. Other babies won't even eat when they're teething. You little foodie."
"Mm."
Luca answered with proud satisfaction—and from the side, Greg, who was still working on dessert, cut in with a scolding.
"Don't answer that, Luca. Seriously, Jun—what the hell did you put in this gelatin?"
"Orange and broccoli."
Greg's eyebrows twisted into a deep V. What a face.
"What's with that look? I made it carefully for the kids and shared some with you."
"No, it's just… you're usually an incredible cook, and then every so often you invent some kind of weird monster food."
Monster food? That was a little harsh.
"It's healthy. And it's actually pretty good."
To prove the point, I scooped up a bite of gelatin and fed it to Luca.
Even after finishing his whole meal, he gulped it down without hesitation.
"Mm? Is it tasty, baby?"
"Mm."
Watching this, Greg muttered with a grim expression,
"Is there any way I can report this as child abuse? Kids have a right to real food."
Greg was still grumbling when Cassandra came to my defense.
"Don't be so hard on him. I think it's secretly pretty good? The broccoli is minced fine, so the texture isn't bad at all."
"Right? Next time I'm thinking of trying coconut-carrot gelatin."
"Umm… that one I might pass on too…"
Come on. If you're going to take my side, take it all the way.
The afternoon after lunch went smoothly, and once I was sure Luca was still doing fine, we went together to pick up Reni.
It was mild for early winter, so I left a little early and parked in the kindergarten lot.
Instead of getting out the stroller, I scooped Luca into my arms.
After everything he'd been through that morning, I thought a light walk might help cheer him up.
"It's been a while since just the two of us went for a walk, huh?"
I strolled slowly down the street with him in my arms.
"Luca, look—that house already put up Christmas lights. Sparkly and pretty, right?"
Luca didn't answer; he just whipped his head back and forth, soaking up every detail of the street.
Even without a reply, I kept up a steady stream of chatter.
"Luca, once your birthday's over, should we put up Christmas decorations too?"
Instead of answering, the little guy lifted a tiny finger and pointed at a snowman decoration across the street.
"A snowman? Should we put a snowman on the terrace too, Luca?"
After checking that no cars were coming, I walked over to the spot he was pointing at.
The snowman came up about to my knees.
I knelt in front of it so Luca could get a good look; he stared for a long moment, then turned his head away.
I stood back up and kept walking.
"Last Christmas it was just the two of us, nice and quiet, so this year let's make it big with big brother Reni. Three of us. And we'll eat lots of good food."
"Mm."
Oh, so this one he answers.
"Daddy has his doubts sometimes. You understand everything I say, don't you?"
I hugged him a little tighter, playful, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Luca giggled, soft and open.
"Okay. Time to go get big brother."
"Mm."
Luckily we made it before the kindergarten bell rang.
Through the classroom window I could see Reni focused hard on something.
When the bell announcing the end of class went off, Reni's head came up on reflex.
He checked who was waiting by the window, and his face lit with a mix of surprise and pure joy.
He must have expected Greg to pick him up again. Grinning from ear to ear, Reni came running.
"Daddy! Luca! Luca, you're not sick anymore?"
"Yeah. When I looked carefully, it turned out Luca's molars are coming in. That's probably why he got a fever. He took medicine and he's fine now."
"I'm so glad."
Reni took Luca's foot in his hands and gave it a gentle shake, relief written all over his face.
"Luca, you can't get sick."
"Mm."
Chatting contentedly with the kids, I headed back to the office.
The moment I set them loose in the playroom, Greg quietly called me over.
Then he pulled up a party-supply website and asked,
"Have you thought about what you're doing for Luca's birthday? It's coming up pretty soon."
"Hmm. Well… I've been thinking about it, but…"
Thanks to the abilities the Manito App had given me, I could honestly say Luca already had more than enough of everything a one-year-old could need.
Plenty of clothes, plenty of toys, and no shortage of food.
"Honestly, for a birthday there's not a whole lot extra I can give him."
"You still can't just skip it!"
Greg said it firmly. And he was right, of course.
But even after mulling it over for days, nothing material had really come to mind.
Maybe the gift was simply spending a whole day playing with him, the way we did on Sundays.
Ah—or I could buy him a new pair of shoes.
It would be good for him to practice walking around the house in shoes all winter.
Then by spring we could put on sneakers and walk through the park together.
For spring, I'd get him sneakers in a mix of pale sky blue and white.
Just thinking about shopping for them made a little hum slip out of me.
I picked up the tablet, went into the playroom, sat down, and called Reni over.
"Reni, want to help Daddy pick out Luca's birthday present?"
"Wow, yes!"
Reni came and sat beside me, and Luca crawled over in a hurry to join us.
But the tablet screen didn't hold his interest for long; he soon headed off toward the slide and the ball pit.
Seeing that, Reni leaned in and whispered against my ear.
"Good. Now we can keep it a secret from Luca."
"Yeah, looks like it."
Reni and I settled in side by side, shopping and chatting in soft voices.
After looking for quite a while, we decided on a pair of shoes that squeaked when you walked in them.
Ones a lot like the pair Reni already had.
"What color should we get?"
"Hmm…"
Reni propped his tiny chin on his little fist and thought hard.
Then he picked out a blue pair and a yellow pair.
"Two pairs? Wouldn't one be enough?"
He was going to outgrow them soon enough anyway.
I couldn't see a reason to buy two, so I asked—and Reni shook his head with absolute certainty.
"We have to buy two! That's how you wear them stylishly."
"Ah…"
This kid. He was trying to make his little brother wear mismatched shoes on purpose!
I woke in the small hours of the morning.
An early-winter dawn, quieter than any other season.
In the cozy nest of the blankets I turned and checked that both boys were still asleep.
Instead of getting up right away, I let myself look at Luca's face a little longer.
Breathing evenly—soft little sshh, sshh—the sleeping child had grown so much that he barely resembled the baby I'd first met a year ago.
Still so small, though…
Small hands, small feet. The only part of him that ever seemed large was those clear, bright eyes.
"…"
I carefully brushed a fingertip across his soft cheek.
When I touched the faintly curled little hand, even in sleep he closed around my finger and held on tight.
Warmth traveled from my fingertip all the way to my heart. I felt like I might cry.
I never used to cry, but ever since Luca and Reni came into my life, tears gathered in my eyes all the time.
In a voice soft enough not to wake them, I called the baby's name.
"Luca."
The child I'd held and soothed since he was a newborn.
A single ray of sunlight that broke through the clouded sky of my life.
"My baby. You worked so hard this whole year."
For growing so diligently.
For loving even a far-from-perfect dad.
Thank you for meeting my eyes and smiling. Thank you for being able to shake your head and tell me no.
Thank you for always exceeding every expectation I have of you.
Thank you, truly, for being born.
For the birthday cake, I made a blueberry cake that wasn't too sweet, so the kids could eat as much as they wanted.
I put my skills to work and built it as a small two-tier cake, then decorated it lavishly with golden stars and round spheres.
Looking at the little, glittering cake I'd started preparing the day before and finished at the crack of dawn, I puffed out my chest with pride.
Moments like this made me realize that over the past year, while Luca was growing, I had grown a lot too.
The actual cake-making skill might have come from the Manito App, but designing this cake and writing the recipe—that was all me.
With the world's greatest teacher, I ought to be able to pull off at least this much.
Morning sunlight was pouring onto the terrace; it felt like a good time to wake the boys.
"Reni, Luca. Shall we get up now?"
I stretched both hands out and gently patted their cheeks as I woke them.
Thankfully it was Wednesday, so Reni didn't have to rush off to kindergarten. That was a relief.
"Nngh, Daddyyy… just a little more sleep…"
Reni caught my hand and pulled my palm down over his own face.
Wait—was he planning to sleep like that?
Whether it was because the light was too bright or because my hand was warm, I couldn't tell.
Either way, our Reni had some unique ideas.
I swallowed the laugh that tried to escape and whispered into his ear.
"But today's Luca's birthday. And our Reni was going to give Luca his birthday present… are you going to keep sleeping?"
"…"
I could feel the flutter of eyelashes under my palm; Reni's eyes had flown wide open.
He shoved my hand away at once and sat bolt upright.
"Ah, that's right!"
This time I didn't hold it in—I burst out laughing.
Then I stroked the hair of a Reni who was frantically scanning the room, or more precisely, scanning Luca.
"It's okay. Luca's still in dreamland."
Reni let out an exaggerated "Whew!" and collapsed forward.
His body folded in half that easily.
Four years old was still a wonderfully flexible age, after all.
Since Reni was already up, I took him to the bathroom first, helped him wash his face and brush his teeth, and got him ready for the day.
I paid extra attention to dressing him up so he wouldn't feel neglected if Daddy seemed to be focusing only on Luca today.
"How is our Reni this pretty?"
As I combed his hair and praised him, he giggled—then folded his arms with a very serious face.
"Daddyyy, I'm not pretty. I'm cool."
Mm. Not quite there yet, I thought.
Reni was still so delicately pretty that if you just put a long-haired wig on him, people would mistake him for a little girl.
Honestly, compared to how fast Luca was shooting up, Reni's growth seemed a little slow, and that worried me a bit.
He hadn't been very tall even on the day we first met, either.
But I knew exactly what kind of trouble saying that out loud would cause, so I quickly changed the subject.
"Hey, Reni—is there any kind of sport you'd like to try?"
"Spooort?"
"Yeah, a sport. Like basketball, or swimming, or…"
I was listing activities that were supposed to help kids grow taller when Reni thought for a moment and then shook his head.
"No!"
"Ah. Okay then…"
I decided to put the height question away for later and went to wake Luca, who was still snoring away.
"Luca, time to get up now."
"…"
"Daddyyy, I think Luca woke up, but he won't open his eyes."
"Yeah? You think so too, Reni?"
"Yeah. Maybe Luca wants to sleep more."
Reni folded his arms in a thoughtful pose, studied Luca, and then spoke with the air of someone who had no other choice.
"Well, nothing we can do. Should just Daddy and Reni eat snacks by ourselves?"
Luca's eyes snapped open.