Luca's Birthday (2)
We were planning another little party downstairs with the rest of the office crew.
So for the morning, the three of us decided to have a modest, cozy celebration of our own.
"Wow, Daddy!"
Of course, even if I called it modest, I still wanted to do everything I could for them—and it might have gotten a little over the top.
The moment I brought out the cookie house I'd hidden in the kitchen cupboard and the pyramid stacked from mini doughnuts, Reni let out a cry of delight.
Luca, spotting the mountain of snacks he loved so much, went wide-eyed and flapped his hands wildly.
They were sugar-free treats made with chickpeas for the kids, so they weren't particularly sweet—but the colors alone were bright and cheerful enough that their excitement was no surprise.
I sat down at the coffee table where I'd already set up the camera. Settling Luca on my lap, I stretched out an arm and pulled Reni in close beside us.
"Hold on, Luca. First we light the candle."
I caught the hand reaching for the colorful snack mountain in front of him and lit the single candle stuck into the cake.
"Waaah, pretty."
Reni watched the warm, wavering candlelight with a soft smile.
Even Luca, who had been flapping away, suddenly stilled and stared at the flame that had begun to burn right before his eyes.
"This is the first time you've seen fire this close, isn't it? This is a candle. Luca is one year old now, so there's just one."
Luca only listened to my explanation in silence. His mouth hung slightly open, a little drool gathering as he focused entirely on the candle flame.
Then Reni gave a little bounce and held up his fingers.
"Daddyyy. Then me—on my birthday, do I get four candles?"
I laughed and kissed the top of his head.
"On your birthday you'll be one year older, so it'll be five candles."
Reni unfolded his tucked-in thumb and looked proudly at all five of his fingers.
What he said next made me burst out laughing.
"I've lived so many years!"
At Reni's proud declaration, Luca glanced at his big brother for a moment before turning his gaze back to the candle.
I took both of the baby's hands and gently brought them closer to the flame.
"Luca, does it feel warm?"
"……."
He went still and blinked slowly—he seemed to be taking in the warmth of the candle just fine.
"But if you get any closer it'll go ouchie, so it's dangerous!"
Reni said exactly what I'd been about to say myself.
When I held the baby's hands a tiny bit closer to the candle, I felt Luca push back. Even if he hadn't registered actual heat, he seemed to understand that it was warmer than it needed to be.
How is our baby this smart?
I hope he enjoys learning, little by little, the things he needs to be careful of.
"All right, then—shall we sing and blow out the candle?"
"Yeah! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!"
As Reni and I clapped and sang the birthday song, Luca got excited and waved his arms up and down before joining in with the clapping.
"Happy birthday to you!"
After we finished the song with one last enthusiastic round of applause, Reni demonstrated blowing out the candle for Luca.
"Luca, whoo! Luca, like this. Whoo, whoo!"
"……."
Luca stared at Reni, then pursed his lips out in a big pout.
"Nooo, not a kiss. Whoo, whoo!"
His effort was admirable, but getting a one-year-old to grasp the concept of blowing out a candle was never going to be easy.
Before Reni could get disappointed and Luca could get cranky, I offered a compromise.
"It's still a bit much for Luca to blow out the candle himself, so how about Reni—who's lived so many years—and Daddy do it for him? One, two……!"
Whoosh!
Reni blew out the candle in one puff, and Luca's eyes went round as the flame vanished right in front of him.
So many things were brand-new wonders at one year old.
I took the baby's hands again, miming a clap, and whispered to Reni.
"Reni, shall we give him his present now?"
"Ah!"
Reni jumped up and ran to the playroom, then came racing back with the gift package he'd been hiding.
"Luca, here!"
Luca's gaze, which had been fixed only on the extinguished candle, shifted. He stared hard at the gift package his big brother pressed into his hands, wrapped so prettily in shiny paper.
Crinkle, crinkle. Once he'd had a good long time to enjoy the sound of paper crumpling, I carefully peeled off the big stickers holding it shut, and two pairs of little shoes appeared.
"What do you think, Luca? Do you like them?"
Reni asked excitedly, but unfortunately Luca was far more interested in the wrapping paper than the shoes.
I gave a helpless little laugh. Reni only shrugged and picked out a right and a left by color, then put them on Luca himself.
"……."
The first shoes our baby ever wore were a mismatched pair.
I looked back and forth between Luca, still completely absorbed in the wrapping paper, and Reni, proudly pleased all by himself, then cut a bite of cake with a fork and fed it to Luca.
With a look that said, Oh, right—there was food, Luca set the paper down and reached for the cookie house.
Snap—he tore off a door and started eating it, and Reni joined right in.
After the kids had gone through a few rounds of cake bite, snack bite, sip of milk, I picked up the cake and stood.
"All right, let's get ready for work. Reni, while Daddy gets ready, can you play with Luca for a bit? Could you read him that book we've been keeping secret from him?"
"Okay!"
Looking even happier than Luca, Reni ran off to the playroom and soon came back with the pop-up picture book Evan had given him not long ago.
It was a book only Reni and I had known about, saved for today.
"Luca, look at this! Big brother will show you something amazing!"
Luca, who had been crawling after me, turned at Reni's words—and the new world that sprang up right before his eyes immediately stole his entire attention.
"Ta-da! If you go into the castle, a garden comes out like this. Ta-da! And then over here……."
While Luca was too absorbed in the book to even manage a "yeah," I hurried to get ready for work.
First I carried out the two-tier cake, now missing most of its top layer. I repaired the cream on what was once again a single-tier cake, added the new decorations I'd prepared separately, and wrapped it up.
Even after the cake repairs, I was still busy. I backed up the video from the camera that had just filmed the kids, packed the brownies, muffins, and chocolate croissants for the office birthday spread, and only then loaded the children into the stroller.
We were only going down one floor, but we sure were carrying a lot.
As soon as we stepped into the elevator, Reni asked with expectant eyes,
"Daddy, are we having another party at the office?"
"Of course we are."
Reni bounced his shoulders happily in his seat, while Luca, blissfully unaware, remained buried in the pop-up book.
That book was working wonders. Though it looked like he was about to tear the whole thing apart soon enough…….
Beep-beep-beep.
I punched in the passcode and opened the office door—and Greg and Cassandra showered the kids with confetti right at the entrance.
"Happy birthday, Luca!"
"Happy one year old!"
For a second both Luca and Reni looked startled by the sudden swirl of colored paper, then they erupted into cheers that sounded like a pair of dolphins going by.
But the kids' delight at the confetti—used in place of fireworks—was only the beginning.
Their eyes were drawn naturally to the golden letter balloons sparkling in the playroom window.
Happy Birthday Luca!
"Whoa!"
At the balloon decorations they'd never seen before, not only Reni but Luca too locked his gaze in place.
Beyond the letter balloons on the wall, the whole office was full of balloons—long ribbon-tied ones stuck to the ceiling, PVC balloons with more balloons inside them…….
Oh, how did they even do that? I've always wondered how you get a balloon inside a balloon.
I could already picture the kids happily playing all day if we just tossed those balloons into the playroom and left them to it.
"Wow, the cake is so pretty. Did you film it?"
"Of course. It's been chaos since last night."
After unloading the rest of the food from the stroller and setting it out on the table, we lit the cake candles again and sang the birthday song once more.
This was already the second time—Luca seemed to have gotten used to the candle already.
Cradled in my arms, Luca beamed from ear to ear as he clapped along and watched everyone singing.
Once again, Reni blew out the candle in Luca's place.
Since the kids had already eaten cake upstairs, they didn't pay it much attention. After a single bite each, their interest faded, so we moved straight on to the gift ceremony.
"Happy birthday, Luca!"
Luca's eyes went round. A box wrapped in bright paper covered in cartoon characters had appeared in front of him, and he looked startled.
For some reason the baby glanced at me once, then back at the present. There were probably so many interesting things around that he was a little overwhelmed.
He still looked like he wanted to get closer to the balloons on the wall, but for now Luca settled for exploring the things already in his hands one by one.
"Wow, gummy bears!"
Cassandra had thoughtfully brought along the gifts from Jane and Charlie as well.
Jane had sent a toddler tea-party set, Charlie a pack of pretty translucent multivitamin gummy bears for little ones, and Cassandra herself had given a dollhouse.
"……."
Did they all just buy things they wanted themselves?
At least both the dollhouse and the tea set were wooden, so Reni didn't immediately declare, "That's a girl toy!"
"Whoa, this is……."
Opening Greg's present only strengthened my suspicion that everyone had simply bought what they themselves wanted to play with.
"It's a bubble gun that shoots a ton of bubbles every time you pull the trigger! It's automatic!"
Greg launched into an excited explanation.
"Come on, you just bought that because you wanted to play with it."
The only real point in his favor was that he'd gotten an indoor solution safe for kids.
"I won't deny it, but Luca's gonna love it too. Here, Luca!"
Greg eagerly tore off the plastic packaging and pressed the bubble gun into Luca's hands.
"……."
The way the baby stared at the bubble gun Greg had given him—like he'd just been handed a bomb—was pretty funny.
That was because the bubble gun was shaped like a unicorn, which looked a lot like the rocking horse that had scared him a little not long ago.
While Luca kept inspecting the bubble gun with a suspicious expression, Reni stood beside him with his eyes sparkling.
"Luca's so lucky."
He rose up on his tiptoes, looking at the presents on the table, and whispered it almost to himself.
Pretending not to notice, I stroked his back and asked,
"Hm? You don't like the presents, Reni?"
Reni's face flushed a little, as if he were slightly embarrassed.
"No, it's just…… these are all Luca's……."
His voice shrank as he answered, clearly a bit mortified that his envy had been found out.
Other kids might throw a full tantrum at a moment like this, or try to snatch presents from a younger sibling. Our Reni really was a good kid.
This was where Greg and Cassandra stepped in.
"We gave these to Luca, but if a baby plays all by himself it's no fun at all—so Reni has to play with him."
Reni, who had been staring at his toes, jerked his head up.
Seeing that, Cassandra's lips twitched. Barely holding back a smile, she put on a deliberately serious face.
"That's right. And these gummy bears are way too many for Luca to eat alone, don't you think? If Reni doesn't help eat them, they'll go bad and we'll have to throw them away."
With that, Cassandra opened the lid of the big bear-shaped container, took out a gummy bear, and popped it into Reni's mouth.
As he chewed the sweet, chewy gummy, Reni's expression grew brighter and brighter.