The World's Most Special
Even on the way home, Reni chattered nonstop about everything that had happened at kindergarten that day.
Maybe because he was so sociable, most of what Reni talked about involved his friends.
Thanks to the Manito App guaranteeing safe driving once again, I could keep the conversation going cheerfully with my child.
"So when the class bell rang earlier, you and your friends exchanged Christmas cards?"
"Yeah! But Rebecca said she was sad she wouldn't see me until next year!"
"Is that so? And what did you say?"
"I told her I was going to make a Christmas tree when I got home today!"
"Ah, um..."
That wasn't exactly an answer to what Rebecca said... But Reni looked so happy that I couldn't bring myself to point it out.
"Daddy, Daddy!"
"Hmm?"
"Daddy said you'd make the tent first today. You didn't forget and make it, right?"
Even strapped into his car seat, Reni put his hands on his hips and asked like a stern teacher checking whether I'd done my homework for the day.
He was so adorable that it was a shame I couldn't take a picture while driving. But I couldn't give up the chance to tease my cute little boy either.
"Hmm, I wonder? Did Daddy actually make the tent?"
I stretched out the ends of my words just like Reni did whenever he wanted something or was in a tight spot. At that, Reni clutched his head with both hands and cried out in a theatrical tone, as if this simply couldn't be.
"This can't be! Daddy, you didn't really leave the tent unfinished, did you?"
I should have held out without laughing to tease him properly, but I couldn't help snickering.
And Reni, whose powers of observation were remarkable for a four-year-old, immediately realized I was joking and passed the prank on to Luca.
"Luca, you know what Daddy did today, right? Quick, tell me. Did Daddy make the tent?"
"Amuada! Dadigidigi!"
"Oh, really! Daddy, Luca says you made the tent."
"Our Reni is amazing! Daddy didn't understand a single word of what Luca said."
When I praised him with deliberate exaggeration, Reni threw his head back and giggled. Listening to Reni's stories, we arrived home in no time.
After parking in front of the house, loading both kids and all our bags into the stroller, and waiting for the elevator, Reni suddenly lifted his head as if he'd just realized something new.
"So you're not going to work today?"
"Nope, no work today."
Reni formed a silent "Oh" with his mouth. Lately, his emotional expressions seemed richer than ever.
"But then Uncle Greg might play in the playroom all by himself without us knowing. He might even ride my unicorn."
"I don't think even Uncle Greg would go that far..."
To the kids, Greg seemed less like an adult and more like a really big friend—big enough that Luca felt the need to establish the hierarchy himself.
"Uncle Greg is an adult too, so he'll work hard even without Daddy there."
"You really think sooo?"
I ruffled the hair of the child who had folded his arms and was tilting his head from side to side, then we stepped into the elevator.
I pressed 3 and we started up, but the doors opened on the second floor.
"Oh, Reni. Vacation already?"
"Uncle Greg!"
Greg, headphones around his neck and a laptop tucked under his arm, high-fived Reni as he got into the elevator.
"...What are you doing?"
"I got bored being alone, so I figured I'd work at your place. And check out the tree tent while I'm at it!"
Luca stared blankly up at Greg, and Reni burst into giggles. Looks like our eldest's laugh box was wide open today.
When I opened the front door and stepped inside, Reni bounced up and down in the stroller.
"Daddy! Daddy! Let me down!"
While I secured the door, Greg quickly lifted Reni out of the stroller.
"Woooow!"
Reni hopped lightly around the tent.
"It's so cool! It's huge!"
Was it really that exciting?
When I took Luca out of the stroller too, he crawled as hard as he could after his big brother and into the tent.
"Alright, Reni. First we need to wash your hands and change your clothes."
I called to him as I shrugged off my coat, and Reni came trotting out without complaint, holding out both hands.
I washed his hands with him, changed him from his outdoor clothes into play clothes, and then we stood together in front of the tent.
Meanwhile Greg, who had claimed he was coming over to work, was already holding Luca and spinning around the tent, reacting just like the kids.
That guy—he'd just come to decorate the tree with us.
"Stop playing exactly like them and help me set up the cameras."
"Okay."
Still, having Greg as an assistant made things easier.
After finishing the camera setup, I brought over the mattress box I'd ordered to put inside the kids' tent and opened it.
When I unrolled the compressed, tightly rolled mattress onto the living room floor, Reni plopped down on it excitedly—then jumped up in surprise.
"Daddy, the mattress is hard..."
And then he added that it looked all wrinkly, now that he looked at it. Kids will be kids.
"The mattress is broken."
Facing the child who spoke with a bewildered expression, I triumphantly raised a pair of scissors.
"It's okay, Daddy will fix it. Luca, you watch carefully too, okay?"
"Hey, aren't you scamming them a little too hard just because the kids don't know better?"
Ignoring Greg's scolding, I cut open the plastic wrapping. With a whoosh of air rushing in, the mattress began to inflate, and Luca and Reni's eyes went round at the same time.
After pressing down firmly on the mattress with both hands to check how soft it was, Reni looked up at me with awestruck eyes.
"Daddy, you're amazing!"
"Right?"
Greg shot me a sour look, but free praise felt pretty great.
"The mattress still needs to inflate a bit more, so I opened it early. We'll climb on later, okay?"
As I was stopping Reni from trying to jump on the still-puffing mattress, Greg scolded me again.
"If that's the case, shouldn't you have opened it yesterday?"
"Then it wouldn't have been as impressive."
The kids weren't heavy anyway, so the mattress would inflate fine whether they climbed on or not.
Still, I brought two soft cushions instead of the mattress, set them in front of the tree, and sat the kids down.
"Daddy and Uncle are going to put the garland and lights on the tent first, so can Reni and Luca help with the decorations after that?"
"Yeees!"
While Reni held Luca's hand and sat on the cushions watching us, Greg and I worked quickly.
Covering the ivory tent completely with green garland made it look less like a Christmas tree and more like a treehouse deep in the jungle, but...
"Alright! One, two, three!"
"Woooow!"
Once we wrapped it thickly with lights and flipped the switch, the story completely changed.
Star-like twinkling lights cascaded down from the peak of the roof along the walls. Looking at it now, it really did feel like a Christmas tree.
Reni cried out in an excited voice.
"Luca, this is the most special Christmas tree in the whole world!"
"Kyaa!"
Luca was the kind of baby who got excited just because his big brother was excited. Of course, he seemed pretty excited himself right now.
And this was their reaction before we'd even put up a single ornament.
"Alright, time to decorate the tree."
"Yes!"
Reni popped up, grabbed a golden star from the boxes lined up in a row, and hung it beside the tent entrance.
"Wow, hanging a star next to the door makes it look really pretty."
Encouraged by Greg's well-timed reaction, the boy fetched another star and hung it by the window this time. After that, wanting to hang ornaments a little higher, he brought the step stool from the bedroom and climbed it like a ladder to work.
Watching him step back now and then to check the overall look, I could tell he had a great sense of style. Our Reni was definitely an extraordinary kid.
"Luca, let's help big brother too."
I picked up Luca, who had been watching Reni bustle around with his mouth slightly open, grabbed a Christmas ball, and hung it on the tent roof with him.
"Pretty, right? We put lots of decorations on to make it pretty like this."
"Yeah."
Luca clapped his clumsy little hands, finding it pretty himself, while Greg diligently filmed it all.
"I hope our Sabrina can join in later too."
Thinking of his daughter, who was just over a month old, Greg's face was starting to show the look of a real dad.
"Yeah, when that happens, let's make one for the office too."
Thanks to Reni working with a craftsman's dedication and Luca adding little touches here and there with me, the Christmas tree tent decorations were soon finished.
Light filtered through the clear snowflake ornaments, making them glow even more brilliantly, while the red decorations stood out beautifully against the golden lights and green garland.
Just as Reni had said, the real highlight was that instead of one star, there were a full ten large ones.
I sat the sweat-soaked Reni—who'd been running around so much—on the sofa with Luca, then slipped the quilt cover I'd made for today over the mattress.
Even if I bought everything else with money, I tried my best to handmake the things that would leave the deepest mark on the kids' memories.
Looking at the cover with its colorful tones and thick texture, covered in the bears, hearts, slimes, and stars the kids loved, Reni bounced up and down right where he sat.
Luca laughed watching his brother bounce, and when I put the mattress inside the tent and set him on top, he crawled around happily on the soft surface.
Greg watched the kids fondly and asked,
"Is it done now? Is it finished?"
"Not yet."
After herding the kids—who were making dolphin sounds as they romped around inside the tent—out one by one, I filled the mattress with soft cushions and blankets and finished the decorating.
I also made sure to turn the cushions and blankets around for the camera so the whole look was captured before putting them inside the tent.
"Waaah, so pretty!"
Reni cheered at the red-and-green cushion covers and the blanket with its pretty star-and-bear pattern.
I invited Greg to stay for dinner, but he left saying he wanted to get home quickly to see his wife and daughter. I fed the kids and gave them their baths.
Maybe because making the Christmas tree had worn them out so much, Luca and Reni took their baths quietly. Even while I dried their hair and changed their clothes, they only giggled—no running away or messing around.
"Reni, are you tired?"
"Noooooo?"
He stretched the end of the word long as he answered, then giggled at whatever amused him. And the baby giggled too, watching his big brother.
I scooped up both adorable boys just as they were and carried them to the tent.
"Kyaa!"
The two of them immediately went charging around inside the tent with renewed energy. Were they really that happy?
Once the kids had settled down a bit, I put two mood lights shaped like camping lanterns inside the tent and gave each of them their comfort stuffed animals.
Then I laid them down leaning against the soft cushions. Buried under the blankets, they looked up at the tent ceiling where the light filtered through and chattered softly to each other.
"Luca, this is the stars' secret. When night comes, the house will float up and go to the land of stars."
"Labuadada."
Whenever Reni said something full of imagination, Luca answered with babble that required just as much imagination.
But before long, both children's eyes drifted shut and their breathing evened out.
After making sure they were sound asleep, I turned off the living room lights and carefully moved all the presents I'd been secretly hiding around the house in front of the sparkling tent.
Then I sent the footage of everything to Cassandra with a note saying there was no need to push herself to upload the video tonight, and that was how I wrapped up the day...
The next morning, I could see that the video uploaded overnight had gotten an explosive response.