Happy Birthday Luca!

I know it's the oldest cliché in the world...but sometimes it really is amazing how quickly time passes.
Today was Luca's fifth birthday, and I can hardly believe that it is already five years since he was born.

We were still living in France at that time and I remember thinking that if I ever gave birth again, then it would NOT be in France. If the French can make something complicated, then they do. This is not good when you are pregnant or giving birth, both of which are already complicated enough. At least that was once resolution that I stuck to.

Much has happened since then of course. As well as his older brothers and sisters Luca has also been joined by Niko (3) and Minttu (20 months). And Luca considers himself to be the boss of them both, although neither of them are quite so sure about this arrangement.

Luca used to be a very reserved little boy, but he laughs more than he used to these days. Except of course when he is wearing his Fireman Sam outfit. He takes his firefighting duties very seriously. In fact he won't even let Niko sing the Fireman Sam song because "he is not a proper fireman."

When I asked him what he liked about Somero he told me that the best thing about it was the fact that we had a "chocolate river". (For those of you from outside Somero, the river often looks to be a brown colour because of the clay riverbed).

Anyway, Luca celebrated in style this afternoon with presents and chocolate muffins. He also marked the occasion of his fifth birthday by learning for the first time to pronounce the letter "r" in Finnish, which is not that easy, for anyone who has never tried it.

I hardly dare guess what is likely to happen in the next five years, but I am quite sure that by the time Luca is ten our family will have some more stories to tell.   One thing is for certain, in our family life is never boring.