A Day in the Life of Taufik Johan Henriksen

I thought I should capture a typical day that Taufik enjoys in the early days of his life. For instance, today is truly representative of what he does on a day to day.

Wakes up, as usual around six ish. A lot of rolling around with me, running after his Far who is probably putting together some morning cereals or eating his plain yoghurt with vanilla sugar on it. Feeding his son, while the both of them are enjoying some kind of a conversation. A little father and son chat.

He would run back to the room to roll around with me again, take out a book or two which he would attempt to get me to read, end up reading it to himself and then he would be singing at the top of his lungs his latest favourite songs.

Then the morning would truly begin. On a day like this we get ready to go to the Bumblebee playgroup in Ekamai. It begins at 9.30 and ends at 11.30. We have a wonderful drive there, the radio in my truck is never, as a rule, on. Truck rides with mommy are for chatting and story telling. I would make up all sorts of stories and he would sit in the car absolutely enraptured.

Rides in his father's car is filled with music. Something which I terribly regret, it does start up a bad habit of becoming dependent upon music, on being constantly entertained, and at the heart of it, not the best thing for a Muslim child. But at the time I thought that it would be a good idea, since he would get so disruptive when Kim and I got into a deep conversation with each other. He would feel left out and simply dislikes it when that happens.

My latest collection of stories centres around the deep jungles of Africa, where there lived Mowgli and Baloo the bear, Dr. DooLittle (their little healer) and of course a host of other animals. I've just started story telling in the hopes that it would light up his imagination and creativity, enrichen his vocabulary and also instil a love for composing stories. The art of story telling is something that requires practise I realise. Anyways, I am hoping that my story telling will replace the music in his Far's car.

Anyways, back to his schedule. Bumblebee is so much fun for Taufik. Playing at the sand pit, driving all their little vehicles, tractors, trucks, tricycles, cars and what have you. Then it's into the playrooms with their multitude of toys. Then once his energy has been expended it's story time and a sing a long session. Then if he still has more energy, out to the paddle pool for water play.

The drive home with my tired and satiated child is so enjoyable. Back home it's a bottle of milk and straight to bed for his afternoon nap. Which would last till 2.30p.m. Then his nanny takes him downstairs for a little snack and cycle around the apartment compound. At 4.00p.m I take over and it's off to the playground to play with all the other kids.

Then an early dinner. Followed by a bath (always a struggle), he then chooses two or three books, a bottle of milk, teeth brushed and off to bed.

And it begins again the next day.

Here is his weekly time table, which I guess will soon change when he starts proper school in September.

Mondays: Playschool (Global Kids)
Tuesdays: Bambi Playgroup at KidsSports
Wednesdays: Playschool (Global Kids)
Thursdays: Bumblebee Playgroup
Fridays: Playschool (Global Kids)
Saturdays: Little Gym with Far only.
Sunday: The Rama IX Park with Mommy & Far or other entertainment

Taufik and his bright blue boots.

We went shopping some weeks ago at Tesco Lotus. I have been keeping my eyes open for a pair of cheap slippers for Taufik to wear. It would be his first 'adult' slipper. No straps, no velcros, no laces, just plain 'ol slip ons. None were in his size.

While I was bent over, digging around, basically causing a major mess in the children shoes department, (Guiltily, I could feel the heat of the video camera glare, 'another messy customer'). Taufik was doing his own shoe rummaging. He found to his delight some blue and red wellingtons being sold for Baht 49 - an absolute steal.

"Darling, which colour would you like?" I asked him. "The red or the blue?". "Blue mommy!" he shouted, jumping up excitedly. And that's how those lovely bright blue boots ended up being on our shoe rack.

From that day onwards, almost obsessively, Taufik began wearing his bright blue wellies everywhere. To the school, the playgroups, the playground, restaurants, supermarket, just about all the places we went to. People who saw him would stop to smile at him, laughing at his cojones.

Whenever we were getting ready to leave the apartment, he would rush out to the shoe rack and pull out his wellies. "I'magonna wear this. I'magonna wear my boops mommy." he would adamantly say to me. His tone making it plain that there was no room for bargaining.

Oh if only you could see him stomping around in those boots, he looked adorable. He had to walk in a certain way to make sure that he didnt stumble in them - Kim and I fell in love all over again.

When we first bought those boots, I got Taufik to read with me again, a book that we had read together some time ago. It's about a little gosling called Gossie who loved to wear bright red boots.

"Gossie is a gosling. A small yellow gosling, who loves to wear bright red boots. Everyday."

Gossie ate in them, slept in them, played in them, stomped around in them. Inspired, I guess Taufik did the same.

This morning though, I think it is finally official that Taufik has fallen out of love with his bright blue boots. At least for now. Today he abandoned them for the winter shoes he had worn in Denmark. Big, heavy, stompish shoes. He clunked out of the house and into the elevator for school this morning in those shoes. Quite happily too.

Summer comes and friends go. New friends perhaps?

There are challenges in having the one and only child, like I have with Taufik that I did not foresee. Well I guess I did foresee it somewhat, because in all my prayers for children, I have always asked for more than one. I never said, "Ya Allah, give me one child." And even in my most desperate hours, when I really felt like doing some bargaining and begging, I never said, "At least one child, ya Allah!" It was always, "Ya Allah, please bless me with children, I would be grateful for one. Three would be nice, but two would also be wonderful.'

You see, having one child, and a child that enjoys making friends and socialising makes it a priority that one has friends. I am so terrible at making friends and this really puts a lot of stress on me. In order for Taufik to have lots of friends I must have lots of friends.

From the time he was born till today, I managed to make quite a nice circule of friends with children that Taufik mostly enjoyed being with. There was Patrick, Natasha's four year old son whom Taufik absolutely adored. There was Mahnoor, 6 years old, which got along fine with Taufik for the first 1 1/2 years of his life, but now they fight like cats and dogs - which really makes it a horror for them to be together. Then there's Anne Christine's three children, Maeva, Nathon and Timothy. And more of course.

But one by one they are leaving since summer has always been the time for current expats to leave and new expats to come. I hope that the new wave bunch of expats would come with it some wonderful ladies with wonderful children for Taufik and I to befriend. Oh dear, still the idea of starting from scratch tires me. I am exhausted just by the thought of it all.