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