The cheapest thrill

There are lots of aspects that we need to cover in bringing up a child. Manners, confidence, happiness, education.. the list just goes on. And all these aspects can be boosted or equally dampened by the environment that one lives in.

Living in Bangkok has not been an easy choice. For one, the language will always be a problem for Gooly. And this language barrier has caused him a great deal of fun at the park. The kids in the neighbourhood are generally well mannered, but they speak very little, if not, no English. Thus Gooly has resorted to playing on his own or with his too-lazy-to-run-in-circles mahmee.

Sometimes when games which need not any verbal skills are played (i.e running around a dusty car 100 times or till someone passed out :P)Gooly would join in.

I always enjoy watching him play with other children. Let it be in a group or a duo, you can see the beam on his face. Today, the beam was on mine. We sighted a group of kids ranging from 6 yrs old to 12, perhaps? They cycled passed while Gooly was sitting on his own bicycle watching the bird/papaya tree. And one of them asked, "Are you ready?" That was the first time ever I heard a full sentence being uttered by any of these fellas during my tenure of over two years here. He must have learnt it from Gooly :D.

Anyways, Gooly's face lit up and he nodded solemnly and proceeded by 'revving' his bike. And off they went. It was a picturesque moment. A backview of my child throwing his head backwards laughing with a gang of young cyclists. Never mind that he was the youngest and the only one with the 'cool' Ultraman with training wheels bicycle complete with a front basket and the loudest bell. (Cool only to his definition :P )

I stayed away because it will be so uncool, no? But I ran back home and got Papah to witness the moment too. He was less cool about letting his goolypop roaming solo without shadow-mum. So I stayed at one end of the lane and he watched from the other end. Though a distance away, we could still see each other's grin (as wide as a sliced watermelon).

When excursion was all done for, goolypop returned with an equally wide grin, the rosiest cheeks and sweat-soaked shirt.

"That was fun," he said.

Oh well, it was for us too. :)