Khidhir’s 3rd birthday fell on Sunday, and we gifted him with a bicycle. Not a tricycle, you understand, but an actual (albeit miniature) bike complete with a basket, a carrier thing at the back & inflatable tyres! The next morning, his mum reported that he was zooming all over the house as soon as he’d gotten the hang of riding it, ringing the bell non-stop & annoying the heck out of his parents. Threats to remove the bell backfired when he simply switched to shouting “Riiinnngggg! Riiinnngggg!” as he flew around on his new mode of transport. Haha. Trust Khidhir to never shut up.

On Monday morning, he leapt (yes, LEAPT) onto my bed while I was still asleep, telling me all about how he sang “Happy Birthday” & blew out candles on his Thomas the Train birthday cake the day before. I asked why he didn’t bring some cake for me, and his reply was that it’s “only for Mummy, Abah & me to eat”. Cheeky little monkey.

It still continually amazes me how effectively bilingual he is, at three years old. By “effectively bilingual”, I don’t just mean that he knows the Malay/English equivalents of most words, but he could relate a story to me in English, and then later tell the same story to my granny in Malay. He knows when to switch languages depending on whom he’s speaking to.

Nowadays, whenever I catch him doing something he’s not supposed to, he’d sneak a look around to make sure his disciplinarian (i.e. my mother) isn’t within hearing distance. Then he’d offer a conspirational “Shhh!” indicating that I shouldn’t tattle on him. Sneaky little monkey.