26-03-17 Dusit Thani Playground

Sunday 26th March 2017

Its late, nearing midnight. JiaJia Dora and Kingsley are drawing a donkey on his chalk board. They are going through donkey body parts in Greek – tail, nose, ears. Tonight we three walked to Dusit Thani then our son played for 1.5 hours straight with 5 kids from Pakistan. At first these kids were shy, who recoil at his advances; Kingsley’s exuberance and overtures to play together was alien to them. Soon (it took some coaxing though!) they warmed up to him and before long six kids ranging in age from 3 years to 12 were running after one another laughing.

It was heat-warming to watch the work he put in to establishing some rapport with these kids, and so very good for Kingsley to effectively communicate without words-a benefit of living as an ex pat child in a non-English speaking country. I notice during the course of tonight, he does not exhibit frustration nor does he rush up to me with a gripe about other kids. He is patient, kind, tolerant and tenacious. His concerns center around enjoyment of others and making connections with little people.

Even though I didn’t take photos of our Dusit Thani night, any image of Kingsley while in the company of others will tell a similar story: one of happiness, light, laughter and a sweet nature. These were taken in Camilla and Adam’s bathroom on Christmas Day 2015, after we’d stuffed ourselves with turkey, ham and brussel sprouts. Four toddlers (Kingsley, Haarleen, Layla and Maya) in the bathroom all being showered two by two…

Christmas 2015; at 2 years of age