My son, like many little boys, absolutely LOVES vehicles. He spends a lot of time talking about vehicles, reading about vehicles, playing with vehicles, and pretending to drive vehicles. The difference from other little guys his age in America is that his real-life vehicles, and therefore, the things he talks about and pretends with them, are quite different living overseas.
Without a vehicle of our own, if we need to go somewhere that is farther than walking distance, we end up taking a taxi or a bus. He really wants to take the local tuk tuks more, but they don't go up the hill to our area, so it is a rare "treat." One day when we were going across town, just to humor him, we took a bus and then a tuk tuk and finally ended up in a taxi for the last stretch.
It is fun to watch him, as a third culture kid, as his "normal" unfolds in front of us. He was too small to really remember life before Nepal, so this is how life is for him. He hit a stretch a few weeks ago where I would hear him in the other room, chattering, "Kaha chha? Yaha chha? Bhaisepati kaha chha? Yaha chha..." (Basically, where is it? Is it here? Where is Bhaisepati--our area? It's here...and so on.)
And, he has a special love for the bus here. We often opt for a taxi, if I have both boys with me, as the bus stresses my older one out when it is crowded, which it usually is. So when the little and I go out together, he thinks always requests to go by bus.
Now, when little kids in the States play bus, they might line up a bunch of chairs or pillows or something to sit on. They all sit, and maybe one sits at the front and pretends to drive, yeah? Well, this is what playing bus looks like to my little guy:
And, when friends here saw him climbing the bars, and I said, he's playing bus, they all went. "Oohhh" because it totally makes sense here. The effect you don't get in the picture is him calling out the names of places and banging on the "side of the bus" (window)--once to stop and two bangs to go.
I just love his enthusiasm about it all! Today, as we were riding on the bus and approached a fork in the road, where the buses usually go to the right but at which he asks every single time which way they are going to go, the bus went right (as expected), and he looked at me and said, "This is my FAVORITE way!!!" And, a couple minutes later, he pointed out another bus crossing our path. It was rather old and dirty, as most of the public buses here are, and it was simply painted blue and white with a few random words and designs on the windows. Ezekiel asked if I liked that bus, and when I responded that it was a nice bus, he said, "It is a BEAUTIFUL bus!"
Without a vehicle of our own, if we need to go somewhere that is farther than walking distance, we end up taking a taxi or a bus. He really wants to take the local tuk tuks more, but they don't go up the hill to our area, so it is a rare "treat." One day when we were going across town, just to humor him, we took a bus and then a tuk tuk and finally ended up in a taxi for the last stretch.
It is fun to watch him, as a third culture kid, as his "normal" unfolds in front of us. He was too small to really remember life before Nepal, so this is how life is for him. He hit a stretch a few weeks ago where I would hear him in the other room, chattering, "Kaha chha? Yaha chha? Bhaisepati kaha chha? Yaha chha..." (Basically, where is it? Is it here? Where is Bhaisepati--our area? It's here...and so on.)
And, he has a special love for the bus here. We often opt for a taxi, if I have both boys with me, as the bus stresses my older one out when it is crowded, which it usually is. So when the little and I go out together, he thinks always requests to go by bus.
Now, when little kids in the States play bus, they might line up a bunch of chairs or pillows or something to sit on. They all sit, and maybe one sits at the front and pretends to drive, yeah? Well, this is what playing bus looks like to my little guy:
And, when friends here saw him climbing the bars, and I said, he's playing bus, they all went. "Oohhh" because it totally makes sense here. The effect you don't get in the picture is him calling out the names of places and banging on the "side of the bus" (window)--once to stop and two bangs to go.
I just love his enthusiasm about it all! Today, as we were riding on the bus and approached a fork in the road, where the buses usually go to the right but at which he asks every single time which way they are going to go, the bus went right (as expected), and he looked at me and said, "This is my FAVORITE way!!!" And, a couple minutes later, he pointed out another bus crossing our path. It was rather old and dirty, as most of the public buses here are, and it was simply painted blue and white with a few random words and designs on the windows. Ezekiel asked if I liked that bus, and when I responded that it was a nice bus, he said, "It is a BEAUTIFUL bus!"
2 comments:
Ah, Zeke Grandma wants to ride the bus with you, prefereably the real one because I would break something trying to "play" bus with you.
He's an absolute sweetheart! I love hearing about how at home he is there!
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