The secret happiness of fatherhood.

A few days ago, I took Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, out. He decided that he wasn't going to walk, but that he would take his bicycle instead. It is a rather small bicycle, with wheels a few inches across. It has to be small - because he is.

I watched him astride his little transport machine, his feet on either side, pushing him along, in his own individual way and I felt something very strange. I felt warm all over. There was an inner glow of a diffuse kind of happiness, as I watched my youngest son try to master the bicycle. It was quite a surprise, in its own way, to feel so, for this happiness seemed to come from nowhere. All I was doing was watching my son play - yet it made me feel very happy to do so.

He was very intent on the ground ahead of him, carefully looking where he was guiding his little bike. He was particularly taken by "hills" and used these to propel himself at greater speed, taking his feet off the ground, to let the bicycle roll - though never so long as to really pick up speed: he would stamp his feet down so as to brake a little, before it got out of hand. He loved it.

He didn't know it, but I think I enjoyed it more than he did.

Fatherhood is inexplicable: it has the power to make the ordinary very special indeed. It lends pleasure to the everyday and makes life a whole lot more interesting. At least, it does, if you pay attention to it, while its happening. To another, I would just have seemed like a man walking behind a boy on a bike - but to me, it was a whole lot more. Perhaps it is, to you, too, in your own life.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)