But as the 3-year-old lay in an induced coma after a horrific dog attack, there were times when his parents Eulia West-Pakuria and Rik Pakuria thought they might never see that smile again.
In the attack, eight weeks ago, Rikiau was bitten in the throat by his aunt's dog and suffered critical injuries that needed major surgery.
He was put in an induced coma to help him recover.
The weeks that followed were a living nightmare for the couple, not knowing if their son was going to live.
But they said Rikiau was a fighter and this week they had finally returned home and were trying to get back to some kind of normality.
For now, Rikiau could not talk.
Before the attack he was a wee chatterbox, his parents said, but now he was having to communicate through signals. But they had been told he would talk again.
Until now, the family had not spoken publicly about the attack, focusing their attention on getting their boy better.
But they wanted people to know Rikiau was doing well and they wanted to thank the many people who helped them in the past eight weeks.
They said they held no grudge against Eulia's sister, whose dog attacked Rikiau. They said it was just one of those things.
Rikiau was at his aunt's house with his 17-year-old brother and his mum's 20-year-old cousin when the attack occurred.
Both his parents work for Ashburton Meat Processors - Rik on day shift and Eulia on night shift - but on January 18 Eulia was called in to cover a day shift.
She had no qualms about dropping Rikiau off with family. The dog, Boy - a Doberman-Staffordshire terrier cross and the offspring of their own dog Starsha - had not been a problem in the past.
But on that day, as Rikiau went to put a chocolate into his mouth, Boy lunged and grabbed him by the throat.
With the help of workers from Ashburton Contracting Ltd, who happened to be working near the house, they managed to stem the flow of blood until emergency services arrived.
Rikiau was taken to Ashburton Hospital before being flown to Christchurch Hospital where he underwent the first of nine operations. Two days later he was transferred to Auckland's Starship Hospital by air ambulance for specialist emergency paediatric care.
Rik and Eulia found out about the attack during their lunch break. The first time they saw Rikiau after the attack was at Ashburton Hospital.
"He didn't look like our baby," Eulia said.
"And that night after the major surgery in Christchurch he was unrecognisable; it was like his whole face was all swollen and puffed out."
There were tubes and wires everywhere, and he was on life support.
When Rikiau was transferred to Auckland, his parents moved into Ronald McDonald House.
"It was touch-and-go for the first three weeks," Eulia says.
"We thought our luck had run out at one point, but we look at him now and there are so many kids that aren't going to go home."
After a couple of weeks, there was progress. Soon he was back on to solid food and was eventually discharged and allowed to stay at Ronald McDonald House with his parents for the nine days before they returned home.
"Now, he's a cheeky monkey, just like he was before," Eulia said.
They did not know how long they would be in Auckland. Eulia is due to give birth to the couple's seventh child in July and she was told she might have to have the baby in Auckland.
But she was determined that would not happen and Rikiau's fighting spirit had meant the family's newest member should be born in Ashburton - the town they moved to five years ago, from Napier, and now call home.
Rikiau's airway is dilated by a balloon and he has a tracheostomy tube in his throat. It needs cleaning out up to 15 times a day and his parents cannot leave the house without taking the suctioning machine and a full emergency kit with them.
In order to bring Rikiau home, they had to undergo intense training in how to look after him.
He can eat solids now, but cannot have fluids. These are fed to him through a tube in his nose.
In three weeks, Rikiau has to be back at Starship for an operation to rebuild his voice-box.
"We don't know how long he will have to have the trachy [tracheostomy] for, but it will be a long time," Eulia said.
The family said they knew there was still a long way to go, but that at the end of it they would have a happy, healthy boy again and the only physical reminder was likely to be scarring on his throat.
But despite his experience, Rikiau is not fazed by dogs.
"He knows what happened and he knows who did it," Eulia said.
(Otago Daily Times - March 17, 2012)
