Thursday, February 19, 2009

I Am A Big Boy

While we were away for our trip in Hanoi, something interesting happened.

My mum changed job and becuase there was no one to take care of Ace, she brought him along for her farewell dinner. During the dinner, my mum told the teachers that Ace still insisted that he had to poop in diapers and so ALL THE TEACHERS reminded him that he is a big boy... especially his form teacher, Teacher Erica.


She told him that he is a big boy now. He has to poop in the toilet bowl.


So when we went to fetch Ace on the day that we came back, we were so surprised to find him telling us that he is a big boy now. "I am a big boy now, I drink milk from a cup.. I am a big boy now, I walk on my own and dun need bao bao... I am a big boy now and I 大便in the马桶. I am a big boy now...."


We were SOOOOOOOOOO impressed and wondered wat happened during the week that we were away.

And indeed, Ace has grown into a big boy now. I noticed he can now articulate his sentences better. We brought him to our business seminar and when he saw my coach, Arthur, he ran towards him like an old friend and said, "Hey!"

And then after that, he started chatting with Arthur about how he can cook rice now because his teacher taught him to do so.. and he went on to describe the process of how you have to wash the rice and then you have to add water to it... I was really impressed!

The next day, his Daddy was bz and couldnt fetch him home and so I attempted to do a STUNT ;) I walked all the way from my home to Ace's school (it was a 20min brisk walk) and then walked with Ace all the way home. Initially, he told me, "I am a big boy, I will carry my bag by myself and I don't need you to bao bao. I am a big boy, I walk by myself.." without me asking him at all.

Because the initial journey was within a private housing estate, we had alot of fun looking at the different plants and flowers and naming them and noticing how they grow and why they have different colours. Once we are on the main roads, Ace found it to be boring and started to want me to carry him.

"I thought you said you are a big boy and you will walk by yourself?" I asked him. "No!" he said firmly, "I said I want bao bao..." and then he giggled. So I carried him for a short while and asked him to keep walking.

2 playground stops and another 25min later, we finally reached home.

At night, Waipo called me and then I realized why he kept talking about being a big boy.

"And he was so funny ok. That night when he reached home, he wanted to poo but because he wanted to use a diaper, he did not want me to see him doing so, he kept asking me to go into the room to sleep and he closed the door and quietly went to find his diapers..."

What a little devil. Anyway, the end result was that he did not find any diapers, went to the toilet bowl to sit for 15 min and decided that he would rather not poop.

That night, I teased him and asked him if he is drinking milk via a cup or a milk bottle. He looked down on the floor and sheepishly told me, "I want milk bottle..."


So I made milk for him in a milk bottle and told him that I will tell Teacher Erica that he is drinking using a milk bottle. "No, don't tell teacher... dun tell her... dun tell her... I don't want to friend you...."


So I sat down with him and told him, "Ace, whatever you want to do.. if you are afraid that people will know, then don't do it. If you do it, then don't be afraid that other people will know. There is nothing wrong with the fact that you use a milk bottle. Just tell teacher that you are not ready yet and switch when you are ready. You know I will love you no matter what, right?"


And he seemed a little more at ease.


PS: I met his chinese teacher in sch and told her how he was angry that she scolded him. She said she scolded him again today because he was busy playing and not concentrating on his work again. "Actually Ace is a very well behaved boy when he is on his own.. but he is such a follower and when his classmate Y comes into the classroom and starts creating havoc, Ace will always end up joining him!"

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