Ace Goes To The Dentist

Some time back, I noticed that there were blackish stains on Ace's teeth.. no matter how we brushed or wat we did, the stains just keep coming back...

So the last time Max was in town, he brought Ace to the dentist but as there was a long queue, the nurse there gave us free dental advice. hahahaha.. she said that actually, this is a very common problem among kids and it is caused by the make up of their saliva (which allows bacteria tat produce the brown stains to grow). Apparently, there is nothing you can do about it.. you clean it off at the dentist, it comes back again... so even the best oral hygeine can just help to let less of it grow. You simply got to wait for yourself to outgrow it or something...

And incidentally, according to the dental nurse, children with such a problem has stronger teeth than children without this problem..

But it is irritating... as most pple will see it and ask Ace why his teeth are so dirty and I have to explain the whole long story all over again..

So that he will get a new and good start in a new school, I decided to bring him to clean it all off at the dentist...

I made appointment for him and specially went home when I had a full sked.. just so I could bring him to the dentist. He was quite concerned that it would be painful and I told him that it would be okie and he would look very handsome afterward... tat's him looking really worried while waiting for his turn...

That is Ace feeling even more nervous as we continued to wait...

Incidentally, Ace was actually cleaning his teeth at a certain Ace Family Dental Clinic.. wahahahahah:)

Anyway, the dentist that we met was one experienced with children I think. First he explained to me what might be the cause and said it is linked to the foods that we eat.. so he suggested tat i monitor the food intakes that Ace is having to track what may be causing it...

Then he told Ace that he will be using water to clean his teeth "because we need water to clean things, right?" And he sprayed the clear liquid for Ace to see... and told Ace he will do two teeth to show him...

After he did two teeth, he took out the mirror and showed Ace how it looked like. Apparently, Ace liked what he see but he did not like the taste of the solution.. "It is very sour..." Ace said.. And then Mr Dentist told him that the water has got lemon and salt in it so that it can clean better... he wanted Ace to lie down and clean one more time but Ace was reluctant.. he was actually prepared to go home there and then..

I had to coax and persuade.. I felt a little embarrassed that I was wasting Mr Dentist's time... and I explained that if he did it, he can have white teeth... and then I told him I would hold his hand and give him courage while Mr Dentist cleaned for him.. I literally had to PUSH him back down into the dentist chair and then as Mr Dentist cleaned, Ace held on to both of my hands tightly (that is why no pictures during tat period) while I chanted, "Jia you, Ace! Jia you, Ace! You are the best!" repeatedly...

But after one round, Ace did not want to do it anymore and started shivering.. (I guess it might have been teeny weeny bit painful) so the dentist changed tactic and used another method.. he told Ace he is using a soft rubber with a special toothpaste to clean his teeth next.. he let Ace touch it and show Ace how it worked by passing him a mirror so tat he can see the process... "See, not painful right?" asked Mr Dentist...

Anyway, it was not a very thorough job as Ace did not open his mouth properly but it was still a huge difference from is previous brown stained teeth!

That is the AFTER of the cleaning:)

Before we left, Mr Dentist even gave Ace a toothbrush as a gift for good behaviour:) hahaha.. And Ace was also very polite and said, "Thank you Mr Dentist.. goodbye.." to him..

Previous Post: Guess What?!

Guess What?!

The other day, Ace got very bored and so decided to play with this toy I bought him on his 5th birthday.. it is a magnetic set of toys that has triangles and squares that you can make into different things...

He kept bugging me to play with him but as I was bz with my own stuff, I kept rejecting till I can reject no more and so I proposed that I will test him name him something and he has to make it for me....

Based on what you see in these pictures.. can you guess wat is it??:P

When I told Ace the first item I had in mind, he beamed and said, "So easy!" And he promptly came up with this thing....

I tot it is really quite clever of him.. given tat this set of toys only has triangles and squares...

The answer.......

COMPUTER! (Did you get it right?)

The second item, I thought would present itself with a little more difficulty.. but Ace just giggled and told me that it is EASY!

But he did fiddle with it for a longer time.. can you tell what it is.. this is the front view and back view of it...

The answer.....

FAN! Yeah, the standing type....


The next item.. I find Ace actually ingenious in the production of it...he had such fun making this and showing me how it works...

Can you guess wat it is?

The answer is....

Telephone!

This one is a little tricky cos he added something extra that i feel made it sligthly difficult to guess. But it was still with the general idea of the topic that I gave him...

He also said this is easy and was grinning away..

What do you think this is?

The answer....

A SOFA! :) Did you get it right?



This one is also interesting... I think quite ingenius too!

If I had to give you a clue, I would say look carefully at the middle part and the side part where the finger is pressing......

Cannot give too much clues or easy to guess!

The answer...

A CAMERA!

Oh dear, as I was doing this ( a few weeks after I took this photo), even I forgot wat it is... I have to ask Ace when he wakes up later..

The answer is..

A HOUSE:P

So how many did you get right? :P

When i sent the pics over to Max via watsapp and got him to guess, he couldnt get any of it right even though I felt Ace really did a good job of making them... he only got it right when we also gave clues about how to use this item... hahaha...

Previous Post: Antique Phone Vs Iphone

Antique Phone Vs Iphone

My friend reads this blog frequently and so, she is absolutely fascinated with my son... so before I left, she asked to meet him again and we arranged for a dinner date at the mac donalds...

But because as old frens (she was my uni sch mate), we have lots to catch up on and so we started talking and Ace started feeling bored..

In order to entertain Ace, she took out her antique phone and told Ace that she is very sorry but she does not have a fancy phone like an iphone and just has this really antique looking nokia phone...
Despite that, it kept Ace well entertained for the next half an hour.. wahahahaha.. cos almost all my friends are using smart phones and so Ace has little exposure to a simple phone like this nokia phone... cos it is those type of phone from the nineties where the screen is one colour and there is a coloured backlight (in this case white) and just black words.. no colours, no pictures, no fancy games.. really just a phone to dial numbers and send sms....

so because he had never seen a phone like this, Ace was really fascinated.. and so my fren let him play around with it and send me an sms... she also taught him how to make a call..

Ace was soooooooooo happy and afterward wanted to keep calling me using the phone...

Anyway, after our dinner, we went for a little walk and saw this exhibition and so we let Ace take picture with the smurfs.. hopefully we will get to watch this movie together with daddy in dubai:) (waiting for it to appear in funshion)

Anyway, this is my personal favourite picture with the smurfs.. so handsome right?:P

Previous Post: Pri 1 Registration

Pri 1 Registration

It's official, I FINALLY.. and I do mean FINALLY.. managed to sign Ace up for Primary 1 at East Coast Primary....

Given that we are going to be in Dubai for the next 1-2 years, many people have asked me why i am still signing up for Ace for primary one... the reason is simple... it's because if you have a parent that is working overseas and you are relocated, you can have two choices.. you either choose to do register during the pri 1 registration exercise or you can come back and sign up later.... The difference is that if you sign up now, you "chope" a place for your kid in school and when you pay for a $33 leave of absence, the teacher of your son will send you homework and tell you what they are learning in school so you can homeschool your kid a little bit.. such that they wouldnt get a shock of their lives when they return to the educational system in Singapore...

We decided that we will try to chope a place for Ace first so that we can get the "homework" sent to us as we were told that UK cirricullum in international school is 2-3 yrs behind sgp's educational cirricullum... (Ace is likely to attend Horizon School here in Dubai.. he will be going for an assessment on 5th of September and if he passes, he will get to go there. According to Max's boss, that is a really good school with a small community.)

Anyway, during the first few phases where you can sign your child up in your alma matar.. we didnt do anything.. reason being that my primary school, Bedok Primary School is already BUANG.... and Max's school (East Coast Primary, ECPS) is not a "hot" school.. so we waited till phase 2C to ballot and see if we will get lucky....

At this point, I know, many people will start to ask, "Didn't you do volunteer work?" The answer is NO.. because volunteer work just lets you join in the balloting one phase earlier... and that, according to my theory is still dependent on LUCK.. why waste 40 hrs if it is not a confirm sure win?:P I have met many people who were lucky... and it is great. they din have to spend 40hrs doing volunteer work nor did they have to donate thousands of dollars.... and if they were not.... (like me, cos I din get into red swastika or temasek and ended up in bedok primary), my theory is, I still turned out ok....

I ended up in special stream in a good secondary school, managed to finish university ... am not a bad writer, I was a reporter, ran my own business, had a cafe... ever made $20K in a month, am well loved and well liked... so, wat is the big deal about hot schools right?:P

Max went to ECPS.... ended up in a not too bad secondary school, scored single digit for his O levels and chose the lesser chosen path of a polytechnic... left the navy as a navy captain and he now is a regional operations manager in an MNC making a very comfortable income..

Anyway, the process of signing ace up for primary one though was quite mafan.. considering that it happened during the last few weeks where I was intensively meeting frens and packing before I left...

Anyway, after discussion we decided to sign up for Yuneng Primary.. and as expected, it required ballotting... so I went to Yuneng one time to sign up.... and even though watching the ballot was optional, I decided to go since I was curious about how it is...

When I reached the school, I really liked the cheery happy feel I get there. I think it is a really good school and I know Ace will love it there... the balloting was well, balloting lah.. it was quite a draggy process given that they wanted to be fair.. there were 89 pax balloting for 40 seats and all citizens given two slips and PRs given one slip of balloting paper...

First they will show you your balloting paper one by one... and then leh, they will fold and put the balloting paper into this plastic see through box and they will ask parents, VIPS, etc to randomly pick the next 5-10 slots... and at the end of it, Ace din get it.. so I put him on waiting list... ( I found out tat even Fengshan primary had to ballot lor.. red swastika needless to say have to ballot.. i have 3 good schools near my place but no round shit with any of them..)

What was annoying to me was that this meant I have to wait for phase 2C supplementary to sign up again in another school.

After discussion, we decided to sign up for Bedok Green Primary given that it is near my parent's place since we will likely be staying there when we go back to singapore..

So early morning, i went to sign up in BGP.. but leh, the lady there told me that since they only had 28 slots left, likely they will need to ballot for the people living within 1km.. so that means I cant even ballot cos my own place is 1.1km away from the school... (darn!)

So leh, I went karaoke with my fren while I waited for Max to wake up to discuss with him (Dubai is 4 hrs behind) and then he suggested that we call one of our friends to check with him as he was a teacher and have taught in BGP and ECPS before..

I messaged this friend of mine and he was indeed helpful!:) He said that of course given a choice, he would choose a better school as he feels that curricullum is a small issue but the environment is more important.. and as these schools all had children from poorer families, they tended to have issues like playing truant etc...

However, when i told him about my situation, he said that given a choice between the two, he will put his kids in ECPS... because:

1. It is a small school and everyone knows everyone..



2. It has happy teachers because it has a good principal and they are all super caring!



3. Happy teachers also breed happy kids.. they are more focused on a all rounded education instead of just results



4. It is like a mini international schools as it accepts students from many diff countries as well



5. As Ace is an intelligent kid, he is likely to go to the first class and will be given more attention academic wise...
   

And so leh, after karaoke, I walked all the way to cancel my registration with BGP and then went to ECPS to sign up...and so, finally it is done!:)

True enough, the two times I went to ECPS ( I went again to sign LOA), I really see alot of happy children playing there...:)

Anyway, this for us is interim.. our plan is that when we come back 1-2 years later, hopefully Yuneng will have a slot and we can put Ace there....

Anyway, I told Ace that he will be going to same school as daddy and he was elated!:) "Yeah, I want to go to same school as daddy!" he exclaimed.. ;)

PS: The people at ECPS were really very nice lor.. went all the way out to help us with the LOA:) Plus i heard that there are not many classes this year at all.. so I think the children will be well taken care of...

Previous Post: Lego City Ship

Lego City Ship

Ace recieved a belated birthday present from Aunty Germaine and Uncle Melvin and Tiffany:) It is a lego ship from the Lego City series.. according to Germaine, Melvin loves stuff like that and as they only have a daughter then... all these boys toys he can only buy for other people's children.. (but tat is about to change soon since they are expecting a little boy soon:P)

I asked Ace to fix it on his own and he only managed to do it halfway and lost the patience.. so guess who was the one who finished it up? (But anyway, I like playing with lego and fixing things.. muahahhahahaha)



Ace and the finished product.... out at sea.. (FYI, this ship REALLY FLOATS on water one lor!!!)

Anyway, all the lego stuff he recieved for his birthday (Ah Yee gave him a lego city Police van set) inspired him.. such that when his dad helped him set up a reward system.. where he collects stars in return for buying toys.. he listed this particular lego set as his reward lor.. but leh, I think the same set sells for 189 in sgp but costs slightly more in dubai.. so daddy say maybe by the time he collects enough stars, we will be in sgp and can buy in sgp.. hahahahah...

Previous Post: I Am So Angry!

I Am So Angry!

The other day, I was checking FB on my iphone on the bed and Ace was beside me trying to be a KPO...

I chanced upon this photo that a friend posted and when Ace saw this photo, he got very upset..

And his comment that followed really surprised me...I was not aware he can express himself in this way or that he would or could say these things...

He says he is very angry n told me. "i am so angry with these people, how can these nasty people do these things to the dog.... I love animals... If they dun love animals then dun love lah... Why they have to do this to the dog... I am very angry.. I want to go and call the police.."

The part that surprised me is the "If they dun love animals then dun love lah.. why do they have to do this?" I am just surprised that he has this type of logical thinking too and that he is aware that it is ok not to like something or someone but it is not right to hurt them...

Previous Post: National Day At Kinderland

National Day At Kinderland

Unlike the usual half day party they had in school, this year, Ace's school decided to do a mini NDP carnival...

That's us before we left home.. this year, everyone except me and Ah Yee are not free to attend and watch Ace dance during the carnival...

We reached early and so I took a walk around and found that there are many stalls.. there is paper cutting, five stones, face painting etc...



I pity the children... those standing under the super hot sun lor...

That's them dancing happily away...






After performance, time to visit the booths to collect stamps in return for goody bag... Ah Yee frowning dunno at wat.. wahahahaha...

This is the design tat Ace cut out:)

Ace doing hop scotch...



Ace playing five stones... Those all the cheap and fun toys:)


Time to take a photo... with the merlion:)


And do a little face painting...

Ace rewarded with a traditional biscuit...





Ace trying out a stryder bike.. but he was too scared to go fast...

Class photo of the children who were still hanging around towards the end of the carnival...

During the carnival, Ace wanted very much to win this toy from the fishing stall.. because V's mummy sponsored the stall and said it was unilimited tries as long as you queue up again.. Ace went again and again and again and won many stickers and this and that but he just couldnt win tat flying saucer that many others had won.. so Ah Yee went to help him play cheat a little... I think V's mummy knew that they play cheat but also bang zhui because of Ace.. hahahaha.. Anyway, he finally fished the correct colour but there were no flying saucers left anymore!:) There was one pack left there but it was apparently booked by someone else who won it earlier...

So leh, he looked very sad and V's daddy gave him a police car instead... but he still looked so disappointed and sad that V's daddy just asked V to pass him one flying saucer on the side..

Well, Ace is really an abundant little boy lor.. he always meets kind souls who gives him what he wants... Special thanks to V's Daddy and Mummy:)

Previous Post: Salads