Saturday, June 30, 2007

So Responsible!

Ace loves to help and he is now a very seasoned helper when Daddy is driving.

When Daddy drives in the day, sometimes it gets really warm and sunny.. so it gets too bright to drive comfortably...

When this happens, Daddy will say, "Ace, can I have my sunglasses?"

And then Ace will open the glove compartment, take out the glasses, pass it to Daddy and close the glove compartment.

He is so responsible that he even does it when Daddy is driving at night.

The other day, it was quite dark but since Ace already took out the sunglasses, Daddy put it on and told Ace, "Oh dear, it is too dark to use to the sunglasses, can Daddy put it on my head?"

So Max left it on his head for a while and then turned to Ace and said, "I think it might be better to keep it...." and passed the glasses to Ace.

Ace took it, and then started to put it on his head :) Hahahaha...

After a while, he got tired of it and put it back into the glove compartment ;)

Ah yee said that he took her sunglasses and put it on his head the other day as well...

Children.. you really dunno wat they pick up and when they pick it up...

Previous Post: Ace Has Strong Arms

Friday, June 29, 2007

Ace Has Strong Arms

Ace has very strong arms now.

Whenever he goes to the airport or the playground or anywhere with railings, this is is favorite stunt now:


The other day, I brought him to the playground for about 30 min and he was just running around and hanging himself on the different railings throughout the whole 30 min.

I was thinking of teaching him to play my favourite game when I was in primary school.

I used to be really skinny then.. and I would often hold on to the bars and railings such tat I was parallel to the bar with my feet and hands holding onto the bar and then I would pretend that I was a lump of meat in the butcher's stall at the market and see how long i can stay there and dun move..

But I scared that if i taught him that, this will be all that he ever wants to do.. and that would create a big headache for me when I bring him out. So I decided to just let him be...

Previous Post: Ace Can Sing

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Ace Can Sing!

Nainai is so clever!

She taught Ace to sing "Ke Ren Lai..."

Here is Ace's rendition of this very popular children's song:


Well, that was probably the first few times he sang it.. so it did not sound very accurate. Instead of "ke ren lai, kan ba ba.." the lyrics was changed to "nai nai nai, pa pa pa.." but at least he got the tune correct.

After singing it about 10 times, he can catch up a little and sing along following the words like "baba bu zai JIA.." and then his favourite is to pull the last word of the song, "Cha...." very long and then use his head to knock onto my head.. hahaha...

Since Nainai was able to successfully teach Ace to sing, we have since taught him a few other songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday (this one he learnt by himself) and San Lun Che. Hahahaha....

Mostly, he got the last word of each sentence correct and the tune somewhat correct. I think he is musically inclined.. LIKE ME! Muahahaha....

Previous Post: Special Eye

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Special Eye


Did you that most children have psychic powers/intuition?

We were all born with these abilities but as we ignore them and try to hide them for fear that others may think of us as being different, we lose them gradually.

Nowadays though, people are paying money to get such abilities back. This is one of the big reasons why I send Ace to Shichida's Method.... cos I wanted him to be intuitive as I feel this will help him alot in leading a happy and successful life.. and will also help him have a happy and harmonious relationship with the people around him.

Imagine being able to feel how other people are feeling and able to relate to anyone that you want to relate to...

Imagine intuitively knowing when it is a good time to invest in what for business. Imagine being able to intuitively tell if your business partner is good or bad.

Anyway, I have been doing lots of home practice with Ace. Usually, I take two cards with different animals, tell him what animal I want, mix up the animals and then ask him to pick out the right card with the right animal. I will then tell him to use his special eye (while pointing to his third eye) to see where the animal is.

Initially he does not get it right.

Recently though, sometimes when he is very in the mood and feeling really high, he would point to his third eye and say, "eye!" and then reach out for the card without thinking and he always gets it right!

If he doesn't point to his third eye though, he would get it wrong even if he paused to think.

I am very happy that I am finally seeing some results after practicing for so long.

The other day, another thing happened to make me think my practice is all worthwhile ;)

We were all watching TV and suddenly, Ace ran to the door and said, "mah mah.. mah mah..." and then he ran back to me, and ran to the door and said, "mah mah.. mah mah...".. two minutes later, my grandma really appeared at the door!

He could tell she was coming even without hearing her voice and seeing her!

Amazing!

Previous Post: No To New Shoes

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

No to new shoes


We went to mustafa for shopping the other day and decided to buy Ace a new pair of new shoes because his old ones seem to be too tight for him.

For some unknown reason, Ace refused to wear his new shoes no matter what we said or did. Forcing him to wear his new shoes was like this huge battle where he would scream and shout and kick and grab and it always ends with him crying and kicking away his new shoes.

We tried hiding his old shoes when we were about to go out and it did not work.

We tried highlighting to him that there is a STAR on the shoe (cos this is his favourite shape now) and that there is a dog on it.. But it did not work.

We tried letting him wear it for fun while we playing at home but when we had to go out, he still wanted his smelly old shoes.

Last resort, I forced him to wear it and LAUGHED while doing it so that he thought it was a game and was willing to put on the shoes for like 5 minutes.

And then we threw his old shoes away and forced him to wear it and force carried him out.... and after one time out with his new shoes, he would happily wear them now :)

Previous Post: Happy Birthday To Ace!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Dong dong chiang

Here is Ace doing Chinese Dance with Ah Yee's cardigan.. complete with the raise the leg movement.. music proudly presented by ME ;)



Previous Post: Meat

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Meat


Speaking of meat. I finally found a good way to teach Ace not to eat meat.

Whenever we see pictures of dead carcesses (eg, dead fish, meat, dead chicken), I would point to the picture say to him, "Ace... blerhhh......" (vomitting sound) so that it shows him that it is disgusting to eat meat.

And then tell him, "So we cannot eat this.."

And then I would point to vegetables and do the "good" sign and then tell him, "We can eat this."

I repeated a few times without concern about whether the information went into his head or not.

One day, he found a Shop N Save pamphlet with a fish on it. He pointed to it and said, "Bleah....... No..........."

Next, he pointed to the prawn and said, "Bleah....... No..........."

I think he got it! Yeah!

Previous Post: Happy Birthday

Friday, June 22, 2007

Happy Birthday!

While I was playing with Ace and drawing for him, I noticed a strange thing...

While he would name EVERYTHING that he saw.

There is one thing he would get him breaking out into a song....

Can you guess what it is?

Yes, it is a birthday cake with a candle on it. Whenever he sees a candle on a cake, he will start singing, "To... you......" and then he will clap loudly and say, "Yeah!", pretend to blow the candles and clap again.

Sometimes I wonder if he is rehearsing for his own birthday party.

Anyway, I got him to sing the song again for Jez Ah Ma for her birthday a few days back;)



Previous Post: Stairs

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Stairs

Someone very clever now lor.. climb the stairs dun need railings....

I was wondering why he cried and cried when I decided to bring him out. Once I locked the door and walked down the stairs he started to cry and cry and cry...

Finally, when he managed to quiet down and let me ask him what is it, he said, "Up! Up!"

So I walked up and found that he could actually climb up the stairs without the help of the railings!

To climb down, he needed to hold on to the railings and that is why he prefered to go up.

Gee, I always thought climbing upwards is more difficult. I guess I was wrong.

Previous Post: Draw

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

DRAW....

One of Ace's favourite past time now is to bring the macna doodle board to me or any adult nearby and ask them to "Draaaaaaaaaaw.........."

And so, at this juncture, alot of adults will admit that they actually have very bad drawing skills. Hahaha.... and then we will entertain ourselves by asking the respective adults draw some things that Ace can recognize and if he recognizes it, it means the drawing is not to bad and the drawings pass.

Our favourite person to test this on is Ah Yee.. muahaha.. she was so happy when Ace recognized the fan that she drew.

I personally found this a very good way to help Ace learn new words. It seems that even if Ace cannot pronounce the word (he can only say single syllabus words with an exception to the word 'flower'), he still recognizes the drawings.

Using this method, Ace's vocabulary list has expanded... so now includes:
  1. Sun
  2. Cloud
  3. Moon
  4. Star
  5. Square
  6. Flower
  7. House
  8. Tree
  9. Car
  10. Bed
  11. Chair
  12. Shoes
  13. Socks
  14. Shirt
  15. Pants
  16. Shorts
  17. Fan
  18. Soup
  19. Banana
  20. Apple
  21. Ace (he says tat when you draw a boy or write the word 'Ace'
  22. Cake
  23. Help
  24. Hand
  25. Eyes
  26. Nose
  27. Mouth
And after he is done, he will erase and happily tell you "No more!" and then laugh.

Sometimes though, he will do a 'colouring stunt' and 'colour' the whole board black with his scribblings. I think for just $5.90, the board is really a good investment and a cheap thrill1 ;)

Just one complaint. He always steps on them and has spoilt like 2 of them already. This is his third one..

Yeye decided then to buy white board with white board marker for him to draw cos he says "this one wouldn't spoil no matter how he jumps on it..."

Previous Post: Don't blame your children

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Dun Blame Your Children


If you feel like blaming your children for anything, STOP.

They already blame themselves enough!

Did you know that children feel it is their fault when parents have problems?

Did you know that all children feel guilt when there are problems in the family?

According to a famous psychologist who has been doing research for the past 30 over years, children almost always feel they are at fault when:
- their family has financial problems
- one of their parents are abused
- parents are separated and divorced

I know because my family used to suffer from financial issues as well and even though I was not aware, now that I think back, I think I was very guilty of the fact that the family had such a problem but I could not help my parents by making any money at all.

The problem is sometimes made worse when parents tell them, "Before you were born, our family was like this...." As per what happened to my sister. My mum always told her that our family was leading a good life before she was born. It was a factual statement and not insulating anything but the young little girl who heard it only heard, "you are bad luck, that is why since you were born, the family has had lots of bad luck...."

So do be careful what you tell your children. They are really easily hurt.

But if you have already hurt them, it is ok, they can heal and there is nothing a little more love would not heal! :)

IN summary, give your children LOTS OF LOVE!

Previous Post: Harlow & Bye Bye

Monday, June 18, 2007

Harlow & Bye Bye

Even though I am aware that my baby is a very clever HUNZA baby, I am STILL very very amazed by Ace Chua...

The other day, Daddy came to me and told me that Ace has invented a game by himself.

What? This little boy who is not even two years old yet inventing a game by himself?!

Apparently, what happened was that he would sit on the bed, use the blanket to cover his feet.

And then, he will lift the blanket so that his feet can be seen and he would say, "Hello!" to his feet and wave to them with his hands.

After that, he would use the blanket to cover his feet and then say "Bye bye," to his feet and wave at them again.

And then he would repeat it for like 10 minutes and laugh heartily whenever his feet gets covered by the blanket.

Well, other than this game, he also invented quite a few other games.. I am happy I guess.. I no longer have to think of how to entertain him all the time. Just give him some books or magazines or something, and he comes up with his own game to entertain himself ;)

Previous Post: Fathers Day Celebration

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Fathers' Day Celebration

Few weeks back, we had a Fathers' Day celebration where we had a durian feast (which I couldnt take part in due to my detox...)

Anyway, I think other than the fathers, the happiest person was father-to-be, Ace Chua. He ate and ate and ate and ate till his stomach was as fat and round as a soccer.
Previous Post: Eeeeee

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Eeeeeeeee

Can someone explain why this is funny?

Ace was having lunch that day and he dropped a rice on his shirt. I took it away and said, "eeeee..." and he started laughing uncontrollably.

I repeated it and he laughed again.



So funny meh??:P

Previous Post: I Love To Dance

Friday, June 15, 2007

I love to dance

I cannot tahan...

The happiest part of the whole Navy Open house for Ace was the last part where there was music and open space where he could dance...

I almost died laughing when I saw how he wriggled VERY SENSUOUSLY to the music!






Maybe he will grow up to be a dancer... haha..

Previous Post: Poor Memory

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Poor Memory

I think children have very poor memory sometimes.. or maybe Ace is very Ah Q.

Even though he almost itched to death for two days in a row and knew that the soccer jersey would give him rashes, the next day, he happily took out the soccer jersey and asked me to put it on for him. Then he pointed to his shirt and said, "tsk tsk tsk.." which meant that his shirt was very nice.

Then he found his shoes and passed to me and asked me to put on his shoes..

Next, he took out my shoes and tried to put on my shoes for me because he wanted to go downstairs!

He doesn't remember all the itchy feeling anymore. All he wanted to do is to dress nice nice and go out! Hahaha....

Just to be safe though, I only let him wear the pants and took off the shirt and replaced it with a singlet.

Previous Post: Number 3

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

No. 3

I think Ace can become Number Three when leading SCS dance.. hahaha

He made all the more excited cos first time ever, he see all the gor gor and zhe zhe dancing along side with him ;)



Previous Post: Itchy, Itchy

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Itchy Itchy

I think the NAVY OPEN HOUSE was too HOT for Ace.

In the end, he started having heat rash as the weather and temperature after tat also not very good.

It all started on a sunday... he woke up as usual, went for his Shichida classes and after tat went to wait for Daddy to finish his work.. all along we were in the air conditioned environment so he was okay.

On our way home though, he started scratching his neck and by night time, he was scratching his tummy, his hands, his neck, his face and even his legs. But only a teeny weeny bit.

As he had a long day, we gave him his night feed early and let him sleep early.

At around 1.30am though, he suddenly work up and cried and cried and cried and cried. He was scratching and scratching all over. The little itches have now become full grown bumps all over his face, neck, body, hands. He cried and cried and he wouldn't stop and because his finger nails were long, he scratched himself till there were open wounds.

As Daddy tried to pacify him, I went to the internet to check and realized that it was heat rash.

I then used green bean powder(which is good for stopping itchyness) to bath him and he cried and cried and cried... finally though, after playing with him for a while, he quiet down and then let him sleep in our room with the fan on at full blast.

Thank god he woke up the next day happy and ok. All the rashes were gone. But to be safe, we decided to let him walk around the house half naked.

At night, we wanted to bring him to my office and since the rashes were gone, we decided to let him wear his liverpool jersey.. alas tat was a wrong move!

Night time came and he started scratching again as the jersey had alot of threads inside and no lining. Neither was it cotton and sweat absorbent. But it was not as bad as the night before.

So after that, we were really careful to let him wear only cotton material.

Anyway, the end of the saga was that we were told to let him drink coconut water to release the heatiness. Dunno if that works but after drinking for two days, he got better already :)

Previous Post: Ace has good water to drink

Monday, June 11, 2007

Ace Has Good Water To Drink

Yeah!!! Ace and all of us finally have GOOD water to drink when we go over to in law's house!!!

My father-in-law is an animal lover.

In his house, he has two birds, two (sometimes three) fishtanks worth of fishes, 2 tortoises and of cos a few human beings. We always say his house is like a mini zoo.

Since the launch of the KV6 water filter, we had been hoping secretly that he would change is EXXXX brand reverse osmosis water filter to the KV6 purifier because if you had tried both water before, you would know that they taste different.

Because he had invested close to two thousand dollars on it and had changed it like one week before the KV6 was launched, all we could do was to drop hints about how good the KV6 purifier is..
  1. There is a metallic taste in their water so Ace dun like to drink
  2. Ace LOVES KV6 water
  3. KV6 dun need electricity
  4. KV6 dun need to drill holes in their kitchen
After close to 3 years of dropping hints, my father in law recently called me and said he is interested in the KV6 because their water filter is using too much electricity and taking up too much space in the kitchen.

YES! Finally! My manifestation that he would change it into a KV6 finally came true after 2.5 years!

2 weeks after we installed the KV6 at their house, my father in law told me," Your filter very good leh. The water hor, I drink liao hor, go toilet very smooth!"

"Most importantly, last time my xue ying wu (that's his fish) always die or fall sick and their scales will start to peel everytime I change the water. I used your KV6 water and see, they never die! And they look more energetic than usual as well. I think your water is very good ah. I will call all my fish enthusiasts friends to buy for their fish also ah.. The fish stay inside so good, we drink also must be very good ah..."

And then he started telling me about the long list of people he shared with...

Of course lah. My friend Xing Long used KV6 water for his aerowana fish fish tank and after tat, the fish shitted out something longer than it's body. He said, "Aiyoh, can you imagine how constipated my fish is if I did not use KV6 water on him?"

Well... if the water is good for fishes, should be quite good for us too, right? ;)

Previous Post: Navy Open House 2

Friday, June 08, 2007

Slide... WEEE!

Finally, Ace can slide up and down on his own at the playground... but he seems to be still a little afraid of heights.. sigh... might have inherited this fear of everything from me cos I think Max is alot braver than I am...





Not bad for a 23 month old right?:P

Previous Post: Stop Pushing Your Child

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Stop Pushing Your Child


Do you push your child alot?

Do you have high expectations of your child?

Did you know tat according to one of my mentors, Chuck, (who is a psychiatrist involved in healing for a good 30 over years) parents who push their children hard usually do that because they are inconfident of themselves.

Usually, parents who push themselves very hard will end up pushing their children hard also.

What they are not aware of, however, is that the act of pushing our children hard will end up turning them into inconfident adults. Parents who push their children pass on their insecurities to them and get them stuck in life!

That is because fear of not being successful will make a person inconfident and make them lacking in leadership charisma.

When you are inconfident about yourself, you usually do not include yourself anymore in your life. So even when you work hard, you seldom see the results as you are already 'not there' anymore. When we close this doors on ourselves, our stock will go from a high stock to a crashed stock.

We cannot change our childhood (if we had parents who pushed us really hard). But we can change the childhood of our child.

Instead of pushing your child, place trust in them and trust in their abilities so that they will in turn trust themselves and become confident individuals who are full of zest and life ;)

Previous Post: Up He Goes

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Up He Goes...

The other day, Daddy sent me home to pick stuff I need for my Taiwan trip.. he was supposed to wait in the car with Ace but after a while, they got tired of waiting and so they came home..

The moment Ace say the iron grills, he climbed on top and started climbing upwards like a ladder....

I really think tat Ace has come very far.. from not being able to walk.. to being able to climb up and down and running away...

From not being able to talk to being able to call us, to articulate his feelings and able to count.... Sometimes he really gives me a sense of wonder.. that this little dynamo can learn this much in this short a time...

Anyway, FYI, Ace can now count from 1-1o, say some extra words like oin oin (which means sleep), kuai dian, zou, dien weh (telephone), zoe zor (sit), high five, pig, cat, dog, star, cake, bag, flower, leaf, car, bed, chair, shoes, comb.. ;)

Previous Post: Who is the best

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Who Is The Best?

How to test if this baby is a GSS baby?

You ask them a question, "Who is the best?"



Previous Post:Lego

Monday, June 04, 2007

Lego

When Ace was 7 or 8 months, Waipo bought a Duplo Bob-The-Builder lego set for Ace at the Isetan Sale.

Periodically, we would take it out and try to teach Ace how to play. But no matter what we did, he merely liked to throw it around.

Finally though, now that he is near two years old, the set of Lego has suddenly become his most well loved set of toys. He can play with it everyday and not get tired of it and at any one time, he can actually play with it for 30 min which is a long time for his very short attention span.

His favourite is to take everything out and then stack them up into a high tower and once he is done, he will look at you and expect applause or applaud himself.

(Because of this, I bought Ace a set of Duplo lego for his birthday.. shhh.. dun tell him!)

Here are some pics of him having fun... and a video of Ace stacking his castle! ;)

Maybe he will become an architect in future.. muahahaha...







Previous Post: Ace, Ace, Baby!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Ace, Ace, Baby!

You already know that Ace is a singer...

But did you know that he is also a rapper? :)



Previous Post: Trust

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Trust


I found a novel and easy way to parent your child effortlessly!

TRUST.

Yeap. It is that simple.

During my 4 day workshop in Taiwan, our teacher, Chuck, talked about the importance of using trust to turn any situation around.

He said that he had two clients with the same problem.

The first one came to him and told him that his wife's best friend hates him and keep criticizing him. He asked Chuck what he should do.

"Just trust her. Trust your wife, trust yourself and trust that the situation will get better. Just put trust in the situation and put your trust in everyone involved."

The second guy guy that came next had the same problem.. tat his wife's best friend hates him. Chuck gave him the same advice.

"Just trust her. Trust your wife, trust yourself and trust that the situation will get better. Just put trust in the situation and put your trust in everyone involved."

And then a week later, both guys came to see him again for consultation.

The first guy says, "You wouldn't believe what happened to me! I listened to you and placed trust in the situation and my wife, her best fren and myself... so a few days later, my wife said she wanted to go out with her best friend and I let her go. When she came back, she told me that she had broken up with her best friend because her best friend was always saying bad things about me and she felt that this was bad for our relationship. Because our love is more important to her, she decided to break up with that so called best friend!"

The second guy came in right after and told Chuck, "You wouldn't believe what happened to me this week! I did what you said and placed trust in my wife, her friend, myself and the situation and about 5 days ago, my wife's best friend came home with my wife and started saying good things about me to me! Before I knew it, we became best friends over the last five days and now my wife's best friend is my best friend as well!"

So that is how simple it is.

Bringing this back to parenting, I would say...
If your child likes to cry, TRUST that he will stop
If your child doesnt eat his food, TRUST that he will soon eat his meals
If your child does not sleep early, TRUST that he will do so eventually
If your child is throwing tantrums, TRUST that he will stop as soon as you understand him and give him love.

To do that, just close your eyes and take 3 deep breathes, and then say aloud to yourself.. "I trust that my child will xxxx.. I trust that I will be able to help him xxxx... I trust that he will like to xxxx.."

Previous Post: 6 Days Away From Mummy

Friday, June 01, 2007

6 Days Away From Mummy


I was in Taiwan for a seminar for about 6 days.

When I came back, I found out that Ace has started to try to get what he wants by throwing tantrums.

If he wants something and you do not give it to him, he will break out into tears and cry and then he would go, "Ngggg.." and then he would stomp his feet and then lie on the floor and turn circles.

I really dunno where he learnt that from. Perhaps he is watching too much tv. Or maybe he learnt it from his Shichida classmate..one of them does tat sometimes in class.

Anyway, because Ace missed me too much, he started throwing his things around on the floor and was punished by Waipo to Mian Bi Si Guo.

He refused and cried at cried. At this moment, Zhen Popo told Waipo, "Aiyoh, he so poor thing. His mummy is not here.. dun make him cry lah.."

The moment he heard the word "Mummy" he started to cry even louder and called, "Mama, mama..." as he cried

Aiyoh, hear lioa my heart also melt ah...

But anyway, now that I am back home beside him and playing with him, he is somewhat returning to normal... Phew...

I am glad I am a SAHM ;)

Previous Post: Poor Waigong