Friday, February 29, 2008

Ace Can Eat Gua Zi

I was sitting in the living room the other day and Waipo came to me and told me that Ace can eat guazi.. "He's very clever you know. He knows that he must bite it to break the shell..."

So when I got my camera, Waipo got Ace to demonstrate for me..


Previous Post: Papa Says

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Papa Says

Ace and Daddy enjoy a good game of "Daddy Says"

Look out for the end of the video where my two 'xiao ke ai' walk around like Donald Duck.. hahaha.. I almost died luffing!



Previous Post: Cut cut cut

Cut cut cut

To develop Ace's creativity, recently we have been playing with cutting paper... And I must say that he is really quite creative.

He loves to cut triangles and an assortment of shapes. And then he will say they are flags, trains, TV, etc...

I think he is great! He is only 2.5 years old and can use the scissors so well ;) Most of all, I love his wondering imagination.



Daddy says he has no imagination and that only I can play such games with Ace.. hahaha..

Previous Post: I Want Taoshu

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I Want Taoshu

I sent the clip of Ace singing to Taoshu to ganma Karen. She had a good laugh and sent it to her whole office and said maybe they can use it as an ad.. hahaha ;)

Anyway, here are more 'advertorials' for Taoshu.. this is how much Ace loves this programme...



And if you dun let him watch Taoshu.. this is what happens...



Buay tahan this little boy.. hahaha.. like tat also cry until like tat... Somemore I already said if he waits I will on it for him...

Previous Post: Echo Singing

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Echo Singing

Ace loves the echo-y sounds that he makes when he sings into Ah Yee's water bottle. But Ah Yee is not so thrilled about drinking his saliva.. hahaha



Previous Post: Ace's CNY Concert

Monday, February 25, 2008

Ace's CNY Concert

During our reunion dinner, Ace ate and ate.

Because we talked and ate at the same time, by the time Ace was full, we were just half full. Not to mention that Ah Yee and Net Net joined us late that day. So once Ace was done, he wanted to come down and so we persuaded him to stay in his chair by singing for us.

And so he started singing... he sang and sang and sang... for a good 20 minutes he sang.. and somemore this super star very got character one... cannot request for song or help him sing. ONLY HE can sing... and he can only sing whatever songs he likes.

Eventually, I remembered to bring my phone to video it down.. as a demo of how he dun accept other songs or other people singing, I disturbed him by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... he got upset and accidentally hit Daddy... and when that happened, his guilt overwhelmed him completely and he started crying non stop!




PS: You can view the CNY pictures here

Previous Post: Whiny Ace

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Whiny Ace

Being a parent really takes loads and loads of patience. For just ONE idea to get through their head, we need to patiently repeat one thousand times.

When they finally heave a sigh of relief, only to find that they will forget it soon enough if we do not reinforce the idea.

Ace has been going out alot more often these days and mixing around with more kids. One of the things in common in most of the kids that we met is that they will cry and whine for the things that they wanted.

Seeing that Ace did not have much reaction to them, I did not reinforce and tell him that that is not right and that if he were to express himself properly, I would still give it to him if I could.

Somehow though, after repeated exposure... he got the idea that that is another strategy to get what you want and then he proceeded to go into the whiny mode. Everything you refuse to give him, he whines and cries. This has made me and Daddy almost lose our cool quite a few times.

After repeated repeats of how we like it when he smiles and we will give it to him if he asks for it properly, things are getting better already.

Daddy told me the other day that when he was really young, he whined to Yeye and Yeye was so angry that he took a cane, whacked him so hard that he bled and locked him in the storeroom. "From then onwards... no more whining from me..."

When we talked about this incident while eating supper with Yeye and Nainai, Yeye has completely forgotten about the incident. But Nainai remembers it clearly. "From that day onwards, whenever he has tears, it flows inside into his tummy.." Nainai says.

"Hahaha.. and then now got to spend alot of money go POV and heal and learn to express your feelings out again.."I laughed at Dadddy.

But having said that, having been in that situation as Yeye did, I guess Yeye just felt helpless and did not know how to deal with all the bad feelings and i believe it to be a feeling of guilt because when Daddy was young, Yeye did not have as much time for him and did not take much care for him that he would like. And on Daddy's side, probably has guilt as well.. if not, why would he create such a situation where his Dad will hit him so bad when he was so young, right?

Anyway, we started discussing if Yeye will do this to Ace if he whines. "I think not... cos I think grandparents love their grandchildren in a different way as compared to loving their child."

"Of course not!" said Yeye when we asked him what he thought. "You are the parents, you should be the one disciplining him. As grandparents, we just love him, sayang him and play with him."

Previous Post: Observant Ace

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Observant Ace

We were sitting in the car and Daddy was happily driving us to Vivocity to visit Ganma at her Taoshu activity in Page One.

All of a sudden, Ace pointed out of the car and told me, "Mama, Uncle oi oi..."

And true enough, there is this uncle, sleeping so soundly that he was actually SALIVATING! Hahaha.. trust Ace to be so observant.

But anyway, our little observer has recently also started to become a TV commentator. He will sit and watch TV with me and give comments about what is happening.

Eg, the other day, we were watching some war film and it showed some japanese soldiers beating people up. "Bu ke yi da ren oh..." Ace said (which meant cannot hit other people).

And then the next scene was the Japanese traitor being beaten up by his father and he was crying. "Uncle ku ku orh.." (Uncle is crying...)

Then the man had a quarrrel with his brothers and ran away. "Uncle.. mmmm... uncle gai gai orh.." (Uncle, mmm...uncle went shopping/out)

Daddy says he will go crazy if Ace were to do that while watching TV with him because Daddy is an auditory.

Previous Post: Model Ace

Friday, February 22, 2008

Model Ace

Ace may be trying to imagine that he is a child model of sorts.. hahaha :)

The other day, he was lying on bed and he said to me,"Mama, xiao xiao..." which meant he wanted to take pictures.

And so I got my camera and he started posing for me...

Can make do as bed sheets ad i figure! ;) haha....

Previous Post: Compliments

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Compliments

Well, I think that children give the most sincere compliments.

The other day, Waigong cooked some noodles with sauce and we asked Ace if it is good. "Good!"

"Hao bu hao chi?"

"Hao chi!" he said with a good thumbs up sign...

And then, he proceeded to do this to sip in every last drop of the sauce:

I think.. this is the BEST compliment.. hahaha

Previous Post: Making New Year Card

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Making New Year Card

The other day, Waipo asked Ace if he wanted to make a card for teacher IVY since it was chinese new year.. and he said, "YES!"

So she helped him made a card.. is really quite nice lor! haha ;)
Previous Post: Driving

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Driving

Ace is still very much taken with driving cars.

Everytime the car stops, he will tell us, "Driving, driving..." and make his way to Daddy's side of the car.

The other day, we were out shopping and he came across some rides... he promptly went into the cars and drove around happily while muttering, "driving, driving..." as he giggled.

Strangely though, he saw a few Thomas The Train rides but because they did not have a steering wheel, he was not so keen to ride on them.

Guess he will probably learn to drive once be becomes 18 years of age. I wonder though, that if I had a daughter, would she like to drive as well?:)

Previous Post: Handsome

Monday, February 18, 2008

Handsome

We have proven once and again that Ace is a very vain little boy.

Whenever he cries, if you tell him he will not look handsome when he cries, he will try to stop.

The other day, he was preparing to go for his Shichida lessons and just took a bath. He walked into the the living room and Daddy told him, "Ace, comb your hair and you will look so handsome..."

And he just turned immediately, whizzed into my bedroom, ran to my desk and took the hair brush and started to brush his hair.

It was just so funny!

Previous Post: Taoshu, The Warrior Boy

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Taoshu, The Warrior Boy

Ace has a new love now.


Other than Barney and High 5, Ace's next most favourite series is Taoshu, The Warrior Boy.

In case you didn't know, Taoshu is produced by Ace's ganma Karen... who is a TV producer and a VP in a local production house.

We first came to know about the series when the series received an I-Parenting Award and ganma happily announced to me. "I want to give Ace one of the DVDs as a present!" She told me excitedly.

Since Ganma Karen is my bestest friend and I have always enjoyed her shows together with Ace when they air on TV, I told her that I would support her and buy the whole set for Ace.

Initially, Ace was not quite used to the very chinese paper cutting style of animation but after like two watches, he started to be able to sing the song and now whenever the credits come on or the opening sequence comes on, he will pull my hand and drag me to the living room to dance with him as he sings, "He's my friend now, Taoshu... Little Taoshu.. the warrior boy..."

But most importantly, I liked it because it was catchy and the stories were short. They also taught about loving and sharing and caring... and being responsible... not to mention that there are some really wacky characters that gets Ace cracking up as well.

The other day though, there was some event for the launch of their new Taoshu story books about Nian, The New Year Monster and so as a show of support, we brought Ace there. Alas the activities there were too advanced for Ace (Eg, they wanted to form the word NIAN with oranges but Ace saw the oranges and started EATING THEM!) but Ace was nevertheless happy as he got to listen to a story and even got a PRESENT from Ganma Karen!




If you are interested to find out more about Taoshu.. the series is available at Kino, Page One and even Popular! ;)

Previous Post: Make Believe

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Make Believe

Ace is very into make believe games now.

The other day, even though no one taught him this, for some unknown reason, he just ran into my room, took out my blue blanket, tied it around himself and told me, "Mama.. SUPERMAN!" I hope he doesn't try to jump down the building next.

And then, there is this like new kids central show called School House Rockz... and whenever they start singing the song, Ace will run into Waipo's room, take out her bolster and dance around with it.

Initially, we could not see what is the link and did not understand why he just had to take the bolster out and dance...then during Doodlebops, he did the same thing again and after much observation, me and Daddy came to a conclusion that he was using the bolster as a GUITAR! hahaha.. so farnee right!? So creative!

Anyway, because of this, I think we are thinking of getting a guitar like toy so that he can pretend to play the guitar and leave Waipo's bolster alone.

As for why it is always her bolster since we have like three bolsters on our bed... that remains a real mystery...

Previous Post: Cross

Friday, February 15, 2008

Cross

When I was really young, whenever I got bitten by mosquitoes, other than applying ointment for me, my mum would cross the little bump for me and miraculously, I wouldn't find it so itchy anymore after that. Probably the pain will dull the itch somewhat...

The other day, Ace ran to me and showed me this bump on his arm that looked suspiciously like a mosquito bite.

"Mama... circle." he said as he pointed to the very round bump.

"Don't worry.." this very gung ho mama said. "Just let me cross it for you and it would not be itchy anymore.." I told him and promptly used my fingernails to mark a cross on him.

I thought he would happily run off and play but alas, he just stood there and stared at the cross.

About 3 minutes later, he called out to me, "Mama, bu jian le... no more..." and requested that I cross one more time for him... and so I did...

And again, he stood there and waited for the cross to disappear....

In the end, I had to cross that bump like three times... and so I told Ace, "Ace, it is ok. Cross once is enough lah. As long as it is no longer itchy, you do not need to see it for it to work..."

And so he happily proceeded to play and I thought that was the end of the matter.

Apparently not though.

A few days later, he started to "cross" anyone he can find.

He would 'cross' my face, 'cross' Daddy's nose, 'cross' my feet, 'cross' Ah Yee's hands...

Whenever he saw a bump.. he would cross it and tell me, "Mama.. cross!" and look very pleased with himself.

The other night, he was so engrossed with 'crossing' things that he started to use his nails and create a line of crosses up the whole of his left thigh...

"Zou huo ru mo already.." I told Daddy..

"All your fault lah, teach him this.." Daddy retorted...

So from now on, I will be really careful about what I teach Ace.. hahaha...

Previous Post: Mummy Barber

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Mummy Barber

Just before CNY, I decided that I will help Ace trim his hair.

As I do not have much experience with that, I decided to do it two weeks in advance as a rehearsal first so that in case I cut off too much, he has some time to grow it out.

So true enough, I cut one part too short and his hair looked like there was a gap... you know.. like a dog bit it or something.

Luckily I was clever enough to do it two weeks before. One week later, his hair had recovered such tat the hole is no longer clearly visible and my confidence was restored somewhat and so I have him a final trim...

Handsome boh?:P haha...
MUMMY IS GOING TO CUT MY HAIR!



NOT BAD HOR? ;)


LET ME POSE WITH MY NEW HAIRDO:P

Previous Post: Revisiting Childhood

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Revisiting Childhood

I think having Ace around in the house really helps me and Ah Yee to revisit our childhood.

First we taught him some of the games we played like Ba Xian Guo Hai and Jiu Dian Mai Jiu.... then next, we taught him all the funny songs that we sang.

The other day, Ah Yee decided to teach Ace some campfire song about a frog where you had to close your eyes, put your nose and your eyes and more all in the middle of your face and stick out your tongue after that as you sing, "Mmm Ng, goes the little green frog one day..." And Ace really had fun playing with this song.. he looked so cute when he squeezed his face together like this! haha


We also taught him the kaku, keku, piong song that was so popular during our school days and the I Love You song we learnt from TV when we were young....

We had so much singing with him that these days that he is starting to LOVE singing. He would make up his own songs, own lyrics or he would sing along and he is quite quick to catch on to either the rhythm, music or the lyrics.

Now, one of my favourite hobbies is to sit down and listen to him sing because he sounds so sweet when he sings!

Previous Post: Hello hello?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Hello hello?

Playing with phones is one of Ace's favourite hobby.

But I never knew how much he liked it until I saw this:

He actually climbed up this really tall stool, overcame all fears of height just so he could pretend to talk into the phone to his pretend phone pal... hahaha..

Previous Post: I Hope You Dance

I Hope You Dance

I was packing my house and then I found this CD that Sebest gave me and so I played it... such a nice song.. hope tat Ace will remember to DANCE when he faces whatever difficulties in life..




I showed Ace this video and he started singing...

Ace's redition of I hope you dance using a bottle as a microphoine... his favourite phrase.. " I hope you DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE... "



Previous post: EQ Master, Ace!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

EQ Master, Ace!

Today I was feeling really proud of myself. :)

Today, is one of the new year visiting days and we went to visit one of Daddy's frens at their classmates gathering. As the females in the clique were all about our age, about 50% of them were married with children and there was a number of children there between the range from 5-37 months.

One of the 17 month old cried and Ace just walked up to him, put his hands behind his back and told the baby boy, "Don't cry..."

"Aw... that is so sweet!" exclaimed the mother of the baby boy...

And the little toddler continued to cry....

Ace then moved his hand up and down his back and patted him and asked him, "Why?"

"Wow Ace, you are such a good boy. This is excellent! Excellent!" exclaimed the boy's mother.

Wah... my son who is 2.5 years old has empathy and is so good natured! I was so proud of me and Daddy and gave ourselves a pat on the back in my mind...

Actually, previously, I already know he is quite a well-natured and well behaved boy...

Recently he attended a birthday party where there were alot of children. Since he was not really well versed in the 'ways of the world'... when they played, he often would try to join in whether he knew them or not.. and whether they wanted him to or not.

Sometimes when the children are not ready to share, they would push him away or they would cry.

Ace remains unperturbed. He gives them a strange look that looks like he is thinking, "Why is this person so strange.. how come he behaves this way?" and just continues to play with something else.

One of the children was rather 'evil' in that she would pretend to look innocent after she shoved and hurt other children... and Ace was one of her victims.. but despite that, he still played with them and never said a thing.. even though we discovered some injury (which we suspected were inflicted by her on him during the party as she was the most sly and violent one) on him after that.

And one thing about Ace... when other children are playing with their toys, he would be curious and watch them but he rarely tries to snatch it away from them.. he would just sit beside them and watch and most of the time, they are also happy to let him watch. If he snatches them away. The moment we ask him to return, he will return it to them.

Anyway, another incident happened just now where a little boy brought his toys along and refused to let Ace play with them. Ace kept following him and the toys but made no attempt to snatch it from him. He just stood there and waited.

Ace ran to me and told me, "Mama, gor gor toys..."

"Well, if you want to play with him, go and ask him nicely..." I told him.

"I don't want to play with you!" the little boy told Ace quite meanly.

So Ace ran back to me and told me, "Mummy, gor gor angry..."

"That means gor gor is not ready to share his toys with you. So you go and play with other people and other things lor. There are so many other things and other people for you t0 play with here.. right?"

"Mama... papa (frightened) gor gor..." said Ace. I think he was trying to say he was upset because he pursed his lips for a while after that.

"See Ace, if you don't like how it feels when people don't want to share with you. Next time when people want to play with your toys, please remember to share with them, ok?"

Previous Post: I love you!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

I love you!

I think as parents... since you know that you are pregnant with a baby.. this is like the day you have been waiting for...

The day that your child says, "I love you..." to you and hugs you without you needing to prompt him!

Recently Ace is so full of love.

For no reason, he would run up to me or his Daddy and he would say, "hug hug..." and when you hug him, he will smile and tell you, "I love you..."

Can melt ah!

Previous Post: Jumping up and down

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Jumping up and down

Ace is really feeling brave these days...

He is perpetually climbing up onto chairs, or tables, or up the sofa and jumping down.. kamikaze style...

Waipo is so worried that he will hurt himself and sprain his leg or something but he just doesn't care. He will climb up, jump down. Climb up, jump down.

And then if you look at him, he will tell you, "Cannot jump..." But he will still jump anyway.

Maybe he has been watching too much fighting scenes on TV.

Previous Post: Motherhood

Motherhood

I received this in email today... so next time people ask me that, I would probably say the same..." I am raising the world leaders of tommorrow!"

XXX

Rose was unlike most other mothers. When someone asked her what she was doing, she would say that she was preparing and raising the world leaders of tomorrow.

In total, Rose raised nine children. These children included John, Edward, Robert and Jean Ann.

John F. Kennedy went on to become the 35th President of the United States of America.

Edward Kennedy became a senator. Robert Kennedy also became a senator and was a US attorney general. Jean Ann Kennedy became an ambassador to Ireland.

Many people see motherhood as a stage of life that most women go through. Rose, however, saw motherhood as an opportunity to raise the leaders of tomorrow, and through this attitude and the actions that this attitude produced, she did just that.

Previous Post: Paperbag Man!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Playing with food

Ace has developed a rather unfortunate habit... PLAYING with his FOOD :(

Once he is full and not hungry anymore, he will start to do yucky things to his food and he likes to get hands on with his food.


Sometimes he will do things like put the beehoon and noodles into the water. Sometimes he will mix and mash the food up. Sometimes he just picks the food up with his fingers and tells us, "ang zhang..." sigh...



Actually I am quite ok because if he gets dirty, all he needs is to clean himself. However, it is not very nice when we have people eating with us and the food that he is playing with his not those in his bowl.

Moral of the story, dun let him become too full before meal times is up ;)

Previous Post: Ace Rock Star

Monday, February 04, 2008

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Ace Can Dress Himself!

Yeah!

Ace Chua can finally dress himself.

Just the other day, I was just disturbing Ace after his bath. "Ace, wear this yourself.." I told him jokingly.

He, however, took me seriously and started to open the singlet, put his head in and then I realized that he seemed to know how to dress himself.

"Wait, wait, let mummy take a video of that.. " and I ran to get my camera. "Ok, do it again.. " I told him and took out the shirt and asked him to start all over again...

And he obediently complied...



However, two days later, he was dressing himself halfway and he ran to me and said, "Mama, chuan yi fu, xiao xiao" which meant that he wanted me to video him again...

Previous Post: V

Saturday, February 02, 2008

V

Ask Ace how old is he and he will pause a little while, struggle a little bit with his fingers, make a V sign and then tell you "TWO!"

Daddy is so proud of his achievement for teaching Ace this that we have been asking Ace to pose with the V sign whenever we take photos.

The thing is this though.. in about 5 months, Ace will turn 3.. just how do I teach him that he is 3 without makine him confused? Any suggestions anyone?:P

Previous Post: Home Alone