Badminton

Ace has fallen in love with badminton since Yeye introduced him to the game...

The other day, after dinner, we decided to go look for Yeye and let Ace watch him play badminton..

Ace watched until his eyes cannot move lor...

And then a few days later, he came to me and told me, "Mama, I want to play badminton at Ace's house.. I want to play badminton at home with mummy, please. Can I play badminton with mummy at home?"

So now, I am looking for those cheapo badminton sets tat cost only a few dollars so that I can play at home with him.. if I arrange my furniture properly, we should be able to play a decent game of badminton at home ;) hehe..

PS: I found my cheapo badminton set at SKP in marine parade.. $2.60 onli! cheaper than I tot!

Previous Post: Yeye Rides Bike With Ace

Happy Birthday to me ;)

I am officially 31 today ;)

Time flies hor, I am officially in my 30s already.. want to siam also cannot..

Thank god though, I think I look much better and younger than I was than when I was

Have since celebrated my this year's birthday quite a few times.. haha ;)

The first time, we celebrated my Chinese birthday at a hotel stay..

You can see the pics HERE:

http://verityy.multiply.com/photos/album/93/My_Birthday_Celebration-_Part_1

And then me and Max went to Bali for a short trip as well.

When it came to birthdays, ACE is always excited.. that is cos he loves to sing the birthday song.. however, irregardless of whose birthday it is, he will always sing "Happy Birthday To ACE CHUA..."

So during my birthday when we were singing song, Ace insisted that we have to sing it twice because the first time we did not sing "Happy Birthday To ACE CHUA...".. Funny kid ya?:)

Anyway, you can check out my Bali trip pics here ;)

http://verityy.multiply.com/photos/album/95/Birthday_Celebration_Part_2_Bali

Previous Post:

Yeye Rides Bike With Ace

We went out for dinner and since we did not have much to do, we decided to visit Yeye and Nainai...

After a while, Ace bugged Yeye to play with him and one young and one old went to ride the bike together around the room..

Poor yeye.. as he was the one moving the bike around with his legs and he had a achey back, it was tough on him but he still insisted on playing with Ace...

Previous Post: Mr Moustache

Mr Moustache

Ace was eating zhima hu tat day and then I also dunno how he eat lah.. eat until he looked like Mr Moustache...

Looks like those typical cartoon characters.. like some english gentleman with moustache and something up their sleeves.. all he needs is a top hat and an umbrella.. hahaha

Previous Post: Where Is My Liverpool

Where Is My Liverpool

Because Max had something on at night and couldn't come and fetch us early, me and Ace decided to stay overnight at my mum'a place instead...

Early in the morning when he woke up the next day, he went to disturb Zhen Popo and said he wanted to play with his soccer.. he created a big hoo ha and in the end, I woke up and me, Waipo, Zhen Popo and Ah Yee all had to gather together to help him set up the soccer goal post that Megan Ganma bought for him...

Once the goal post was set up, he asked me, "Mama, where is my liverpool?"

He was actually referring to his liverpool soccer jersey that Ah Yee and Net Net bought for him when they were in Thailand..

"It's in your room..."

So he ran into the room and then suddenly, he ran out of the room all dressed int he Liverpool jersey and shorts and said that he was now all ready to play soccer!

I laughed until pengz lor... Play soccer also must change into liverpool jersey.. This is a good one.. i wonder where he learnt this from..

Anyway, he had fun playing soccer that day lah...

Previous Post: Fun at the Supermarket

Fun at the Supermarket

Since I became very domesticated (yes, I cook and clean now), the supermarket is one of the places that I visit very often together with Ace.

And whenever we have nothing to do.. we just go supermarket shopping to waste time..

Actually, our routine is always the same.. Ace and I will walk all the way to NTUC... and when we go inside NTUC.. Ace will help me get a basket.. depending on whether I am in the mood to buy things, we will walk around, aisle after aisle and Ace will take things out and tell me, "I want to buy this.." and then I will put it back after him...

When the basket gets too heavy, I will carry it for him instead.

Sometimes he will run around in the supermarket and then I would lose sight of him.. got me so worried he got a scolding from me.. other times he would fall down when he knock into others but most of the time, he likes to follow families with children older than him...

So, whenever possible, i get him to be in charge of something.. or help me hold something so that he doesn't think about playing with or doing anything else..

His fav is the veggie department because he will put all the diff veggies into my basket.. it is strange though since he doesnt really like to eat veggie even though he is willing to eat them.. it is not like he has some huge passion for veggie.. you know..

Anyway, if he is a good boy, I will buy him biscuits or some snack like lian rong bao or watsoever..

The other day, because we were not really buying anything, he started to play TRANSFORMER using the basket..

Anyway, the NTUC aunties love him and say he very handsome.. haha

Previous Post: Teach Your Son To Take Picture Lah

Teach Your Son To Take Picture Lah

Chiching, my very good friend and POV teacher from Taiwan was talking to me on MSN the other day.

And then, out of nowhere, she suddenly told me, "I know you love your son very much lah..."

And I wondered what was all that about...

"Can you use photo of you and your husband for your msn or not?" She asked me. She said I have been using photos of my son for my MSN for the longest time and it is time I used photo of me and my husband..

I think she meant that I have been living for my son for a long time and I should be leading my own life with my husband.. Chiching is a very perceptive person.. even far far away in Taiwan where she cannot see your face, she can feel your energy and tell you what you are feeling and what is happening.. so I decided to listen to her and changed my MSN photo to one of tat of me and Max..

I realized though that in recent months, we haven't taken much photos together at all.. even during our anniversary, we mostly took pictures of each other or of the scenery but not together at all.

I told ChiChing this and she said, "Teach your son how to use the camera and ask him to help you take pictures lah..."

And so I did. This is the end result..

Not bad right, my little protege learns fast ;) haha...

Previous Post: Dancing

Dancing

When I was pregnant with Ace because of the training I was attending, I would often be listening to a series of dance music as we believed in anchoring trainings with music...



The other day, he said he wanted to dance and so I took out that particular CD with all those songs to let him dance to it... he really danced to it and even did break dancing moves.. what amazed me most was that the steps that he created himself were also very similar to the steps we used when we were dancing.. I wonder how he knew that since he couldn't see through my tummy...





Previous Post: Dancing

Reading

I was sharing previously about how Ace enjoyed reading storybooks before he slept..


I am delighted to announce that all the reading seems to bear some fruit already...


Yesterday, Ace was able to describe in fine details about how he fell and hurt himself in school and the whole conversation consisted of 2-3 long and complete sentences. I guess being in school and constantly being exposed to the language helped as well.


In addition, I also managed to find some really good books that talks about keeping the house clean, getting rid of bad habits and some that a just fun ;)


I have used his books to train his memory, (I ask him what happens next like doing flash memory training) and also use them to input new vocabulary into his head.


I have found that he has a great memory because after I read the book one time to him, he is generally able to remember the sequence... and not only that, after two times of reading a simple book, he can actually tell you which exact word comes next.


And after 6-8 readings, he can read the book HIMSELF!


Here is the first book that Ace can read by himself:




Previous Post: Bath Time

Bath Time

The other day, as it was getting late and there was only Ace and myself, I decided to save time and to make sure Ace is safe, we shall bath together..

We had a great time dancing together in the bath room and singing together.. and then we helped each other soap our backs and then Ace even did a back scrub for me..

I took this chance to explain to Ace what is the difference between men and women and also taught him the correct names for both male and female reproductive organs. Of course I also reminded him that he cannot point to other people's private parts and name it aloud like that because it is not very courteous to do that.

When I wrapped the towel around my head, Ace told me, "Mama, I want to 包头.."

And this is the end result:

Chio or not.. after that, whenever he bathed with me, he wanted to 包头 as well.. But as long as he enjoys it.. i think it is harmless.. I just wonder if he will continue to do this when he is all grown up...

It is little wonder that whenever you ask him what is his name.. if he is in a cheeky mood, he tells you "Am pu neh..." Hahahaha...

PS: Well, I read that we have to impart correct sexual knowledge to our children since young.

In order not to let them think that sex is a shameful act or that is anything special or shameful about their sexual organs, since young, we should be telling them the proper names of each and every reproductive organ..

The other day, I was talking to Ace and then he was rubbing on his penis. I asked him what he was doing and he told me, "我的gugu痒痒..."

So I took this chance to explain to him that his penis is called a Penis.. not a gu gu... And then I explained to him why men and women are different because women have vaginas and men have penises... and to test him, I asked him what will mummy have, what will daddy have..

But because I previously used myself, max and ace as example, I wanted to test if Ace really understood the concept and so I asked Ace...


"What does Ah Yee have?"


"COMBINATION!" Ace replied loudly. I looked at Max and he looked at me.. and then we both burst out laughing...

I swear I have NEVER taught Ace this word before... Anyway, I asked him what sort of combination he is talking about and he said, "Girl use one lor.." So I think at least he kind of understood what I was trying to tell him...

Previous Post: To the zoo again!

To the zoo again!

To make full use of our Friends Of The Zoo card, we decided to go to the zoo again at Ace's request...


While we previously brought Ace there during weekdays to hide from the crowd, we realized that it is also quite fun to bring him there during weekends as there are more impromptu shows around the zoo and we get to see different things when we go during weekends..


Alas, this time round.. there is a huge price to pay.. Daddy fell down as he was trying to take a picture of a pond at the end of our trip and end up spraining his wrist and fracturing a bone in his hand... so he is on MC for one week now..


But I guess if it had to happen, it would have happened anywhere else.. nothing to do with the zoo..


What matters most though is that Ace told us that he is very happy that he saw the animals when we reached home.. I didn't even prompt him! He just came to me and told me, "Mama, I so happy I see the animals today leh.."


Anyway, shh... dun tell anyone cos Max says very 'diu lian' (embarassing) to tell people that he hurt himself while trying to take a picture at the zoo.. at least when he broke his leg, it sounded quite heroic when he said he broke it during a soccer game... :P


Anyway, he had a surgery to screw the bone back and his sprain has very much recovered.. he is as good as new now.. :)


You can see the zoo pics here>>


http://verityy.multiply.com/photos/album/92/Trip_to_the_zoo_again

PS: We saw some monkeys doing foreplay but my camera wasn't fast enough... I told Ace they were just loving each other lah...

Previous Post: Gardener Ace

Gardener Ace

The other day, Ace wen for his Shichida lessons and Teacher Huiling gave him some green beans, a cup and some cotton wool to grow the beans so that he will be exposed to the life cycle of the plant.

When we came home, he was so very excited and we planted the beans into the cup and watered it.

I told Ace that the beans will grow like how teacher huiling showed us.. the roots will come out and then there will be leaves and the plant will grow taller and taller.. I also took this chance to teach Ace to love mother nature by telling him that the plant will grow better if he says "I love you..." to his plant...

The next day, when Ace woke up, I suddenly heard a shout, "Mama, 你看我的beans! 你看! 你看!" And true enough, the shoots had all grown out already together with the roots. Ace was super excited.

That very day, when he came home from school, the first thing he did was to check on his beans.. "My beans, my beans..." he would say.. and he exclaimed, "Mama, 你看我的beans!" They kind of grew by 10cm throughout the day... wah lau.. got grow so fast or not?

And then after that he would say, "我要给我的plant喝水..." he would water it with this spray bottle that I have.

Note: At this point, it is of utmost importance that you DO NOT water the plants for him because he will get all angry and upset. "我要自己弄!" he will insist.

But the only bad thing is that he enjoyed playing with the spray bottle a little too much. He would spray all over the room and say, "哇！很美leh！香香leh!" so I kept the bottle in some secret place after that.

And then everyday before he left for school and when he comes home, he will go and see his plant and say I love you to the plant.. Before he goes to school, he will also want to water the plants first.. he is a loving good owner.. and then when they grow, he will ask me to take a look and tell me, "我的plant长高了!"

The other day, because Ace was staying at my mum's place for two days... even though I still watered the plant but because Ace was not around to pour the plant with lots and lots of love, the plant started to wither a bit.. but the plant cheered up now that Ace is back home and sends it lots of love with lots of water..

Previous Post: Teacher Ace

Teacher Ace

I think like all children whose first introduction to any occupation is the teaching profession, Ace would probably like to be a teacher now..

When he goes to his shichida class, he will take teacher Huiling's penguin pen and start pointing to the words and repeat.. "Saturday.. it's a sunny day..."

And now that he goes to school everyday and have even more chance to be near teachers, when he is at home, he will take his storybooks, put on his lap facing outward and start telling stories..

Many a times, the stories are just babbling but you catch phrases here and there of words he is familiar with like "Good boy, naughty boy, snowing, raining.. "

Anyway, I discovered a place where you can find good and FREE reading materials for your children.

I am vegeterain and I frequent this place called Rice House in Geylang... It is a vegeterian place and they also have lots of free books.. they are mostly buddhist related but if you search carefully, they also teach like good manners, ethics and morals as well. Eg, the book tat Ace is using to tell story now is about behaving well at home..

I have another VCD is the 24 stories of fillial piety that i got from there.. Ace loves the animation and the stories too...

Previous Post: Ace Can Ride A Motorbike!

Ace Can Ride A Motorbike!

In the past, Ace does not really like toys that can move.

For eg, those kiddy rides where you put a dollar or so in.. Ace loves them when they are still but will cry and want to come down once you put in money and it starts moving..

Waipo also tried to let Ace play those rides where you give money and you can drive like a car or a motorbike but he would cry the moment it started moving..

So the other day, when I brought him to the funfair, I was surprised that he wanted to go on the motorbike...

He started moving and looked quite handsome too!

Daddy asked me why he is going in circles.. I told him that is the only way Ace wun bang into things because he still does not really understand how the motorbike really functions so that is the only thing he knows to do as the gor gor who sells the tickets only taught him to do that.

Anyway, here is a video of him in action!



Previous Post: Help 5 Get 10!

Help 5 Get 10!

I think Ace will become a serious trader when he grows up!

If you have been following my personal blog on multiply, by now, you would have known that I have left WBG...

Whether Ace understood or not, I felt it necessary to tell him, my other best fren, about this decision that I have made. I actually think children understand no matter what age they are.

The other day, I sat him down and told him that I have decided to stop my business in WBG because I no longer can see a future there and also because I feel that the management is no longer going in the same direction as I am.. and so, I have decided to join another company whose overall package is more suited for what I want and where I want to go.... and my new company is called Esabee... and I told him that I will be following Uncle Arthur because we feel that he is a great and a very consistent leader...

Then, after Karen's wedding ROM reception at her place, I had to bring Ace over to YMCA where we held our Esabee monthly seminars...

Ace was sleeping by the time we reached there as it was his nap time... But the moment he heard Arthur's voice, he suddenly woke up and he was so enthralled and so engrossed in the talk that his eyes would follow Arthur... if Arthur walked left, his head moved left, if Arthur walked right, his head move right...

When Arthur was going about on his new philosophy and asked us to repeat "help 5 get 10.." before he continued to explain it's benefits... Ace repeated with us... when Arthur asked a question, Ace would answer without our prompting with a very loud, "Yes!"

And then when Arthur told a good joke, he would tell me, "Uncle so funny hor?" And everyone would turn around and smile...

Midway through the talk, Ace was getting a little restless and coincidentally, Arthur decided to use Ace as an example.. "For example, if this little boy keeps talking and I want him to keep quiet, I would say, "Boy, if you stop talking now, I give you 10 ice creams and 10 biscuits..."

Ace might have thought Arthur was serious though cos after that, he really stopped talking and he kept going up to Arthur and standing in front of Arthur after the seminar...

"I think he likes you.." I told Arthur..

"I think he is waiting for his ice cream.. "remarked Mei, Arthur's wife. "Darling, I think you better quickly go and buy him ice cream.. you must keep your promise..." Alas, Ace was having a cough and was banned from ice cream....

Anyway, Ace saw a lot of people taking notes and so he told me, "Mummy, I want paper, I want to draw draw draw..."

So I gave him a paper and pen and he started to scribble with alot of concentration.

"What are you drawing, Ace?" I asked him...

"I writing...." He replied.

"What are you writing?" I asked him...

"Help 5 get 10!"

I FAINTZ! Hahaha....

I think my son is the best student ever!

Previous Post: Ace Was A Ring Boy

Ace Was A Ring Boy

My best friend, Karen, who is also Ace's godma got married! ;)

And Ace was given a very important role to be the RING BOY.. so two days before he was due to be ring boy, i started telling him and reminding him at home that he has a special job at ganma Karen's wedding..

You can see the pictures HERE:
http://verityy.multiply.com/photos/album/87

The night before, I made Ace draw ganma Karen a beautiful card... and then I helped him spruce it up a little with some decorations...

And then on the actual day, I reminded him that he has to give ganma his present and say, "Gong xi gong xi..." Alas, all he did was pass to his ganma with his outstretched arms and he said, "Ganma, ni kan!"

Anyway, Ace was a little bored initially because there were no kids around.. that is because most of the people brought babies and other than hanging around the babies and really young toddlers (who are not so fun to play with), Ace had nothing to do... till ZG's best fren arrived with his twins.. I think they are 2 years older than Ace.. Ace was so happy and the three boys just started chasing each other around the room...

The moment they arrived, Ace ran to them and hugged them as if they have already known each other for a thousand years...

However, the boy's mother looked quite unpleassant.. i think she wanted her boys to be well behaved and not running around and she kind of shot me a angry look.. it seemed to say, "Can you take care of your son and stop him from playing with my boys?"

She mentioned later, "I thought who is this.. they know each other meh?" It felt on a certain level that she was slighting my child and did not like my son to go near her children..

Maybe she was just overtly protective over her boys.. but i disliked her on sight.. which is very very rare for me to dislike someone on sight...

My thinking is that it is normal for children to play. As long as they are not really disturbing anyone or hurting anyone, why stop them? If you don't want your sons to play with mine, ask them to stop lah.. pull them away lah.. dun shoot me a dirty look as if your children are too high and mighty to play with mine...

She didn't even look as if she was happy to be there to share their joy.. wat is most amazing is that she actually brought homework and made her boys do homework there! wow! That's a type of mummy i hope I will never become...

Anyway, because of this, I gave Ace some reason not to play with them.. initially when they were eating, I told Ace they had to eat their food so don't disturb them.. later, when I left the place though, I told Ace that it is ok to play. But sometimes, some parents are very kao zeh... they like to control their children and dun like their children to play too much.. so leh, when you see such parents, SIAM them and their children...

But in my heart, I felt that it was so unfair for the children that I had to teach my son that but I did not want him to be shooed or treated with disdain by other parents... Maybe instead of teaching him to siam, I can teach him to go and make friends with the parent instead ya?:P

I discovered most children are easy going and forgiving.. really it is just the parents most of the time that are overtly protective and overtly a control freak...

Anyway, when i think back, I guess that mother might have had her reasons.. it is not easy to take care of a pair of twins.. when they are boys and a little girl whom I hear has got terrible temper.. so ok lah, I forgive her lah... Maybe she is just not used to being out of control and did not appreciate when Ace showed her what FREEDOM and EASE is all about...

Previous post: If Angel Can Cook.. Pt 2

If Angel Can Cook.. Pt 2

Well, some time back, I posted a few dishes tat I whipped out...

(you can read here for more info:
http://verityy.blogspot.com/2008/07/mummy-can-cook.html)

Here are some new additions to the experiments I have had in my kitchen ;)

Vegeterian Rendang Curry:

Rosti with special cream and Sausage:

Japanese Seafood Curry Rice with Miso soup:

Previous Post: Play Room

Play Room

I am glad Ace has his own room...

Me and max have been doing parties quite alot before Ace was born.. and even after he was born, we still did it now and then before Max broke his leg.

We stopped for a long time because we went to stay with my mum...

After 1.5 years, we finally moved back home and so, we decided to '重出江湖' and do a big party.. a long awaited Dreams Inc gathering with all our Dreams Inc Kakis...

And boy was it hard work.. I had to clean the whole dam house and make sure it looked spick and span and then I also had to COOK... but all in all we had fun..

Because everyone had grown up and moved along with their life... many of the people we knew back then are all married with little babies and kids.. Liming, Sharon n Boon brought their babies, Mel n Germaine brought their toddler and Jez brought her two children..

Ace was so happy to have so much company and he even ran to the babies and tried to carry them... I could tell he is really ready for another sibling..

I was so glad that Ace has his own room because that meant that the children had a place they can turn upside down without interferring the party...


And of course, many thanks to the 'not married but I love children' impromptu nannies who helped to take care of the kids...

Moral of the story, want to hold big parties.. make sure you have a kid's room and a nursing room..

You can see more pics of the party and my VERY CLEAN HOUSE here:
http://verityy.multiply.com/photos/album/86/Dreams_Inc_Party

Previous Post: Ace and Net Net

Ace and Net Net

Time flies... Net net has been gone for more than a month already...


And for the longest time, Ace has not have had a chance to speak to him...


But we all know that Ace misses him because Ace would tell us that he wants to take a flight and go to France... and when we asked him why or who is going with him, he would tell us, "Net net lor..."


And for a while, he always wonders why is it that when he sees Ah Yee, Net net is not with her...


The other day, Ah Yee was skyping with Net Net and since Ace was also there, Ah Yee decided to let Ace talk to Net Net..



Ace enjoyed himself tremendously for the next 30 min.. I didn't know what he was trying to tell his yi zhang but he kept telling Net Net, "I tell you ah.. blah blah blah..." And he talked about him going to school... and even asked Net Net to be a good boy..


And then he started singing song for net net and for some unknown reason even started singing a birthday song...


And then he told Net net he wants to tickle him and kept trying to tickle netnet's picture he sees on the screen.. he kept touching net net's face and talked none stop.


I wonder if Ace will miss max so much when max leaves for OBO again. But I guess Max will certainly miss Ace even more as Ace is so much more fun and so much more receptive than a year ago...


Anyway, I think stanley was really happy to speak to his favourite nephew that day too... I would think that when you are all alone in the world at the other end of the world, nothing beats seeing your family and knowing that they love you and are looking forward to seeing you... and of course, nothing beats the comfort of seeing, hearing and feeling Ace's love!

PS: Ace had a chance to talk to Net Net again on National Day and spent like 5 min singing the chorus of WE ARE SINGAPORE to Net net...I think he must miss Net Net alot cos he was touching Net Net's face on the screen all the time as he was talking.. PLUS.. when we brought him to Pasir Ris and passed by Downtown East, he told us, "我来过这边..." and when we asked him when and with who (because we were sure we have never brought him here before...) he said, "Net net lor..."

PPS: Net net really loves Ace very much.. he got someone to bring back a Master Monkey toy figurine all the way from france for Ace.. and when he got his NDP goodie bag.. he also arranged for someone to send it back so that he can give it to Ace...

Previous Post: Are You Smarter Than A 3 Year Old?

Are You Smarter Than A 3 Year Old?

I am very proud of myself.

The other day, my family came to visit me and because Max's uniform with all the badges and stuff was on the chair, Ace took it to let people sit on the chair.

Not knowing what to do with it, Ace just kept walking around his Daddy's shirt in his hand.

"Ace, please put it into my room for me..." Daddy told him...

And then, for the rest of the day, we did not see the shirt and forgot ALL about it!

At 12 midnight, Daddy was trying to get ready for the next day and he just could not find his shirt.

"Did you see my shirt? Do you know where Ace might have hidden it?" Max asked me.

"I dunno leh...." And then the two of us started searching AROUND the whole house.. but no matter how hard we tried, we just could not find it.

I asked for inspiration and then paused for a while to think, since I understand Ace so well, what will I do if I were Ace?

*ta dah*

A sudden burst of inspiration hit me and I walked into my room.. I stared at my drawers and then I just knew he kept it in the drawers.. I opened my drawers and there you go, the dirty shirt.. neatly folded was put inside the drawer together with all the clean clothes.

I couldn't stop laughing...

Haha... Max said he cannot win Ace and well, I just am proud to be a little bit smarter than my very intelligent three-year-old ;)

Previous Post: Why You Give Me Number 2?

Why You Give Me Number 2?

The other day, we had nothing better to do at home and so we decided to go out for dinner. Because we heard some singing, Max told Ace we were going to watch a singing contest... but then we realized it was just the RC national day dinner...

So we decided to go elsewhere.. "But I want to go dancing.." Ace told us... So we told him that we will go dancing later at home..

We went for dinner and then went home.

"Mama.. I want dancing.." Ace told me..

So I played him the kinderbopper CD. "NO, no no, I don't want this. I want the 'ma ma, mama'... " said Ace.

I have this CD from Similac which is free and the first song in the CD is a piece of soothing music with a voice of a baby saying, "mama.." I remembered playing it often to Ace when he was a baby and wondering when I can I hear him call me MAMA as in the CD...

Anyway, for some unknown reason, I just could not find the CD no matter how hard I tried and so I thought I would give him some funky dance music and I put in my BSTC CD...

Ace started dancing and really grooving to the music. Both me and Max suspect that he will be a great street dancer or break dancer when he grows up as all his self cheorographed moves are mostly hip hop and street dance like...

And then, after a while, it dawned on me why Ace loved this piece of music and shimmied to it so happily.. this was the music he heard almost everyday for a few months when I was pregnant with him!

Anyway, max was so impressed he went to take out one of his trophies, passed it to Ace and told him, "Ace, this is for you! You are number one! You are really good!" And Ace happily waved his trophy into the air.

I wondered though why Max gave Ace a silver trophy instead of a gold one when it is supposed to be a number one trophy but thought Ace wouldn't notice the difference anyway.

Later, me, Max and Ace were watching TV in the living room after a bout of dancing and Ace was admiring his trophy again... he eyes were carefully reading all the inscription on the trophy and he saw the number '2' which he recognized.

"Daddy, why did you give me a number two?" He asked his dad.

We laughed until tears came to our eyes and Max quickly apologized to Ace and went to find a trophy that had a number 1 on it and gave it to him. He is one smart 3 year old lor!

Then we told Ace that he is number one.. "Daddy is number one and Mummy is number one..." And Ace happily played with his number one trophy...

Previous Post: Cough!

Cough!

I always tell people save an occasional cough and runny nose, Ace has never really fallen sick except having fever after his injections...

In fact, both myself and Ace have not seen a doctor since we went for his after birth check up at all! ;)

Many told me to be prepared for when he goes to school because in school, germs are generally passed around alot more easily and children pass them around not only to their classmates but also to their parents...

On that Ace started schooling, he started to cough a little bit. Strangely, the cough only happens early in the morning when he wakes up. As his body warms up, his cough will fade... but just to make sure it does not get worse, we banned Ace from ice creams, cold drinks, sweet drinks and rubbish junk food and fed him lots of VP...

On top of that, we also did everything we possibly could to help him WANT to recover faster because I believe that RESULTS=INTENT.

1. I told him the benefits of being healthy


2. Reminded him that I love him and like it when he is healthy


3. Told him I dun like it when he is sick


4. Made it a point to remind him that he couldn't eat many of his fav things like ice cream, sweet drinks unless he recovered from it


5. Reminded him to drink more water so that he can get well faster


6. Reminded him to take more VP so that he can get well faster

And I think Ace really tried to get better. He sleeps earlier, drinks more water and always asks for VP whenever he is coughing. But leh, after about a week, the cough, after becoming better for a while got worse when Ace went to stay with my mum for two days. There was one day he was so sick that his teacher called me and said that he went up to her during class and asked if he could sleep because he was very tired....

I know Ace will ALWAYS be well taken care of at my mum's place but I was just too busy those two days and did not have time to play or talk to him except early in the morning before he goes to school.. Daddy was busy with some event and also did not get to see him much except when he sent him to school.

I went to dig out my YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE book by Louise Hay and tracked what could be part of the possible reasons for a cough....

Did you know that most of the illnesses that we have are largely attributed to some psychological reasons.. eg, the probable cause for cough is actually to say, "LOOK AT ME!" I guess Ace felt like he was ignored or worst still, abandoned at my mum's place for no reason... and that is why even though he was well taken care of, his cough got worse. And he coughed like his lung was going to drop out like that...

So when we brought him home, I was determined to help him get well:

1. I committed to spending time with him that night and spending more time doing things together with him over the weekend
   
2. As he enjoys school, I reminded him that he CANNOT go to school if he does not get well


3. Called Nainai and asked her to make some liang shui for Ace's cough


4. Repeats the affirmation, "I love you very much and you are well loved. You are important to me..."


5. Keep reminding him that when I did not see him, I really missed him


6. Gave him lots of kisses and long long hugs


7. Fed Ace with more VP and even fed him Fibrena and Indinine.

I didn't know how to get him take indinine cos the last time we tried to get him to eat it.. he spat it out.. so we mixed it in fibrena and let him take it.. he loved it!

After doing all of the above, his condition improved by 80% IMMEDIATELY!

Because I wanted him to take more indinine, the next day morning, I told him that I am going to give him indinine.. it might not taste very good but it will help him recover much faster...

"You must chew ok? It tastes like VP lah... and you cannot spit it out ok? It is very expensive..." I told Ace..

"OK..."

And to my surprised.. he finished it up with no complains.

The funniest thing happened in the evening when he came to me and told me, "Mummy, I cough leh, I must take products..."

"What products you want to take?" I asked him...

"Indinine lor..."

"Aiyoh, no need lah.. take VP can or not.." I asked him

"Cannot. I want indinine..."

"Take VP lah.." I tried to persuade him otherwise..

And then, using the full capacity of his lungs he said very loudly, "But wo ke sou leh! wo yao chi Indinine! Chi Indinine cai hui hao!"

I dunno whether to laugh or cry.. haha.. this young man sure knows good stuff when he sees it..

Anyway, because his cough happens only during certain times of the day and also because he is still active and happy, I think his cough is really just a healing crisis... will just continue to feed him more VP and water and even Indinine...

Previous post: A Close Shave

A Close Shave

The other day, because we were quite free, we decided to bring Ace out for a walk after dinner at North South East West...

Since Parkway Parade is the nearest shopping mall, we decided to go there and stroll around..

I haven't been there in a long while and boy has the place changed... Right at the entrance was this screen on the floor which include Ace's favourite games.. and so Ace ran around on the screen for a good half and hour while I stood there and admired his football prowess.

What amused me was that children are really a carefree lot. Initially, the whole group of children playing there were the young ones who were about 3-4 years old.. the toddlers played together easy enough and everyone just did their own thing without interrupting the others.

But when older children came in, they tried to control the situation by laying RULES like "You cannot go there... you cannot stand here..." and did Ace and the other toddlers care? Of course NOT! hahaha... in the end, the older kids gave up and just played around the toddlers...

After playing with the screen, we went to the second storey where Ace said he wanted to play with the rides (he is more familiar with the place than I am because his Daddy brought him there without me before..) and boy is this little boy lucky lor.. someone put in a coin and their kid did not want to play so Ace got a free ride.. Daddy says Ace is very lucky because the last time he brought Ace there, Ace also got a free ride... I think Ace is very abundant and much better at receiving than us ;)

Because he was a good boy, Daddy promised to reward him with ICE CREAM! So we went to mac donalds across the road for ice cream. Right after ice cream, Ace said he wanted to go to play ground and when Daddy said, "Ok..." he just took off.

Max was still leisurely sipping his drink and telling me, "Nevermind lah, let him go on his own.. so near only... he can take care of himself..."

But we nearly lost our son when we made that decision!

Contrary to what we thought, instead of taking the shorter route, Ace took the longer route and walked around the other way through a car exhibition to get to the playground. Unfortunately for us, for some unkown reason, even though this was a place with LOTS OF FAMILIES and LOTS OF CHILDREN, the cars were allowed to be driven around within that small area!

When Ace went around one car, the driver was trying to reverse and he almost knocked Ace down!

Max jumped to his feet, ran towards Ace and by the time he reached the car, Ace was already at the playground.

"Here can drive one meh?" Max asked the car salesman angrily...

"Can, we sell cars mah.." Wah lau, what sort of reply. Instead of apologizing to us for almost knocking our son down, they still give this sort of LL reply...

So, that is why I decided to take a picture of the exhibition and NAME THE CAR DEALER so tat you will know better than to deal with people like that. They are called PINACCLE... I personally feel that if they can treat children like this, I dun think they will treat their customers well...

As for Ace, he really just didn't care and went on to have a GREAT TIME at the playground.. hahaha ;)

Previous Post: I Give You

I Give You

The concept of sharing has not really settled down with Ace.. every now and then, he will say he cannot share something with Ah Yee or Mummy or Daddy because "THIS IS MINE!" he will say loudly. I think he learnt this from the children he plays with...

Anyway, I was just reading about the 7 signs that show that your children love you and one of them is that they will pick a flower or a rock and give it to you as a present.

Ace has started to do that....

He will crumple some paper together and he will say it is a flower and then he will tell you, "Wo gei ni flower..."

Even though he often asks for presents from us, he doesn't only know how to receive, he gives as well. Give him a paper bag and he will put a variety of toys inside and then take them one by one and give them to various members of the family.

"Wo gei ni de present.." he will tell us. I think he feels good when we say we like the present and thank him. So he will find something else to 'give'.

Another point about how your children show that they love you is that they come to you for comfort and want you to kiss their boo boo when they are hurt or when they fall down.

Every time he has something bite him or that he falls down, he will tell me, "Mummy, you see my leg, pain pain.." And so I will kiss his boo boo and for some unknown reason, after the kiss, all his pains will disappear.

He thinks of this routine as such a normal thing that the other day, he saw a scratch on my leg and asked me, "Mummy, 你在那里跌到.." (Where did you fall down?) I told him I didn't know. He looked at it and then stared into my eyes and asked me, "我kiss kiss你，要不要?" And then proceeded to kiss my boo boo...

Yesterday, I had a sudden streak of pain near my right eye. "Ouch!" I said and pressed hard against the pain hoping that it will go away.

My very concerned son was sitting next to me and happily watching TV. "Mummy, 你的眼睛痛啊?" (Mummy, are your eyes feeling painful?)

I nodded my head.

"我要 kiss kiss.. 要不要..." and did not even wait for a reply and came over to kiss the portion that was painful.

Haha.. miraculously, after he kissed it, much of the pain subsided ;)

Previous Post: Ace: Gift Of LOVE

Ace: Gift Of LOVE

There was one night I was really and upset and angry. Some one tried to pull a blame stunt on bite THIS hand that FEEDS it and it made me really really upset and angry.

I was so angry that when I was trying to do my forgiveness exercise to forgive this person, all I could manage to do was try not to send out HATE DAGGERS to that person.. that was how upset I was.

My teacher said that anger only lasts 4 min and 30 seconds... that is proven by research ok. If it lasts any longer than that, it means we are investing in the anger.

After 4 min and 30 seconds, I was SEETHING with anger.. which is RARE for a fairly nice person like me.. haha ;) I swear there was smoke coming out of my nostrils and ears!

"Die lah.. I investing in the anger leh... how to get less angry.. very difficult leh..." I was thinking and at this point, my super hero Ace Chua walked out of his room.

It was 1.35am in the morning and he had already been sleeping since 11pm. He never wakes up in the middle of the night.

"Mama, ni yao shui jiao ma?" he asks me.

"I can't sleep now cos I am very very angry at someone now..." I told him.

And then he huddles up next to me and then I smell a familiar stench...

"Ni da bian ah?" I asked him.

"Ah" Ace gave an affirmative.

So I laughed at him... "You din shit today is it? (He just came back from Grandma's place) Where got people wake up at 1.30am in the morning to shit one??" And brought him to wash his bum bum.

After I cleaned his bum, changed him into a new diaper and put him back to bed where he immediately fell asleep again, I realized that the anger was gone.

Because it was so amusing for me to see Ace wake to shit, I literally laughed my anger away... of course I think it helped that Ace gave me a hug before he went back to bed:)

Anyway, Ace, THANK YOU!

Previous Post: My mummy go make money lor

My mummy go make money lor

The other day, we left Ace at Waipo's house in the evening because both me and Max had some appointments with other people.

Turned out that there was a religion related leader's meeting taking place at her place. So while waiting for the meeting to start, they were playing with Ace (They are familiar with Ace and all love him to bits) and chatting with him. Someone asked Ace, "Ace, where is your mummy?"

"My mummy went to work lor.. so that she can make money so that Ace can go to school lor..." They were greatly amused and kept asking Ace to repeat this...

My mum says "How can a young child say this? This is too mature a child.."

But I beg to differ... his maturity actually comes from me because I was the one who keeps telling him that I am out to make money so that he can enjoy a good life... he is merely repeating what I told him....

Daddy corrected Ace though.. "Ace.. Mummy did not go and work... Mummy just went out to make LOTS OF MONEY..."

PS: My mum told me that Ace went to school early the other day and since he was the first kid there, he talked and talked and talked to Teacher Erica who was on morning duty. Teacher Erica told my mum later that Ace speaks really well. "He told me that his mummy has to go to work, she is very busy..." Haha.. i am amused!

Previous Post: Exercise

Exercise

My Leg Magic machine has been sitting in my living room for thousands of years.

Max bought it for me for christmas because I wanted beautiful legs for xmas... But after one or two weeks of using it, I stopped because I thought I was pregnant or something lah.. and then once I lost momentum.. there it goes...

I think Ace see liao cannot tahan the waste lah.. so he decided to use it in my place ;)




Previous Post: Unnatural Smiles

Unnatural Smiles

As kids grow up, they will be happy no doubt but initially when children grow up, they just don't really know how to smile naturally for the camera.. I read somewhere that all children are like tat.

Ace is not different...

He smiles like that when he purposely tries to smile for the camera.

So I told him that in order to smile nice, he should really be happy and think happy thoughts... "For example, you can think of your favourite things and what you love most in the world. What do you love most in the world, Ace?"

"Mama!"

Wah! I feel dam shiok!

"What else leh?" I asked him.

"Papa.."

I am thinking we did not waste all the time, effort and money we invested in this little monkey...

"What else leh?"

"Ace!"

"Yes, very good, you should always love yourself.. " I told him.

And then when I continued to ask him what else, he started to give me this cheeky look. Ever since he started to have a sense of fun and humour, whenever he gives me a wicked cheeky look, I know he is going to say something funny.

"So what else do you love?"

"Erm..." He was eyeing on the air con... "I love air con!" he exclaimed. So I played along and said, "huh?!" with a very exegeratted expression on my face....

Ace giggled. "I love the clouds!"

And then I did the exclaimation and we had lots of fun laughing at our silly game...

Haha... I very shiok that I am the thing tat Ace love most in the world.. until the day it become some pretty, sexy girl, I am going to treasure this feeling...

Previous Post: I want my toys!

I want my toys!

Ace likes to go home... once he has had enough fun outside, he will say ask me, "Mama, ni yao hui wo de jia ma? Yao bu yao?"

That is his queue for going home and that he has had enough...

So when you ask him why he wants to go home, he will tell you it is because he wants to go home and play with his toys...Given that he has a limited amount of toys at home (because most of his toys are at Popo's house), he gets really imaginative.

For example, the other day he wanted to make Thomas Train... so he used his truck and tried to join it with his fake Lego block set with wheels and said that that is Thomas Train.

But most of the time, he is really just happy using my tatami sofa as a slide and using my mother's scarf as watever he wants it to be.

Previous Post: Caring Ace

Caring Ace

Ace is really a caring boy... And I think he really has a gift of love and happiness.

The other day, we were in his Shichida class, one of his classmates, Justin just started crying for no reason and made a very loud noise. Initially, Ace stared at him...

I told Ace, "Go and sayang Justin and tell him, it's ok.. dun cry..." So Ace went to pat pat him and ask him not to cry...

But Justin did not stop.. so teacher said to everyone to hug Justin and tell Justin that they love him. So I told Ace, "Go and hug hug Justin.. tell him 'I love you' just like you like mummy to do it for you when you are upset.."

He still stared at Justin...And then he walked over to hug him for like 3 seconds and right after that, Justin smiled!

Part of the reason i guess is also I have been reading this book called Goody Good Glasses to him about how a sad vegetable was feeling sad and his friend came along and asked him if he wanted a friend... and after they hugged each other, the vegetable was happy again.

Anyway, I believe that hugs can do wonders... the other day, someone emailed me and said that her daughter who is 2.5 yrs old is perpetually sick with cough... because she lives far far away in kuwait, I am unable to help her by asking her to do detox or to take chloreana.. so I asked her to do the 5 min suggestion after her daughter sleeps and to hug and tell her daughter, "I am sorry, I love you.."

Easiest and best advice I can give to a fellow mum I think.. now it just depends on whether she believes me and really applies it.. I hope she does because it really is effective!

Previous Post: Badminton