Don't Give Up!

Max told me that the other day, he spoke to one of our good friend cum fellow LION, Kevin. Max asked him, "If there is only one thing that you can keep repeating to your kids, what will it be?"



Kevin's reply?



"Two words... TRY AGAIN..."



Somehow, this was a very apt conversation as Max told me about this after I told him about an observation I made about Ace the other day in his right brain training class.



During his lessons, there is this memory game where you have to put the cards back into the right order after looking at the right answer for 10 seconds...



Seems like Ace doesn't really like this... and always, when he puts back the answer, he either wants to put it any way he likes OR he wants to look at the answers of his friends and do the same answers.



Worst still, he is really a sore loser lor... if he does it his own way, and he gets the answers wrong, he throws the cards on the floor in tantrum and says, "I don't want already. I don't want to play already..."



Where got people like tat one?



And then I had to give him a prep talk about trying again if he gets the answers wrong and how we learn from our mistakes and should thus celebrate our mistakes.. "Just learn from it and don't do it again lah... don't have to throw a tantrum what..."



He will nod his head and say OK and next week, he is at it again...



As children are our sub conscious reflections, I also dunno wat to do with him.. I wonder which part of my life am I refusing to try again after failing... which part of my life am I in a tantrum instead of learning from my mistakes... I wonder if I really dunno the answers.. hahaha...

Previous Post: Stop Whining!

Stop Whining!

Today, I think Ace came very close to being 'whacked' by his daddy because he was in a whiny mood... whole day... he would assert his independence by wanting a certain thing and if we did not do it his way, he would WHINE...

If you try to reason with him.. he will whine and say, "I want, I want, I want..." and then cry.. I myself felt like slapping him lor.. once or twice a day i lun.... like 8-10 times a day.. taboleh tahan manz!

Max bought some really nice wall stickers to decorate the living room wall... and so Ace said he wanted to paste the stickers. I told him that we would do it tommorrow and he insisted on opening the packaging...

"We open tomorrow when we stick lah..."

"I dun want, I dun want, I want to open..." *whine whine whine*

Out of desperation, I held him next to me, looked into his eyes and asked him, "Ace, do you agree that generally, mummy try to give in to your requests? If you wanted ice cream, we buy.. unless you cough and cannot eat.. if you want to eat chicken rice, we order for you.. you want to go playground, we bring you there..."

He opens his eyes real big and nods and nods and nods.. and I know since I already got all the little YESes, I can go for the closing liaoz (I am a seasoned saleswoman... my top record is $10K worth of sales in a day:))

"Sometimes though, mummy cannot do it your way... not because I don't want to.. but because at that time, really cannot. Like for example, if we open the stickers now, they might get lost and then we wouldn't be able to stick them if we cannot find them.. right?"

"Ok.." and he smiled.

Well, remember how i said children are our subconscious minds? Incidentally, I had a mini argument with Max and it had something to do with doing things "MY WAY"... we had differing views about the biz and after I thought about it, I thought that there was nothing wrong with his way as well.. I dunno why I felt so offended and felt it had to be "my way or the high way"...

On a sidenote, I noticed that Ace will get cranky and whiny usually when he feels we have not spent enough time with him.. as we have been rather bz these two weeks, he usually goes to his grandma's house and dun really get to spend alot of time with us... I feel, it is his way of saying, "Don't spend time with me right? Punish you by whining and make you irritated..." Sigh.. authority conflict at such a tender age??

Previous Post: Ace Gao Zoh Lang

Ace Gao Zoh Lang

The other day, I was sitting in the car with Ace... and then out of nowhere, he started a conversation with me... It was a very interesting conversation and so, I sent Ah Yee the following message:

btw, your good nephew had the following conversation with me just now...

A: Why ah yee no come home?

Me: Cos Ah yee in france...

A: I want ah yee take aeroplane..

Me: U mean you want the aeroplane toy that Ah Yee bought for you?

A: No... I want ah yee sit in the plane and the plane fly.. whooooo and then ah yee come home to me...

Me: You miss ah yee ah?

A: Yes...

Me: You miss ah yee more or you miss net net more?

A: I miss net net more..

Me: Why? Is it because net net always bring you out?

A: Yes...

(Ok, I know what you are thinking.. but dun be sad.. the best part comes next... )

Me: What about Ah yee?
(pauses for a while and has the expression of thinking of how to express his thoughts)

A: Erm... I have big big love for ah yee..

Me: What about net net?

A: I have small small love for net net... I got big big love for ah yee.. I also have big big love for you, mummy.. let me give you a BIG BIG hug!

Cool eh?:)
~~~ END OF MSG~~~

Ah Yee said she read out the whole message to Net Net and when he heard that Ace missed him more.. he laughed out very loud... hahaha..

Anyway, their conclusion is that Ace very "GAI ZOG ANG" and indeed.... cos when he came home, he told me, that he loved me, loved daddy... ah yee, netnet, shu shu, diana jie jie, nainai, yeye, gonggong, waipo, laoma, zhenpopo and his friends....

I think he might be able to do my biz really well since he has such great PR skills:P

PS: I asked him the same question a few days later and still he insisted that he missed Netnet more and have BIG BIG LOVE for Ah Yee.. hahahahaha...

Previous Post: Whiney-est CNY

Whiney-est CNY

CNY for me as a child was great joy:)

It was a time for ang pows, snacks, new clothes, good food and lots of fun and games with my cousins.

As I grew up, it became not so exciting for me anymore... ang pows, snacks, new clothes are not that a big deal anymore since I started to earn my own keep and could buy and eat anything I wanted anytime of the year... it is made worse by the fact that my relatives like to ask me either when i am getting married or why i have no boyfriend.. (depending on what my status was at that moment).

And then, I got married, set up my own family and it got even LESS exciting cos it means you got to clean up the whole bloody house by yourself.. and you had to GIVE OUT angpows (pay back time for all the ang pows you collected) and worst still when your children are growing up as you had to feed them or make sure they dun run around.. etc...

CNY last year was not so bad since Ace was mobile and all that.. he could take good care of himself and I didn't really have to keep an eye on him. I thought this year would be even better but i was WRONG!

On the first day of Chinese new year.. my very good son woke up from the wrong side of the bed and started WHINING the WHOLE DAY. (actually, he was whining for two days)

Initially he whined about not wanting to brush his teeth, then about what to wear for the day (even though we previously agreed to wear the white shirt and jeans ensemble that NaiNai bought for him...). :"Noooooooooooo.. this is not nice, I dun want to wear this!" he insisted and started to cry and whine... and finally quieten down when he picked out a nice new orange shirt to wear...

And then he started whining about how he did not want to put on his new shoes because he wanted to wear the old black shoes... and then he started whining when he was told he cannot have too many biscuits... whining when he did not get to eat his favourite chicken rice... whining if he did not get a chance to play at the playground, whining because he wanted to play for 5 more min there.. whining cos someone hit him while playing with him..

It sure was irritating like hell!

To make it worse, he took lots of sweet stuff (which is known to make children's temper even worse) and did not get his normal 2 hour naps in the middle of the day... so he got really cranky..

After two days of none stop whining, I had a talk with him in the car... "Ace, can you tell us properly what you want? Sometimes some things cannot go your way... we try to accomodate your request as far as possible but in life, not all things will go your way... but when you whine and whine and whine and cry and cry, you make it a very unpleasant experience for both me and daddy.. i am sure it was an unpleasant experience for you as well. You see, if you don't whine so much, we could spend more time being happy.. instead of using the time to pacify you and scold you.. I could be spending time instead having fun with you and hugging you... you know I love you no matter what.. even if you did not whine, I would still hug you and kiss you...."

Let's hope he gets better now he gets back into school...

Anyway, just to be fair, Ace was a good boy in other aspects as well. Instead of drinking green tea or soft drinks, he followed our instructions and drank from his water bottle mostly. He shared his food with Yeye and he learnt to put on his new shoes on day two. (Just FYI, while he kept insisting that the white shirt and jeans were not nice in day one.. he said in day two, "this shirt is sooooooooo nice!") He also did not cry much when he fell and hurt himself... very brave boy indeed!

Anyway, here are our CNY photos:



As Ace says to everyone:
恭喜发财
万事如意
身体健康
HUAT LAH!

Previous Post: I Want, I Want...

I Want, I Want...

For the past three days, Ace has not been drinking milk before he sleeps. It is almost as if he has forgotten that he has this NEED for milk before he sleeps. He merely goes to his room, reads his story books and turns around and falls asleep.

But leh, you see, all these are but habits lah.

Once he goes over and stays at Popo's house for 4 consecutive nights, he develops the old milk habit again.. cos my parents they are all very 'zi dong' one.. they will just make milk for him without him needing to request for it... so after 4 nights of drinking milk, he came home the other day and threw a tantrum before he was due to go to bed...

"I want... I want... erm.. erm.." For 10 min, he used his "BEST" whiney voice and repeated that phrase... and it seems like because he hasn't been drinking milk or using that word for about a week.. he has forgotten wat it is called!


After about 10 min, then he remembered tat the word is MILK. "I want milk..." and so I went to make for him lor...

Previous Post: Chanting Ace

Chanting Ace

The other day my mum was feeling quite free and since she was around the area, she decided to surprise visit me...

But because there is nothing much she can do in my house, she decided to start chanting and since my son has got nothing much to do.. he decided to join her! hahaha

Nowadays though, Ace is not so good a chanter... the other day before he left for home, I told him that he should sansho and "gyo gyo gyo" first... This is a self derived term that we have for chanting three times before you leave home because when he was younger, he could not pronounce the seven syllabal "Nam-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo".

My son good lor.. he really kneel down and said, "Gyo gyo gyo..."

The other day before he was due to go out, I asked him to kneel down and chant to say goodbye to gohonzon. He really kneeled down and told Gohonzon, "Gohonzon, bye bye!"

Faintz!

PS: Are you having a function where you need a live band to liven up the atmosphere? You can try my friend's band- Mood Swingz... You can view video of them here:
http://sayhitolinda.multiply.com/video/item/3
http://sayhitolinda.multiply.com/video/item/4

Previous Post: Ace Speaks Japanese! ;)

Ace Speaks Japanese! ;)

Here's a cute video clip of ace trying to speak japanese..

I love it when he tries to speak Chinese and/or japanese.. he just sounds soooooooooooooooooooo cute!




PS:

FYI, Ace's favourite preschool shows "Tao Shu and Friends" (a kids' edutainment mixed-media> show) is currently airing every Sunday on MediaCorp Channel 8 at 8.30am. Yeap, it is that show that Ace always proudly tells people is his"ganma's show". The show started broadcasting on the 25th of Jan 2009, so this 13 eps> series will last till March. If you are free, you can watch it.. it is really quite educational and has taught Ace lots of good habits, concepts and morals.

The other info drama is "Mindy Lost & Found 2 - Nature Footprints is also on Mediacorp Channel 8 at 9:00 am every Sat.This drama started broadcasting last Sunday morning at 9am. This drama is on the green and nature places in Singapore and we encourages kids to conserve the environment and be more aware of pollution and importance of recycling. This is more for older kids (above 8). Please help spread the word to your Singaporean friends and relatives!

Previous Post: Humph!

Humph!

To those people who always ask me, "Why you talk to Ace like he understands and remembers everything? They so small they can remember/understand meh?"

Here is just proof of how children, however young DO understand and DO remember...

About a year ago, when Ace was two, the company I was working with offered an incentive trip to Hong Kong Disneyland if you hit a certain sales volume consistently for three months. We worked really hard and I told Ace that I will bring him along if I made it...

3 months down the road, I made it and thought I secured a place to HK Disneyland.

However, due to some unforseened circumstances, a change of management took place and the new management vehemently denied the trip with lots of what seems like crap excuses to me... and so, despite sacrificing so much for it, I was left with no HK disneyland trip.....

You can bet I was upset and I am amazed when I hear people ask my friend, "Why is Angel so emotional over this?"

I was really angry when I heard that since he belongs to the management... hahaha.. back then (and I guess even now), I was thinking, "Harlow, have you ever promised your child something and cannot make it? Have you ever seen the disappointed face on your child's face when you tell him we cannot go already? You dun value your promises to your child does not mean I dun value mine lor!!??"

Anyway, a year has since passed and I don't really talk about this anymore.. But I guess, deep in me, I havent let go of this disappointment and also this association to the thinking that "working hard equals nought" since after you work hard, you wouldn't get the reward anyway...

As children are our sub conscious mind and as Ace really does understand all that I have told him, a year later, when he is much more capable of expressing himself, (He could only say words when he was two.. it is only when he turned three that he started speaking in sentences) he came to my study while I was typing one day and crossed his arms...

"Humph..." he folded his arms crossly and made an angry face.

I was wondering what was wrong with him... No one did anything to upset him and nothing happened before this.. for no reason, he just came to me and "humph" me.

"What's wrong, Ace?" I asked him.

"I so angry.." he said.

"Huh? What are you angry with?"

"Why you never bring me to disneyland? Why?"

I was so shocked I didn't know how to reply. After I regained my composure, I promised him. "We are not going now Ace, but I promise you one day.. later, we will definitely go... ok?"

"Ok!"

And then he ran out to play happily..

Freaky...

Previous Post: Sharing Kid

Sharing Kid

My mother always told me that I am a selfish kid....


She says that when I was younger, no matter what good things I had, I always wanted to keep it for myself.


My younger sister, on the contrary, will see good things and want to keep it for when she can share with me or will want to take one more piece of it so that I can have one too. She always thinks of her Jie Jie...


But I guess I grew up to become quite a nice sister lah... one who makes effort to share her joys and woes and one who buys her a diamond pendant on her 21st birthday:)


I am glad though, that Ace takes after my sister in this respect.


The other time when Ah Yee promised to buy him a toy aeroplane as a present, he asked him if she could also buy a present for mummy...


Just earlier on, Ace came home and my sister was online. She wanted to do a video chat with him to show him the aeroplane that she bought for him as promised. So after he saw his aeroplane, he told his Ah Yee, "Ah Yee, can you buy one more small small aeroplane for mummy? Can or not? Can or not?"


My heart felt so warm when I heard that...


Previous Post: World War III

World War III

Some years ago.. I had a penpal whom I got to know at the most beautiful mum to be contest... Her name is Carmen and somehow, we became really great email friends and as she has an older kid, she would describe her life and send me pictures of how her son made her house look like World War III just just 30 min after she packed the whole house.

Then, I did not use to understand why her kid was like that. and now, I still dun understand why kids are like that but I do accept that they are just like that now because my son has this streak in him too...

The other day while we were watching a TV show called Super Matron where they help messy households clean up their houses, we were rather amazed that there is this household with a maid whose house still looks somewhat likea warzone... Max says the maid must be super lazy.. I beg to differ though.. I can understand.. cos the maid has to take care of two 2-year-old twins and one 7 month old baby all at the same time. Who still has time to pack and clean the house...

Most importantly, with toddlers in the house, no matter how neat you pack, it will get messy soon anyway.

My mother's theory is that if there are young children in the house, it it virtually impossible for the house to be really neat. She says she has visited many houses and irregardless of whether they are HDB flats or private houses, big or small and whether the owners are rich or poor, with maids or maidless.. the verdict remains the same. I tend to agree because I think there is only one house I have seen that is super duper neat and has a todller living in it.. and tat is Tifanny's (Germaine) house...

My mum makes her case furthur by using Ace as an example. Everytime her house is packed neat and tidy, Ace would visit and mess up the whole place.. it is as if he cannnot stand a neat house and needs the place to be messy before he feels at home...

Now that CNY is round the corner, I have been sort of packing up a little bit here and there when I have the time but to my dismay, every evening when Ace comes back, my few hours of hard work will go down the drain.

The funny thing is that when the things are in a mess, Ace doesn't seem to notice them and so he doesnt take them out and play.

Once i pack them nicely and lay them out nicely, he suddenly notices that this thing exists and just has to take out everything to explore one more time.

The other day, I finally packed his messy bookshelf and he just had to choose that day to take out all his hardcover books to build a castle. The books have been there for a thousand years but he chooses the day that I pack the books to create a mess...

Sometimes I feel like just dumping all the mess in his room and let him be.. dun waste my effort cleaning up.. grrrr....

Previous Post: Why so many meetings?

Why so many meetings?

Today, all of a sudden, I had an emergency meeting and so did Max.. so we made a decision to send Ace to Popo's house after school.

When Daddy went to pick Ace up, Ace took the parking coupons and told Daddy, "I want to park at my house...."


So the very sheepish Daddy told Ace, "Erm.. today we are going to Popo's house..."


"Why we go popo's house?"


"Erm.. because I have a meeting..."


"Mummy go popo house?"


"No, Mummy also has a meeting..."


Ace paused for a while and asked his dad, "Why so many meetings?"


Max didn't know how to answer him...


Anyway, he usually kicks up a big fuss when we sent him to Popo's house. The ending is that he went to Popo's house happily.... WHY? Because this mummy is smart lah. I already knew in advance this month would be a little bit more bz so I already told him a few days ago I will need his help to play by himself when I am working from home and to enjoy himself in Popo's house when I need to go out for meetings.


But I really do think that it is getting more fun to talk to him as we are starting to have meaningful and interesting conversations with him....

Previous Post: Ace Can Write His Name

Ace Can Write His Name

Well, Ace was in a good mood the other day so I quickly asked him if he wanted to do 'work'. That's his given homework from his right brain training school...

So we played the game and then he tried to write his Japanese characters...

When we finished, I tried to help him write his name by tracing the word 'A C E" out for him but instead of writing the word, he said he wanted to colour and coloured the whole word...

I told him that he has to write his name.. not colour his name and so I erased off the drawings. Because my dotted tracing was done in pencil, I had to erase the whole thing off and then I remembered that I forgot to do something and left the table to do it...

"You write your name yourself first ok..." and then I left.

By the time I came back, this is what I saw!

I did not realize that he could write his name without any dotted tracing at all. I know he could recognize the shape of his name and when I write it, he knows it is his name.. but i was not aware he is capable of writing it without help.

Wah! I am sooooooooooooooooooooo impressed. So happy that I decided to choose such a short and simple name for him... hehehehe....

Previous Post: This is a HEART

This is a HEART

The other day, we were going through the different shapes and trying to name different items and saying what shapes they are.

I put my fingers together and showed Ace how to make a diamond shape and how to use his arms to make a circle.

Then suddenly he did this and told me, "This is a heart shape... it means I love you..."

Aw.... so sweet...

But I ask him to do it again to pose for my camera, he gave me this strange, cheeky look.. hahaha

PS: Talking about love, check out me and Max's love story and vote a 5 HEART voting for us!


Previous Post: The Greatest Love of All

The Greatest Love of All

A Son asked his father, "Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?"

The father who, despite having a heart condition, says "Yes".

They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons. The father always saying "Yes" to his son's request of going through the race together.

One day, the son asked his fater, "Dad, let's join the Ironman together."To which, his father said "Yes".

For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

Father and son went on to complete the race together!




This video of Team Hoyt (Dick and Ricky Hoyt) really brought tears to me and max's eyes... (I swear the two women sitting beside me when I was watching the video were tearing too)



I am so touched at the father's love for the son... and I am reminded of how great a parent's love can be... I am also very touched at the son's refusal to think within limits.. you would think a kid born with cerebal palsly would never think he would be every to complete a marathon, much less an IRONMAN race....



I am not sure how much of it Ace will understand but I showed it to him anyway. Then he asked me, "Why he not running?"



"Because he is sick... but he dreams big and wants to take part in a running contest and even though his Daddy is also sick, his daddy still runs together with him.... do you know why the daddy do that, because he loves his son very much.... and this is how much daddy and mummy love you... always remember that...."



"And also, remember to dream big... people who live beyond their limitations will always live extraordinary lives..."



He nodded and continued to watch the video...



Here is the portion where some sentimental music like HERO comes on and we both have tears in our eyes right? WRONG!



And then comes the anti climax where Ace asks me, "Why he is sick?" "Why he is sick and he running?" "Why his daddy running?" "Why his daddy love him?"



Hahahahahaha....



Previous Post: Orh Pi Sai

Orh Pi Sai

Ace has a habit of digging his nose... he cannot seem to stand it when he has something inside his nose. The moment there is some mucus drying up in his nose... and maybe because his nose bridge is high up so there is alot of space inside and thus alot of space for rubbish to accumulate inside...


So whenever he puts his hand in, I will scold him. Then he will tell me, "Got pi sai..." So I will offer to clean for him and I will use tissue to clean for him. Usually his "black gold" are really large.. like the size of half a tic tac sweet.. so there is really something inside and because I also dun like it when there is something inside my nose.. I can understand.


But still we remind him not to do that and threaten to put vicks on his fingers when he digs for gold again.


There was once he over did it... despite our repeated threats and scoldings and friendly reminders.. (Ok, they happened the other way round), he dig and dig, dig and dig and finally, "Mummy.. pain pain..." and when my tissue went in, it came out with blood.


The next time the digs his nose repeatedly, I would remind him of how he made his nose bleed and how it was painful and then he would stop because he remembers the unpleasant feeling.


The other day, I was sitting alone in the living room watching tv.. and feeling something in my nose, I just reached it to take it out.. and SUDDENLY, my son creeped up from behind me and put his face close to mine and spoke close to my ears...


"Mama! Why you 学我?!" (do what I do)


Oops.. caught red handed.. I was so embarrassed...


"Don't do this ah.. wait pain pain got blood again ah... remember ah... dun do it ok?"


I almost fainted...

Previous Post: Gambler Ace?

Gambler Ace?

Don't get me wrong when you see this photo...

I don't condone gambling. In fact, I HATE gambling. I dislike it so much that I don't even buy TOTO except on special occasions when people want to share together and jio me to buy with them. That's because my dad used to be a gambler. He gambled so heavily that we have had loansharks coming to our doorsteps and have had people pasting posters of our address on the lift landing... Because of that, I actually did not talk to my dad for two years because I was so angry at him.

I refuse to learn to play mahjong and chua dai di and if anything looks remotely like gambling to me, I shut off my brains, my eyes and my ears... I just cannot make sense of it and cannot understand it.

The only one that i learnt is black jack and I only learnt it because I learnt it when I was very young from my grandfather before the gambling related traumas happened.

Anyway, just to get this straight as well.. my dad has since quit gambling and I have forgiven him. We are on talking terms and we are close and he is the best dad and best grandpa in the whole wide world..

But I have found that the cards are a great way to teach Ace some math..

Yeye took out the cards and played a game of whose card is bigger who wins. So Ace had a whale of a time learning the difference between GREATER THAN or SMALLER THAN. And after a while, I think he really understood the game because he was able to accurately tell us who wins and who keeps the cards.

I suspect though that he doesn't look at the numbers itself but at the number of hearts, clubs, spades etc on the card. But even for very close numbers like 8 and 9, he can tell who wins.. so I feel all my money spent on his right brain training lessons were worth it :) (anyway, he was also really lucky cos he won mostly. Even if he came up with a small number like 3 also can win Yeye lor...)

After a while though, this clever little boy figured out that all the Kings, Queens, Jacks and Aces would help him win.. and so in the next round, he collected all the big cards and passed the small cards to his Yeye and asked to play again.

So Yeye happily obliged.

Like that also can laugh until the whole block can hear him lor. He was giggling away the whole night just because of this game... win already lor!

PS: A few days later, he tried to play at home with Daddy using a deck of citibank cards.. but the cards did not have any dots on them so you are only able to tell if you are bigger or smaller just by looking at the number.. I notice he tends to mix up similar looking numbers like 3, 5, 8...

Previous Post: Send Love

Send Love

The 'Send Love' campaign started when Ace hurt his wrist. Because at that time I just finished attending a POV workshop where my teacher said that the only thing you can do to help a fellow human being really is to just send them love... and love them....

When I was pregnant with Ace, I read extensively about fetal education and stuff like that and one of my favourite authors, Dr Makoto Shichida. In one of his books, he actually talks about how TOUCH can actually heal diseases but I never understood why...

Until I attended POV and my teacher told me this.. that if you put a new born baby into a room with no human contact but with all the milk he needs etc... the baby will die... we are all alive today because we are loved!

Then I understood why touch is so powerful.. because touch is a powerful way to send love...

Anyway, I think Ace must have really felt better when I sent alot of love into his wrist when it was hurt.

So after that, whenever he hurts himself.. "Mummy, can you send love to my leg..."

Whenever he has a tummy ache, "Mummy, send love to my tummy please..."

And then if I hurt myself or complain of any aches.. "Come, Mummy, I send love to you.. " and then he puts his hand over the area and go "bsshhhhhh..."

Sometimes when we see people or animals in pain.. I also remind Ace to send them love..."Pishhhhhh"

The other day, I was talking to Ace and I told him about my online friend, Shin.

Shin Na is a very brave and strong mother with two kids. She was diagnosed with cancer, fought cancer successfully but it recurred. Her health is now so weak that the doctor predicts that she only has 2-3 months left. But still she chooses to go on in life bravely and do the best she can and be the best mother she can.

Shin with her candour and courage inspires me and because of this, she is often in my mind and in my heart even though we have never met each other but merely had a few exchanges online...

When I read about how she has decided to stop her chemo and go for a quality life for the next 2-3 mths (a very difficult decision to make in my opinion), my heart went all out to her... I think if I were in her shoes, it would be so difficult to make a choice.. and even more difficult to live life to the fullest without hanging on to the fact that I might be leaving soon.. I thought it would be nice if both me and Ace sent him some love...

So I told him about my friend Shin who needs all the love that you can send... I hope she will enjoy such a wonderful and happy life in the next few months and if it true for her to continue life on this planet, she will eventually still find something that will help her. So me and Ace spent a minute sending love to Shin and her children, Toby and Josie.

After that, me and Ace even chanted together for them...

Anyway, if you are reading this, irregardless of what religion you have, pls pray for Shin Na and her children.. and if you dun mind just spending a minute to send love out... pls send some love to Shin and her children. All you need to do is to close your eyes... fill the love in you fill up your heart and send it out to Shin and her children... I bet with you it will make hell of a difference to them (and you too) even if you did not know them...

Previous Post: We Are Going To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

We Are Going To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

On the first day of 2009, we decided to bring Ace to the zoo. It was a rather happy trip and in the car on the way there, me and Ace were singing the song, "We are going to the zoo, zoo, zoo... How about you, you, you... You can come too, too, too... We are going to the zoo, zoo, zoo..."

Dunno whether is it because the animals are in a good mood because it is the first day of the new year... or is it because I am in a good mood because it is a new year.. so all i saw were beautiful things:) And the animals were so nice.. they all stood close to the viewing area and just stood still and posed! So compared to the last few times, we took many clear pictures of the animals.

We visited the newly opened children's area and Ace enjoyed taking a ride on the merry-go-round.

But he was quite fussy that day and only wanted to see monkeys. When we asked him what animals he wanted to see, he only wanted to see the monkeys and said no to our offer to bring him to watch Tigers...

By the time he said he wanted to go and watch the animal shows, his favourite Splash Safari show has already ended.

You can see more pics of the Zoo visit HERE:

BTW, the shirt he was wearing that day is his NEW favourite shirt. That's cos his new favourite colour is ORANGE. Anything that has orange or looks orange, he will say, "I like this because I love orange."

He goes to the supermarket, he runs towards the oranges and kum kuats and repeats his mantra.

When we brought him to the CROCS sale the other day, he repeats his mantra and only was willing to try the shoes we bought him when we told him there is Orange on his shoe.

Ganma Evon says Orange is the colour of courage.. so I guess my son has taken to being courageous.

Hee...

Previous Post: Funny Face

Funny Face

During xmas, Max bought a small little present for Ace. It is some gel-like thingy that you can paste onto glass or mirrors to decorate your house for xmas. The design came in the form of a snowman, a santa clause, a christmas tree and some snowflakes...

On xmas day, Ace opened it and pasted it on my mirror.

One day later, he dismanteled everything and teared the santa clause and snowman up and re-decorated into a diff-looking santa, an angel and some other I dunno wat things....

And yet a few days later, he becomes a totally different picture as he took them out, tear them into smaller pieces and started piecing them into nothing remotely related to christmas.

In the end, he ran out of things to form into I think and he took one red piece, tear them into two and said he wanted to make a funny face by pasting it on his Daddy's face! One on each side.. like that of a clown...

I think my son is a funny boy lah...

Previous Post: Training Chopsticks

Training Chopsticks

Ganma Seokling bought a pair of training chopsticks for Ace.

Now, Ace wants to use the chopsticks no matter what he eats. Even when he is eating rice, he wants to use the chopstick and he ends up flinging all the food on the floor and so I have to cleant he floor after every meal.

"Mummy, I want the thomas train chopsticks..." he said to me the other day. What made me most impressed was that when I passed them to him, he told me that they were TRAINING CHOPSTICKS.

He is getting better and better at holding them and I am hoping that it will slowly transform the way he holds chopsticks and pens because he still holds his chopsticks, spoons and pens wrongly.. he basically grabs then with a closed fist and I dunno how he can still manage to write and pick up food to feed himself.

Previous Post: Two Children?

"The storybook I would love to be trapped in"

I received an email from Nuffnang the other day about a chance to win tickets to a movie and to do that, I have to write an entry about "The storybook I would love to be trapped in".
So I started thinking...

I mean, given his latest infatuation with orange colour and robots, I think he is likely to enjoy being trapped in a book with lots of oranges or maybe in a book that features the Transformer Autobots...

Or maybe he would like to go into a barney book...

But what about me? Where would I like to be trapped in?

I used to think that probably if I had a chance to be trapped in a book, the best place would to be in a story like Cinderella or even Snow White where there would be a Prince Charming who will come to save me from my misfortunes and live happily ever after ;)

But, now that I am much older and know that Prince Charming endings are not real..... and now that I know that in the original story, the person who really poisoned Snow White is not her stepmother but her real mother (Oedipus Complex, they dressed it up and changed it to stepmother to make the story seem less disturbing to children), I guess it is no longer appealing to take Snow White or Cinderella's place...

I thought about it for very long and I guess I wouldn't want to be trapped in a fairy tale... I mean, rather than follow someone else's storyline and call that MY LIFE... I would rather make my own decisions and create my own exciting stories in life..

Rather than wait for a Prince Charming to come and pull me into the security of happy-ever-afters, I would rather build my own happiness myself... because nobody can really help you.. unless you choose to help yourself, dun you agree?

Anyway, life wouldn't be fun if you knew what is going to happen next!

But then, if it meant going into the mediaval ages and into storybooks you have never read of before and having adventures you would never think of having... like in the movie, Inkheart... then well, change me into anything.. anything goes! ;) Pleasant surprises are one of the common recurring themes in fairytales and children's storybooks anyway.

Catch Inkheart in cinemas from 22 January 2009.

Two Children?

I had a taste of what it would be like if I had two children. I was at least exposed to the level of noise I had to put up with and also the most common problem you would have when you have two children-- two children fighting over the same useless toy...

The other day, Max and Mel made a date to watch a liverpool match together. Sam, whom they wanted to invite along for the gathering was not free and in the end, they decided to just adjourn to Melvin's house instead of watching it at Chijmes as planned.

So while we were there, the two dads watched their football while the two mums chit chatted as all women do. And the kids? Well, they just played lor.

Very soon... they warmed up to each other and they were running around the WHOLE HOUSE and shouting and screaming happily at the top of their voices. Thank goodness I am a visual person and our auditory men were engrossed in their game... if not, I think we might have gone crazy with all the noise.. hahaha ;)

Now that Tiff is older, she also starts to be very sure about what she wants and is very assertive... my three and a half year old is even more so... and so, then it happened.

They started fighting over the Barney soft toy and even over a useless purple stick that has absolutely no use. They just both wanted it because the other person wanted it.

It got me thinking about how to teach Ace about sharing with a sibling if this happened to Ace and his future sibling. I know we adults like to say, "You have to give in because you are big brother..." But I was an elder sister... I never felt it was fair that I had to give in just because I was older so I did not want to do this to Ace.

So I told Ace that we should always share. In this case, the toy belongs to Tiffany, so if he wanted to play with it, he has to ask permission. If she does not agree, he either does not play with it or asks again till he gets the permission to do so. Anyway, when playing with toys, it is always more fun to share and take turns.

Melvin on his side took Tiffany one side and gave her a different set of reasoning about why she should always share because Ace is her friend...

But I guess if Ace were to have his own little sister, things would really be quite different. If only I were around, just how do you pull them apart when they are trying to snatch the toy from each other?

Anyway, talking about siblings.. I think Ace really wants a sibling.. the other day he came to me and told me that I have a baby in my tummy. "It is a mei mei!" He said. And then he started to talk to my tummy and the next day, while talking to Ah Yee and Net Net online, he told them that there is a baby in my tummy as well.

I thought it was his intuition at work and thought maybe my secret new year wish came true.. alas, the very next day, da yi ma came to visit me already lor :P I was soooooooooooooo disappointed.... as I bled... I felt like my heart was bleeding too...

PPS: I did not want to break Ace's heart but eventually at night, I told him that Meimei is not coming so soon already.... He asked me why and I told him that she is not ready to be here yet... but the next day, when I ask him, he still insists that Meimei is inside my tummy.. Ah Yee asked him if she had a baby in her tummy and he said Ah Yee dun have, only Mummy has meimei inside tummy. A week later, he still insists that there is a Meimei in my tummy... I wonder if it is possible to be pregnant and still menstruate.. hehehe :)


Oh well, if it is meant to be, it is meant to be...

Click HERE to see more photos of Tiff and Ace enjoying themselves.



Previous Post: Ace The Pianist

Ace The Pianist

The other day... we visited Ace's 2nd Grand Uncle and Aunties at their house. According to Max, he himself has not visited that house in 20 years. The last time he went there was when his 21 year old cousin was a month old!




Since they had a piano there and Ace's 小姑knows how to play the piano, we got her to play some songs for Ace. After a while, Ace the pianist started to play the piano...



In the picture, he looks like he is very sat.. very steady right? In reality though, he is just playing haphazardly.. hahahaha..



Speaking of which, I think Ace is very sure about what he likes and what he doesn't. While he has shown interest in music, he is very definite about his love for dancing.


The other day, we were watching Campus Superstar together and I asked him if he wanted to become a superstar in future since he seemed to enjoy watching them sing. "No, I want to be spiderman next time..." he said.



But during the advertisement, he suddenly ran to me and said, "Mummy, I want to be this one.." and he pointed to the ad that was showing on tv.. it was the ad for 舞林大道, one of his favourite competitions for dancing.. kind of like the Taiwanese version of America's Top Dancer or something like that.



"You want to become the champion for this dance competition? Do you mean you want to become a dancing star?"I asked him.



"Yeah..." he said and nodded his head happily...



Ok, I think I want to send him to a dancing class soon..



Previous Post: Ace Photog


Previous Post:

Ace Photog

"Mama, I want to take pictures...."

I think my son caught the photo bug from me and is now an aspiring photographer.. hahaha...

I think it is an improvement from the previous photos (See them here and here) he has taken when he was much younger. Now he knows how to aim properly and at least there are SUBJECT matters in his photos ;)

Previous Post:Strawberry Kid

Strawberry Kid

Ace is now officially in Nursery class. Because he is very proud that he is being promoted, we use that to get him to walk by himself and feed himself by reminding him that he is a strawberry kid, he has to walk by himself.


The other day, after a long, tiring walk in the zoo, Ace told me, "Mummy, I don't want to be Strawberry kid already. I want to be Just Kids... I want to be baby.. I want you to carry me.." and then he sulked when I refused to carry him...

So I explained to him that there are benefits of being a good boy as well. "If you are a just kid... then you would be too young to do many things. For example, you cannot eat ice cream...'


And at this point, he told me, "Sola is just kid but he eats ice cream...."


Win already lor...


Previous Post: Chicken Rice

Chicken Rice

"Ace, what do you want to eat?"

"Chicken rice!"

"Chicken 饭！"

Anytime you ask him what he wants to eat.. the current most popular answer is CHICKEN RICE.

But you see, in the vegeterian world of food, chicken rice is not a dish that is available easily. Only certain stalls sell them and for some stalls, they only do so on certain dates.

Faced with the the choice of dealing with his tantrum if we say there is no chicken rice and having to spend one thousand years trying to persuade him to eat something else, we decided to be cowards and choose the easy way out of telling him we will find SPECIAL chicken rice for him.

And from then on, chicken rice became easily available! Yeah! Because wherever we go, as long as they sell rice and normal dishes, we would order some dish that remotely looks like some form of meat... sometimes it is a tau kee, or mock chicken or mock fish or mock duck.. watever!

And the most important focus word is SPECIAL... (that is one of the 13 most persuasive words that you can use when you want to use persuasion to persuade people to do something.)

So now other than chicken rice, he will request for his SPECIAL rice ;)

Anyway, yesterday, we went to pick Ace up from school and were on our way home. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, Ace asked me, "Can you show Gong Gong how to make chicken rice? He says he does not know how to make chicken rice and I want to eat."

I was so amazed and surprised at that... only to find out later that he did request for it when he was having dinner at my mum's home and my dad rejected him by telling him he did not know how to do it. So my mum asked him to tell me.... "You ask Mummy to show gong gong how to make chicken rice lor..."

Wah piangz.. if I could make chicken rice, I would have lor.. dun remind me of my failed attempt... sigh....

Previous Post: It's OK

It's OK

I think that children usually will follow what the adults do and I am so thankful that I have many many great friends who show excellent example for Ace.

Sometimes Ace will play with my stuff and Max's stuff and he would somehow spoil it or crack it or tear it or something.. so we always tell him, "It's ok Ace.. and then explain to him how we could replace it..."

Now, when he does that to other people, like my many wonderful friends, they are also very quick to say, "It's ok..." eg, last year, Ace went to Josephine's house and broke a christmas present that Eddie gave to her.. I felt so paiseh then but Jo my fren just said, "It's ok Ace, dun worry about it..."

Eddie who was there as well also was more concerned about whether Ace was hurt and whether he was shocked...

So having those very good examples... usually when people spoil things, he would say, "It's ok.."

Sometimes he goes into the "orh.. you spoilt this..." but mostly he does a "it's ok.."

The other day, Daddy did not have his dinner and wanted to cook some noodles. Because he made this decision at Waipo's house, we brought an egg from Waipo's house home as there were no eggs in our house.

Because Ace kept hovering around the egg in the kitchen, in the end, I decided to take it out of the plastic bag and put it furthur away from him so that he cannot reach it. Alas, after a while, the egg for some unknown reason, rolled off my kitchen counter and dropped onto the floor with a resounding crack.

The moment we both heard the sound of the egg dropping, Ace ran inside the kitchen and told me, "It's ok.. nevermind, ok Mummy? Tommorrow I buy again for you.. then no more spoil already.... It's ok ok...."

Actually, tat is Daddy's egg so I wasn't really upset. But I think it is still very nice to have him say that to me :) How nice if everything we do wrong in the world, there are people to tell us it is ok to make mistakes...

But I guess, most important though is not what other people tell us... it is what we tell ourselves. When you make a mistake, do you hold on to the guilt and punish yourself and the people around you again and again and again and again???

Or do you give yourself a pat on the shoulder and say, "It's ok. I will do better next time..." and then forgive yourself?

I've seen this happen to many people around me and I guess it is a reflection of how I think:
- the body is weak and they lose the baby- It's my fault
- their business partner slacks and has no results- It's my fault
- their child does something wrong- It's my fault
- someone dies in the family or someone they love dies- It's my fault

The list goes on.... if you see those people who are quick to defend, get upset easily and are usually very judgemental... these are really guilty people whose favourite phrase is "it's my fault and I deserve hell". If you see them, just send love to them and forgive them for being so anal. They just didn't know how to.. or am not ready to have the courage to do forgiveness instead.

Anyway, Ace.. if you should see this later on in your life... my point is this. Take responsibility for all that is happening in your life. Don't blame other people. Know that you have it because you want it... everything you have in your life is because you value it... but dun waste time blaming yourself and building an altar for your mistakes.. if you do, you start to play the vicious cyclical game of guilt and you will end up making not just you but all the people you love who love you around you very unhappy.. ok?

Meanwhile, Mummy will jia you to get out of this!

Previous Post: I Die Already

I Die Already

I have noticed that Ace's language ability has really improved ;)


The other day, he took a marker and drew on his legs and when I asked him what those drawings on his legs were, he told me, "This is a picture of super boy...." I never expected him to say "this a picture of..."


Then we were talking about his friends in school and he told me, "Yang yang is my friend. Xu Ai is also my friend." Wow! He knows how to use "also"...


Along with the improvement in his vocabulary and grammer, comes in improvement of his logical thinking and even his sense of humour.


The other day, he wanted to drink some sugary drinks.. considering the fact that he has hit his quota for the day, I told him he can drink plain water later when we reach home... "Oh, I die already..." he said.


"Why are you dead?" I asked him.


"Because I have no water to drink.. so I die..." Hahahaha...


And then we were playing a game and I held his hands in my hands and told him I will "kiap" his hand. He found it very fun and kept asking me to "kiap" his hand. Then Daddy said he will "kiap" his head...


"wooooo... I die already.... I got no head....wooooo" said Ace in a ghostly voice.


We had a good time laughing over it.


Previous Post: SAB's Youngest Trader

SAB's Youngest Trader

Many of you may or may not know this.. but I am a home-maker, SAHM cum business woman ;)

My part time hobby business is doing consultation and helping people lose as much as 5kg within 5 days ;)

But full time, now that Ace is in school, it is really quite boring to stay at home everyday without doing much.. so as a full time thingy, I actually run a supply and trading business.

I am a supplier and my star product is a bar called Eumora. It is a very popular facial bar in Singapore, KL, Penang and JB at this moment... The bar can get rid of all skin problems and can show results within 3 minutes... (that explains my very good complexion lah..)

To cut the long story short, the other day, I had a trader's presentation to attend. Usually when this happens, my mum will take care of Ace. But because there was a last minute change of dates, there was no one who could take care of Ace. So at last resort, we had to bring Ace along.

When I picked Ace up from school, I asked him if he wanted to attend a business presentation with me. "You can be with mummy and you can learn how to do my business. In future, you can take over mummy's business and make alot of money and live in a beautiful house like Uncle Anthony and Uncle Arthur..."

He of course agreed because going anywhere with me was better than staying at Waipo's house alone.

"But if you go with me, you have to keep very quiet and you cannot run around. You also cannot talk loudly... Also, I will need your help to take notes.. can you help me?"

"ok!" he agreed.

So we brought him home, bathed him and fed him. It was really rushed cos I even had to wrap the presents we bought and make cards for them with Ace's help.

And Ace was not helping lor. He doesn't seem to want to draw as per my intructions and likes to play with the pen and scissors. While making a card for my coach, Arthur, Ace told me, "I like Uncle Arthur.."

"Why?" I asked him.. surprised.. cos he has only met Arthur once. "Because he is so nice!" He said with a big grin.. I guess he must have felt the gratitude I had when we were making the card.

Nevertheless, after that, he wanted to cut the rest of my paper into peices and he also refused to feed himself during dinner.

Siao liao. what if he behaves in the same way later????

Before the function started, he kept running around the cafe we were sitting in while waiting for the function to start. I was so worried that he would not be able to keep still when we went in.

In 5 min, he got sick of the crayons and paper I brought for him and started to pull the chairs together to form a train in the cafe.... play musical chairs with the salt and pepper holders on the various tables.. and I was really worried.

But once the function started.. my worries were MOSTLY unfounded. I found him to be the YOUNGEST and the BEST trader we have in our team!

Firstly, he really paid attention from start till end for a full hour and a half. Quite a feat for a three year old... and then he really copied notes (or rather, acted like he was copying notes) and he would answer "Yes!" with enough enthusiasm and excitement at the right places and even laughed along when there were jokes being told.

In short, I am really impressed with my son cos he really looks like he is working hard at the business.

Or maybe, he just really likes Arthur and gives him face.. hahaha

Previous Post: Ace, The Builder

Ace, The Builder

Popo just bought a new TV so because of that, she has this really huge box in her house.

The other day, Ace took out the box and entertained himself by building a house.

He subsequently spent like about 30 min going in and out of the house, rebuilding it and bringing his soft toys to sleep inside... hahahaha...

Previous Post: Do You Know What Is This?

Do You Know What Is This?

Picasso Ace went to his white board and started drawing something.

Can you make a guess what this is???

I will give you a clue... this is usually how he draws humans. (By the way, that's Ace (with hair) and Daddy (botak))

Cannot guess leh....

The answer is

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

COOKIE MONSTER!

If you look close he has alot more hair on the head compared to a human being.

Anyway, he drew that potatoe look-alike and drew alot of hair on top.. and then he turned around and told me that that is cookie monster.. then he proceeded to draw lots of circles around and told me those are cookies.

All of a sudden, he looked like he had a brilliant flash of an idea and then he did his cheeky smile and drew another circle inside the circles that were meant to be cookies.

"Hahaha.. now it is a donut. No more cookies for cookie monster!" And then he giggled and giggled as he filled each cookie up and turned them ALL into donuts.

Children really do have an interesting sense of humour ;)

Previous Post: Who is this Fei Fei