Self Intro

You know how whenever we ask someone to introduce themselves, they will say something like, "Hello, my name is Tan Ah Gao... I work in Dogs United company as a Dog Trainer...."

The other day, we brought Ace out and then he was playing at this playground and then somehow the children started to self introduce... and then when it was my son's turn, he said, "I am Ace, I am from Kinderland K1..."

Oh my gosh, so my son is now self defined by the school he goes to and the level he studies...

How would you introduce yourself?

Previous Post: Care Bear Broke Your Umbrella

Care Bear Broke Your Umbrella

Since the rainy season has started, it has started to rain fairly frequently..

The other day, while fetching Ace home from school, there was a slight drizzle when we came down from the car, it was still drizzling but we had shelter...

But when we got to the point where there was no more shelter, I realized that the drizzle had stopped but Ace still wanted to use the umbrella and so I took out my Hello Kitty umbrella for him to use.. which turned out to be a great idea...

Halfway, my son started telling me that he wanted to go to toilet and that it was very urgent. I asked him if he can wait till we reach our home cos we were not tat far away and he said he was very urgent.. so out of desperation, I used the umbrella to cover him while he peed and gave nutrients to the tree... sigh....

The worse thing was that Ace actually enjoyed peeing out in the open cos after that he told me, "I am very happy... I like to shee shee on the tree...." Max says I should not give in to such requests anymore lest it becomes a habit for him...

Anyway, when we reached home, Ace took my umbrella and brought it into his room to play. I jsut let him be lah..since I thought there was not much harm in playing with the umbrella.

Alas, I was wrong, 5 min later, Ace ran out of the room calling me, "Mama, mama!" with a shocked look on his face. "Someone broke your umbrella!" And he passed me the only umbrella in my house and showed me the broken metal support...

"Who?" I asked him...

"It's the carebear... he bang on the bed and spoil the umbrella..." he said with a totally straight face and with utmost sincerity...

Now, if not for the fact that he was actually pinning the blame on an inanimate object, I would probably have believed him.

"But the carebear is not alive, Ace, how can he spoilt the umbrella...tell the truth, Ace.."

And then he stuttered a little bit and tried to explain to me unsurely how carebear had broken my umbrella.

I reminded him that he should tell the truth and finally, with his eyes averted, he admitted that he had spoilt my umbrella. I told him that if he had been truthful and said he was sorry about spoiling my umbrella, I would have forgiven him but because he told a lie, he would have to go and do a time out...'

And so, he quickly told me he was sorry and tried to wiggle out of a time out by changing topic..

Previous Post: Only Boy Can Do

Only Boy Can Do

I think I mentioned before sometime back that Ace has learnt to 'kiss like a boy'.. very probably from the tv shows that he has watched...

Occasionally when he wants to please me or when he is in the mood, he will use his two hands to cup my face and then kiss me and twist his head and his lips so that it looked like we are having a passionate kiss.

Recently, he added a new trick and he started to even suck on my lips! "Oi! Where did you learn that from?" And then he smiled cheekily at me...

Anyway, yesterday, he tried to do the kiss again and then after thte he said, "Oh, I forgot to eat your mouth!" So I told him that it is ok to kiss but not to eat my mouth...

Sometimes I tease him and say I want to copy him and kiss him like that and then h will say, "No,only boy can kiss like that. Girls cannot..."

And then another time when I teased him and asked him to kiss Nai Nai like that, he refused.. seems like he was only willing to kiss me like tat.. is it oedipus? Hmmm...

Anyway, the other day, I asked him why he liked to kiss me like that, "Because I like you mah.." he said. So I asked him why didn't he kiss Daddy like that, "Boy cannot kiss boy like that.." he said.. Hahahaha...

Previous Post: Ah Mun's Wedding

Ah Mun's Wedding

Ace attended a wedding with us the other day.

Well, it was the wedding of one of Max's cousins and Ace met alot of his other cousins and uncles there and had a lot of fun running here and there.

Still though, I think he is probably not ready to attend any events that require him to sit still for too long.

Before the wedding, he promised that he would be a good boy and stay in his seat and once he reached there, saw the children, he was off like a rocket, running around the whole room and playing, dancing, picking up things from the floor and of cos.. doing PR (by giving and sharing his M&Ms with everyone...) And once he got started, it was very difficult to get him to stop and sit down again and he was the only one who was running around throughout the whole wedding.. like he was on drugs and on a high or something.. and he was supposed to be tired since he just finished his swimming lesson...

One interesting thing happened during the wedding. During the second march in, the tables by the sides were given some party poppers and because we didn't realize that our table was given 3 poppers, when Ace said he wanted a party popper, we asked him to ask the other jie jie from the toher tables to give him one.

He went to the table, hung around for a long time but din talk to them... and then he came back. And so we encouraged him again and then on his own, he decided to feed them with his chocolates first.. he gave them some chocolates and then after that hang around and slowly let them know that he wanted a popper and of cos, he got one in the end..

He is good ah.. I wonder where he learnt tat from... HAHAHAHA...

Previous Post: Mummy, I Can't Go To School

Mummy, I Can't Go To School

Ace is up to one of his cheeky antics recently...

On sunday, Max informed me that he would be on duty again the coming monday. When Ace heard that, the first question he asked me was, "Who is going to send me to school tommorrow?"

And when I told him that Daddy would do that, he was immediately at ease and then on monday, me and max went to fetch him home before Max left to do his duty.

"Why is papa not going home?" And then he threw and tantrum and he got upset that his dad was not coming home. "I want to sleep with Papa..." So I told him that he can sleep with me instead...

And then when we were sleeping at night, Ace told me that he would like Papa to go to work and he wants me to stay at home to cook for him and keep it till he comes back from school and then the three of us have dinner together... I guess all children like to eat and bond with the family....

Anyway, the next day when he woke up, he started sniffing and said, "Mummy, I can't go to school because i have flu and a cough..."

"But your teachers did not say anything leh..."I told him... since I noticed that his cough is rather infrequent and happens like once every 3-4 hours.

"But my friends say I cannot go to school... *Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff*" he told me. And so I explained that people with flu like symptoms should stay at home in case they have H1N1 but he doesnt have that so he can still go to school.. "But I have.." he insisted... and continued sniffing very loudly once about every 2 seconds..

I bought a chocolate cake for him to eat as breakfast and so I told him, "If you are sick and cannot go to school, it means that you can't eat the chocolate cake and I will eat it instead..."

And the thing is.. he was EVEN willing to LET ME eat his CHOCOLATE CAKE so that he doesn't need to go to school...

When i told him that his Daddy would be coming home to send him to school BY CAR, suddenly he is ok and can eat the chocolate cake.. suddenly the sniffing is totally gone.. suddenly, he is all smiles..

Haiyo.. never seen such a creature of comfort man!

Previous Post: Will You Throw Us Away?

Will You Throw Us Away?

The other day while we were out, Ace accidentally tripped and the strap of his slipper broke.

"I don't want this shoe anymore, I want to throw away and buy new shoes.. This shoe old already.. that is why it spoil.. I want to throw it away.." he told me when we finally made it back into the car."

"Ace, when mummy and daddy grow old, we will also start to spoil...will you want to throw us away as well?" I asked him.

"No no, I want daddy and mummy to be with me. i won't throw you away.." he said holding and squeezing my hand with force.

"That's what he says now.. I then dun expect him to take care of me..." Max says.

Even though I have long decided that I will not depend on my children, I told him, "Ok, remember what you say now when you grow up, ok?"

And Ace surprised me by telling me, "When I become old, my children will also keep me..."

"Yes," I told him.." You know why? Your children will do what you do.. they will continue to love you and take care of you because you still love and take care of me and daddy..."

Previous Post: Painter Ace

Painter Ace

Ace was in a good mood and wanted to paint the other day.

He painted this and said he wanted to give it to me because he likes me.

Can you guess what the painting is about?

Ahem.. actually, those two red and orangy things are robots. According to Ace, The red one is optimus Prime with a triangle head and the orange one is also some sort of transformer robot.. hahahaha...

Previous Post: A Visit To Haikal's House

A Visit To Haikal's House

I visited Haikal together with Max and Ace again.

When I look at Haikal, I am so happy at the progress that he has made. When we first visited him, Haikal was often uneasy when he is at home and bites his hands. But he is always happy to see us and as we visit him more, we realize that he recognizes us and responds to the love that we have showered on him.... I feel happy thinking that we would have played a small part in helping him to get rid of the habit of biting on his hands. (I told him gently that he should love his hands and take care of them.. Ace reminded him not to bite his hands and then I sent love to him.. hoping it will resolve the emotion that is causing the hand-biting. After that, I never saw him wear the glove again and when i asked, his parents say he has stopped biting his hands)

Because we only visit them once every two months, we hung around and chatted with his mum a bit... we talked about how Hakal, despite being down with cerebal palsy and not being physically able, Haikal appreciates soccer and shouts "Goal, ma!" when he watches soccer on TV.

And then we talked about how Haikal's dad, despite turning 59 yesterday still has to wake up at 5am in the morning, walk 20 min to the MRT station, take an MRT to bedok and then be sent to his work place- a construction site and do 8-1o hours of labour intensive work... before he returns home...all that to earn a mere $900 to support his whole family (Haikal's mum is force to stay at home because taking care of him is already a full time job)... we were discussing if we can find a safer and easier job for him..

And then, Haikal's mum told us that Haikal will be turning 12 on December 2nd this year and a little shot of pain went through my heart....

I have always thought that people who are underpreviledged are pitiful. But when I got to know this family and many other poor families through my work with the lions club, I discovered these people whom I have deemed 'pitiful' are happy in their own way and are in no way worse off than me.. other than what money came buy, they are usually many times richer than most of us in spirit and in their hearts. So since then, I have decided to stop 'pitying' them and share out of love than pity...

But when the talk came to be about Haikal's age, I couldn't help but feel sad and a small tinge of pity....

I often wondered how Ace will be like when he grows up to be 10, when he is 12, when he turns 18, when he is 21, when he is 25..

And in my mind, when Ace turns 12, he will be having lots of fun... he will probably be playing some sports games in school and would be taking his PSLE and even score very well.. he might even start to realize that his voice is breaking or that girls are starting to notice him a little more.. At 12 years old though, all Haikal can do is lie on the floor and smile at us happily.

Haikal grunts when he talks and only can do one syllabul at a time. His hands are twisted and have lots of marks as he likes to chew on them and in trying to shake hands with him, he at best manages a high five with us. He cannot sit up straight without support or help and cannot even crawl. He needs help to go to toilet (which is why our Lions Club supplies him with XL size diapers), he cannot chew all that well (which is also why he needs the very expensive sort of milk powder to supplement his nutritional need). He is 12 but he looks only slightly longer than Ace who is 4. Haikal is also on medication which his mum says are for his kidneys and he has to take his medication daily.. till the day he dies...

Even so, Haikal doesnt seem to think he deserves pity or complains that life is unfair to him and neither does his parents.... everytime see them, they are always filled with love and joy...

Despite all his limitations due to CP, Haikal is just a little boy at heart. He appreciates a good joke and likes watching Mr Bean. He love watching musical dramas as he has a good ear for music. Like all little boys, he loves watching football and refuses to let his mum change channel whenever the football match comes on. And even though he is not able to express himself very well, he understands all that we say and smiles when we tell him he is handsome or when we talk about his upcoming birthday.

He understands when Ace is playing with him and plays along by looking at Ace and giggling at him. He smiles especially happily when we are sending all our love to him and he loves taking photos... immediately going into a smile the moment we take out the camera and breaking out into an even wider grin when we show him the picture.

The thing is this; most children with Cerebal Palsy like Haikal do not live to adulthood. The more severe their condition, the lower chance they have of surviving into adulthood. Since Haikal is unable to sit up straight on his own and unable to do many things, I would think his condition is quite severe.

A year older, seems to indicate that he has one year less left on earth... and that pains my heart...

I am sure his parents are aware of the low possibility of him making pass 20 years old but here they are, old as they are, doing their utmost to love their son and shower him with love, care and concern... using every ounce of strength they have to protect him and to give him a good life. This, I feel, makes Haikal a very lucky kid, possibly even luckier than children who have able bodies but no love from their parents at all.

His parents are really quite old (I think old enough to be my grandparents)... and while they are not down with any sickness, they too suffer from the aches and pains of old age and despite that, they have to carry Haikal to the toilet, carry him around, feed him, change his daipers and that is really not easy. If I think the 4 year old and 19kg Ace is a huge load to carry, I am sure his mother finds it much harder to handle the 12 year old Haikal on a daily basis.. and still she does it.. without complains and always with a smile on her face...

I guess, I should not pity them.. even if Haikal leads a short life, he would have lived a life filled with love... that is something worth rejoicing over and something to be proud of...

One day, when Ace is older, I would like to have a talk with him about this.. while it is important to desire to be successful and rich, and it is important to have money, we must never forget or neglect the richness in our spirit and in their hearts.

For now though, I am just glad to share the richness in their hearts when we also open our hearts and share our love and a little of what we have with them.

If you would also like to contribute to make Haikal's life better, you can help by doing the following:

1. Donating diapers (XL size) in kind. He wears like 3-4 pieces of diapers everyday.



2. Donating Pediasure Vanilla flavour milk powder in kind (cos he drinks that daily)



3. Donating a ticket to watch a LIVE football match in the Sleague to fulfill his birthday wish



4. Donating money in kind through our club. We would use the money to buy him diapers and milk. Our help has made it possible for his parents to bring him for a 3 day trip to malaysia.



5. Last but not least, if you are unable to donate any of the following, it would really be enough just to send blessings to Haikal and send him lots of love. It helps to know that others care for you and I assure you, Haikal can feel all your love :)

Previous Post: I Like People To Laugh At Me

I Like People To Laugh At Me

Ace came home from his concert and the next day when we wanted to go out for breakfast, he said he wanted to wear his concert costume.. including his GOAT hat which he wore when he played the role of a goat in "The Sound Of Music" in his school concert.



His Daddy thought it would gather too much unwanted attention and tried to persuade him not to wear the goat hat out but Ace insisted...



"But people will look at you leh..."



"Yeah, I want people to look at me," Ace said...



"But they will laugh at you and say this boy is so funny..." His dad tried to reason with him...



"Yes, I like people to laugh at me because it is so funny.." Ace said.



So his dad boh pian.. (had no choice) and had to leat him wear the hat out.



For me, I think Ace just liked to be different... and it is just an aspect of his being a mismatcher.. i guess he inherited from me because when I was younger, I had a quirky dress sense and liked to wear things that are a little special or attention grabbing too :)



Anyway, not many people noticed his hat except the aunty who sold drinks.. so I guess people are used to children going out all dressed in funny things...



I even once saw two girls dressed at princesses go to a hospital to visit their relative!

Previous Post: Taxi!

Taxi!

Ace is quite creative!

Waipo bought a new printer and when Ace found the printer box, he ran into Ah Yee's room, took out his markers that Ah Yee bought for him and started drawing over the box.

He drew four wheels (two on each side), two headlights and even a car plate with the numbers 2010.

He put a stool inside and started to 'drive' his taxi happily...

Later in the evening and 12 napless hours later, a very grumpy Ace got very upset when he realized that his taxi CANNOT MOVE and so he started to throw a tantrum...

But too bad, Ace.... Tantrums cannot move the car wor....

Previous Post: Gong Gong Is A Horse

Gong Gong Is A Horse

The other day, out of nowhere, Ace just ran out and rode up on gonggong's shoulder and said, "Gong Gong is a horse!"

I told him that Gong Gong is old already, cannot play this sort of games cos his back will ache. But he still refuses to come down until I went over to carry him.

On a side note, we had a very interesting conversation the other day. Ace asked me, "Is popo old already?"

"Yes," I told Ace and explainec to him that Popo is many years older and she is old because she has got white hair already. On this note, he said tat Popo and Gong Gong are old but Zhen Popo is not old because she does not have grey hair. Hahahaahah

Previous Post: New Ambition: Police Doctor

New Ambition: Police Doctor

The other day, there was this new show on TV about forensic scientists and pathologists and Ace asked me if that was a police show... Because I did not know how to explain their nature of work to him, I just told him that these people are police doctors :) They are the people who look out for the clues to solve crimes.

And then after that Ace became very excited and kept saying that he wantd to be a police doctor.

So we told him that he had to study well and get good results so that he can study in medical school and can become a forensic pathalogist...

"Yeah, I can do it..."

"Study is easy for you and you will do it well and get into medical school or go anywhere you want or be anything you want right?" Asked Max.

"Yes, Daddy, I can do it!" Ace said confidently with an affirmative nod.

Wonder what will be his next ambition...

Previous Post: Ace's School Concert

Ace's School Concert

Here are the school concert videos as promised...

There is a limit to wat I could do with my camera phone... and plus he is not always standing in the first row..

Here's him in the DO RE MI song... he's class is the third set of children who came in and he is third from the left.. the one who is always one step slower because he was busy looking out for me and Max in the crowd of spectators.. hahaha...




Here is one of him in the Goat Song.. he is the goat in the second row, second from the right...




Here's the one of him in the dancing segment where he was kind of like a moving prop.. hahaha. he is the little boy first from the left... But he is only in the first one third of the video though.




Here's the one where he sings So Long, Farewell.. he was in the last row and the frist one to say goodbye..... you have to be patient though cos the first part are the Just Kids jumping around.. but they are so totally cute!




Here's one of him at the grand finale..




This is one of him.. not wanting to leave the stage and wanting to say bye bye first before being pulled off stage...





PS:I've also uploaded the rest of it on youtube, you can go youtube to find the rest of the concert videos.. i wasn't sure when he will come on and took quite a bit of videos...

Previous Post: Mr Ai Swee

Ace Can Do STAR

Some updates about Ace's swimming class.. he has finally progressed to the point where he can do the STAR and float.. and the teacher has already started to teach him to practice the basic strokes of the freestyle so that he can get used to the movement..

Ace enjoys swimming so much that after his lessons, he doesn't want to go home ;)

Previous Post: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Mr Ai Swee

The other day, Ace was complaining about his lunch because he had a heavy breakfast and he was taking such a loooooooooooooooong time to finish his lunch...

And then I pointed to the soup and told him that the white fungus soup is very good for the skin and will make him very handsome. On top of that, it is good for the lungs and make sure he will not cough...

"Ok ok.. I want i want.. ! It's good!" he said.. immediately changing his tune and immediately finished the whole bowl of soup!

Previous Post: Ace Can Do STAR

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I left my hairband with diamante butterfly in Max's car the other day.

When we came home, he saw it, picked it up and then put it around his head and posed in a silly girly pose... and me and Ace had a good laugh about it...

And then when we reached home, Max took out the hairband and left it on the table and suddenly, my son was posing in front of the mirror..... and giggling WITH THE HAIRBAND ON HIS HEAD!

Swee boh?! Hahahahaha

Previous Post: Family Traditions

Family Traditions

I think family traditions are such an important part of growing up of a child... because these traditions are things that will give us the sweet memories for many more years and months to come...

For Ace, I think the faimly traditions he has so far enjoyed are things like drinking juice in the morning at Popo's house, eating fruits at Yeye's house, feeding the tortoises at Yeye's house, going to Lions Club to help the old folks, drinking home made soya milk, having before bedtime conversations.. and I hope these will give him lots of wonderful memories when he grows up...

I too, had my fair share of wonderful memories of family traditions... like us eatintg fish head pot every CNY, going over to my grandma's place to stay every holiday and forcing her to buy us tao huay and cai tao guay in the morning for breakfast... asking her to cook us a famous soya sauce chicken and eating canned lychees for dessert after that.....

My sis had a bout of nostalgia and decided to cook soya sauce chicken when she found the receipe in far far away france... alas, she says it is not as nice as granny's chicken.. so I have documented down how to cook Peng Family style soya sauce chicken.... Peng Family Cousins.. here you go...


Step 1: Put two table spoons of sugar into the pot and stir constantly using low fire... after about 15 min, it will turn dark brown and you can add a little bit of water....

Step 2: Put in the chicken and the black soya sauce and steam/cook for 20 min... constantly ladelling some of the sauce and pouring it over the chicken so that the chicken can turn back...



Step 3: Poke the chicken with a chopstick.. if the opening does not look pink or red.. it means your chicken is ready to be taken out to be chopped and served...




Previous Post: Dancing Ace

Dancing Ace

It has been a while since we saw Ace dancing...

Since he started his dancing lessons, he seems to be even more inclined to do dancing lessons...

When we went shopping the other day, he started dancing and moving and giving a performance the moment he heard music! Hahahaha...

The good thing is that i noticed that he implemented some of the moves he learnt in his dancing lesson :)




Previous Post: Playground Fun

Playground Fun

After the initial novelty, Ace has stopped liking to walk home from school.. mostly because it is very warm and I guess it is so much more comfy to take his dad's car.

But sometimes, really, we have no choice.. since I still havent gotten my licence and there are some times when Max will be busy and cannot fetch Ace home...

So while i was racking my brains on how to make the 'journey' fun for him again when I discovered this playground on the way home from school.. there is this talking machine which will allow you to record your voice and then it will repeat it in a faster speed in a sing song voice.. it's really funny...

So every since we discovered this, Ace is happy to also happy to walk home from school:)





Previous Post: Ace Chua George

Ace Chua George

Lately I have noticed that whenever he hears a piece of good news, Ace will jump and clap his hands excitedly... while he would smile and be happy, he has never been so expressive about his happiness before...

And then today I found out why.. we brought him to suntec city and despite the fact that christmas is still some time away, the whole suntec is already decorate din all the chrsitmas decorationss so when we took the escalator from the basement to the first storey, it was a wonderful chrismassy feeling cos there was music and christmas decorations hanging all around.

"Why they hang all these, mummy?"Ace asked me.

"Oh, because christmas is coming soon..."

"Yeah!" Ace started to clap and jump up and down... "I am so happy because christmas is coming. I like christmas..."

"Mummy, I am so happy.. Ace Chua George is so happy... I am like Curious George..."

Well, I first heard about curious George in a workshop I attended in Taiwan.. I had a friend called George and our teacher, Chuck, said he was very much like the very famous cartoon, Curious George the monkey... And when I reached sgp, I found a library book featuring and Curious George story and borrowed it for Ace and so started his fascination for this character...

Ah! So he was just trying to imitate the curious george cartoon that he saw! But well, I liked watching him jumping up and down happily.. it makes me feel happy too and somehow it just has a natural way of infecting my feelings too;)

PS: Ah Yee, when I told Ace that you are coming home soon next year, Ace jumped and clapped like curious George as well and when I asked him why he is so happy, he said, "Because I like Ah Yee..." :):)

Previous Post: Dance Lesson

Dance Lesson

Ace really loves his dance lessons... he is having a great time..

He is really hilarious lor.. they were playing a game of AEIOU when they were supposed to move into interesting positions with exegerrated expresssions and Ace just looks totally CARTOON! hahahaaha...

Previously, the former teacher would teach them dance steps but he has this new teacher who took over and I think she is specialized at teaching children cos she is just teaching alot of basics of movement and rhythm through games... it is great to see Ace enjoying himself so much...




PS: The pole dancer girls are back after resting for a week.. hahahaha...

Previous Post: This Gor Gor So Funny

This Gor Gor So Funny

Ace was invited to be the 'bed jumper' again at Justin and Ying Ying's wedding...

As Max was one of the 'brothers' and their home is located in Bedok, Justin asked if Max can bring Ace over to jump on the bed so that they can 'an chuang'.

And Ace being a party lover was of cos excited to be able to go there.

Because all the gor gor and jie jie there were all our friends, they sort of watched Ace grow up and many of them are followers of this blog.. so naturally, Ace was also invited to have lunch together at the bride's house...

So being only child that EVERYONE knows, he was the center of alot of attention as they fussed him up, talked to him, joked with him... feed him (thanks, Fanny!).. entertain him... and he was really happy at all the attention lah..

When he went home, in the car, he told his dad, "I like all the jie jie... I don't like all the gor gor.. cos they talk funny..."
Turns out that Guangrong, one of the 'brothers' liked to tease him.. that was what he meant by they 'talk funny'.

So later during the dinner, Guangrong continued to tease him and told him he is very handsome.. and wanted to take photo with him.. Ace just continued to eat and pretended not to hear and when I asked him, he said he did not want to take photo with that gor gor "cos he is so funny".

In the end, I told Ace, "If you don't take photo with gor gor, he will keep disturbing you.. just take a photo with him lah..."

And so they did::)

Anyway, in between playing with Denzel at the wedding, Ace was like a movie star lor.. there were alot of people queuing up to take pictures with him cos they wanted to use his picture as a dreamboard... and there was even a girl we did not really know who came to us and told us "Can I take a photo with your son? He is so cute! I HAD to come over and take a photo with him..."

Hahahaha. maybe he will be a movie star or an artiste when he grows up:)

PS: Ah Yee, this is one of the shirts you bought him... nice or not?

Previous Post: I Like The Praying Song

I Like The Praying Song

I firmly believe that Ace must have been a monk... and a high ranking one in one of his past lives... that is because he seems to have great affinity with buddhism and has been chanting since very young...

Recently, Stephanie, the restaurant owner of the vegeterian restaurants, Rice House and North South East West passed us a CD and told us that it is a very nice song of very nice music.

When we returned to the car, we realized it is a special CD released by a temple in celebration of Mothers' Day and it is some prayer or chant about loving your mother... and it is seemingly in sankrit.

To our surprise, Ace really loves it and always wants to listen to this song and after a few listens, he starts to follow and sing it! Amazing!



Previous Post: Ace's School Concert

Previous Post:

Ace's School Concert

Sometimes, motivation with a reward can be dangerous...

Ace Chua was promised a reward of a bubble toy if he performed well during his concert.. end up, he was so besotted with the reward, the toy was all he could think of and the first sentence that he said to me when i picked him up was "I want to play"..

I asked him after the concert, "How come you didn't smile when you were on stage?" "I was looking for you..." said Ace. Nevertheless, I think he had a great time...

As promised to Ah Yee, here are the photos ;) I will post the videos later...

Previous Post: I Want To Take Care Of You

I Want To Take Care Of You

When I was talking to Ace about Uncle James and his children, Ace asked me why his children were far far away....

I told him I am not sure of the reason.. but sometimes when children grow up, they leave their parents and go to far far away places....

I then asked him if he wanted to leave me and his daddy when he grows up...

"Yes, I will leave the house when i grow up..."

"But if you go too far away, it will be difficult for us to take care of each other. Don't go too far ok?" I told him...

"So do you prefer to go far far away or do you want to stay close to take care of daddy and mummy?"

"I want to take care of you.. " he said, while nodding his head earnestly.. ah, makes my heart tingle and go warm all over.. even though I dun expect my children to take care of me and stay with me, I think it is nice for a family to be together in the same country and meet up often... and of cos, it feels good that Ace says he wants to take care of me lah...

Another day, he was playing with the Aeroplane that Ah Yee bought for him and he told me that Martian Manhunter Mc Donalds toy was the Daddy and the Doraemon was the mummy.. the pilot and the co-pilot are the gor gor and jie jie...

And he was carrying the aeroplane adn running around the whole living room.... I think the whole family is going on some sort of holiday cos Ace would stop the plane and announce that it is Malaysia.. and then they would start "flying" and go China.

Then all of a sudden, he took out the "Daddy" and "Mummy" and threw them out of the plane and said, "Oh, they throw away the daddy mummy and go away... cos they grow up already so throw away the daddy mummy.. dun want them anymore..."

When I heard this, I turned around and asked him, "Ace, does that mean that next time when you grow up, you will also throw us away?"

"No no no no... ok, Daddy and mummy come back and be together with the family..." and he continued the game with the family together...

I hope he will still remember to keep the family together when he grows up :)

I say this because so many people around me are either sick or hospitalized.. and my grandma is one of the luckiest amongst them because she has us around her to take care of her. At the same time, all the running around because of my grandma has made me appreciate having extra pairs of hands around... I look at those people who are sick without family support and I really pity them because I understand how tough it is to have to take care of EVERYTHING all by themselves because there is just no one around to share the burden...

So I think it is so important for a family to stay near eachotehr and evenmore important is for the family to really bond with each other. Families whostay near but have got no bonding dun mean a thing as well...

Let's hope Ace will understand and learn this...

Previous Post: Sweet Things In Life

Sweet Things In Life

Well, it has been a while since I last had a heart to heart talk with Ace cos he has been mostly either staying overnight at my in law's place or sleeping with his dad...

Today, Max was out watching soccer and so Ace said he wanted to sleep with me.. so I had a chance to talk to him and we started with a little bit of story telling and then i started to tell him about my feelings and how i was really upset when he talked rudely to me. I told him that when he talks rudely to me, it makes me feel like he does not love me... cos recently he has been speaking quite rudely to me and Max...

I also talked to him about how I was upset when he does not listen to my instructions... cos recently no matter what I asked him to do, he would either take his own sweet time to do it or just ignore me. So I told him that when he does that, it makes me feel like I am not important to him....

And then he said he would be a happy boy and he would listen to me...

And then I thought since he is listening to me, I might as well get on the topics that I have been wanting to talk to him about...

So, we started talking about his fondness for sweet foods...

First I reminded him not to eat too much sweet food as I feel that his diet consists of too much sugar for my liking as he has a soft spot of all things sweet... and then I explained to him how sugar will firstly affect his teeth.. which will in turn affect his smile and in turn affect his looks (he is a vain pot mah)...

And then, I explained to him about how sugar will affect his body... I am not sure if you know this but every can of coke you drink has such high sugar content that it will shut down your immune system for up to 9 hours... so I tried to explain very simply to him that when he takes alot of sugar and drink sweet things, there will be no one to protect his body so when the virus and germs attack him, there is no one to protect him and he will fall sick..which means he cannot go for swimming lessons, dancing lessons, eat nice food, drink nice things...

It seemed to get to him cos he said, "OK, next time i will brush my teeth when I eat sweets and i ask Stephanie jie jie not to give me sweets..." (Stephanie is the owner of a vegeterian restaurant we frequent and she always gives him some treats when he goes over to eat with us...)

And just to make sure that the message gets drilled in, I started to tell him about diabetes. One of our friends, an old uncle by the name of James has diabetes. I told Ace about his story and about how a little sore on the leg, because of diabetes, in the end became a reason for the doctors to cut away his big toe.. he is still under observation and might eventually lose his whole foot if he does not recover well.

Ace asked me if I cried for Uncle James and I told him that while I did not shed tears, I cried for him in my heart because Uncle James is such an independent person who likes to run around the whole of singapore.. if he lost his legs, it would really be a big setback for him...

"If he lose his leg, he cannot carry me already right?" Ace asked me. And so we spent a minute to send some love to his leg and pray for uncle James that he will recover quickly...

Previous Post: Ace Loves Swimming

Ace Loves Swimming

Ace is making good progress in his swimming....

Now he is brave enough to move by the edge of the pool by himself because he realizes that he is tall enough to let his feet touch the floor of the swimming pool...

In order to motivate him to learn how to swim quickly, I kept encouraging him to start to learn to float and kick his legs of his own.. if he can float and do a 'star' by himself, then he would be able to swim with his other 'friends' at the swimming lesson..

And I guess with so much support, he should be making good progress lah.. cos when he goes swimming, daddy and yeye will go into the pool with him while i sit by the side:)

His teacher says some children take a year before they can take a bronze test... well, I just hope Ace will aclimatize to the water and start to learn how to float quickly...:) But most important is that he will enjoy himself lor :)

Previous Post: One Girlfriend Only

One Girlfriend Only

Because Zhen popo was hospitalized, we started having a conversation with Ace about hospitals and eventually the topic came to be about DOCTORS.

Ace told us that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up and so I asked him what sort of doctor he wanted to be because some doctors are especially good with the leg, some with the brain, some with the heart, etc... and Ace said he wanted to be a clinic doctor... and then he changed his mind and said he wanted to be a FACE doctor..

I take it that it means he wanted to be a cosmetic surgeon... "I want to open up the face and see if got anything.. and then after that i paste back with a plaster!" He exclaimed proudly about his ambition....

And then out of nowhere, Max suddenly told him that it is very good if he is a doctor because it would mean he can have many 'misi' (nurse) girlfriends. "Yeah, very good... many misi girlfriends..." repeated Ace with a cheeky smile..

So I scolded max for inputting this sort of info into his head.. what very good to have many girlfriends.. doesn't he know that in relationships, it is very important to COMMIT to ONE PARTNER and only ONE PARTNER????????

But it seems that I was worrying too much because at this point, Ace declared that he will only have ONE girlfriend. "Only one girlfriend is enough, Daddy.. Don't need so many misi girlfriends..." Ace said.

Curious, we asked him why he only wants one girlfriend...

"Because too many girlfriend I cannot carry..." he said.

I laughed! How true... But I was curious how a little boy like him understood that many girlfriends at the same time is a HUGE burden to carry and so I asked him "why?"

"Because when I get married to her, I have to carry her... Ah Yee married, Net Net carry her... if I have many girlfriends, too many to carry already...."

Hahahah.. indeed like father like son.. set his aim properly and aim only on ONE girlfriend.. hahahaha.... cos I am Max's ONLY and FIRST girlfren.. hahaha

Well said, Ace!

Previous Post: Ace Has Got Muscle

Ace Has Got Muscle

Max always says that I teach Ace all sorts of strange things... But I think that the strangest things that Ace learns are all from Max..

Check this out!



Max taught Ace to show that he has got muscle by doing tat... acting like some wrestler and kissing his muscle... insanely hilarious!

Previous Post: Teacher Never Teach Me How To Brush Teeth

Teacher Never Teach Me How To Brush Teeth

Ace has been cleaning himself in the morning for quite a while.

The other day, because he was really sleepy, I had to push him all the way to the toilet and stand there before he would start cleaning himself.

Instead of brushing his teeth, to my surprise, he turned on the tap, open his palm to catch the water and used the water to splash his face to wash his face...

"Wah, where did you learn that from?" I asked Ace.

"Teacher teach me..." he said sleepily..

"OK, now you can brush your teeth.." I told him...

"But teacher never teach me how to brush teeth.." he said...

Like that also can ah?

"Just brush lah.. you already have been brushing your teeth by yourself for so long, don't know how to brush teeth meh???"

In the end, he lazily brushed his teeth...

PS: Just so that he will clean his teeth and watch his personal hygeine, I reminded him tat if he keeps taking sweet stuff, his teeth will turn yellow and rot.. so yesterday when he wanted to eat sweets for dessert, he told me, "Mummy, I want to eat this and I want to brush my teeth after that so that my teeth will not rot..." And true enough, he went to brush his teeth after finishing the sweet! Atta boy!


Previous Post: How About We Share?