Everytime, after we have our meals, he will enthusiastically ask to pay the meal for us and his dad would pass him some dollar bills and ask him to pay for the meal. After that, whatever change we get, he always watns to keep it and if we try to take it back, he gets upset and insists that it is his money... BECAUSE.." I pay and so the money is mine...."
It took me a very long while to explain to him how even though he paid for it, the money still belongs to daddy. He is better now.. he just wants to keep part of the money instead of all of the money and Max lets him keep the coins if he can tell us what denomination the coin is.
I guess that is a very easy way or earning money and so, Ace is still VOLUNTEERING TO PAY for the meal everytime.. hahaha :)
We always told Ace, "Ask and you will be given..."
You see, of cos when you ask, you might be rejected sometimes.. but if you dun ask, you will for sure not get it.. if you ask, you got a chance and in my experience, you often get it if you were to just bother to ask...
Anyway, Ace is pretty good at manifesting what he wants and asking (god) for what he wants...
The other day, his school friend gave him a small police car and he was so happy. Alas, he brought it back to school and his friend took the car back and so he got really upset... his dad told him he would buy him a police car if he was a good boy.. and somehow, he just kept insisting that he wanted a BIG police car....
Even though his dad had already bought him a small ambulance, he still kept asking for a big big police car with flashing lights and sound.. so i told him that we would decorate the car he had in Yeye's house and make it into a police car but he said he did not want to do that.. he still insisted on getting a big big policeman car...
I tot he had in mind those Little Tykes sort of car and went to check the price.. gosh, they cost like $200 a set.. and so I naturally refused to buy that for him.. but still we told him we would go shopping for a police car and true enough.. he finally did find a car which is much bigger than the ambulance tat daddy bought for him... and it also had flashing lights.. so Ace was really happy..
But about a mth later, I think he remembered our plan to decorate the car in Yeye's house and make it into a Police Car... so when he went over to stay for the day, he made yeye paste a masking tape over the car and got him to write the words "POLICE CAR" on the masking tape.. and he put another one on the car seat and wrote his name.. and if that was not enough, he actually asking nai nai to make a siren for him and Nai Nai being very clever, really rolled up a strip of paper and made a siren for him...
So in the end, he still got his VERY BIG police car...
I found myself dancing at 2am in the morning the other day... the reason? My son's dance recital performance...
You see, because we THOUGHT that Ace is an avid dancer, we signed him up for some dance classes.. only to discover that all he really likes is free dance.. he is not really that into dancing.. when he does go to dance school, his prime motive is to make friends and play.. than to learn how to dance properly.. consequently, after many lessons, he just cannot remember more than ONE STEP even though he has been learning the simple 6x8 dance steps.
He missed the last dance class cos I was in Penang and so, he had not much of a chance to practice all the steps. So when he reached the rehearsal, he was totally lost and clueless... If you look at the photos, you will realize he is always looking at others and also always one step behind...
So I asked him after that if he wanted to practice later again at home. He said he wanted to practice with me but as I had a flu, I fell asleep at 9pm the moment I reached home. I woke up at 2am, remembering the promise I made to Ace and since I couldnt sleep again, I decided to learn the dance from the videos I took and so at 2am in the early morning, Max, who was watching a movie in the living room heard an elephant prancing around in our bedroom.
I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about this dance. I got so worried I went to pick a card about how his dance would turn out and picked a BEAUTY card and was assured that he would dance beautifully..
When I woke up the next day, I was so excited that I had already mastered the steps and asked Ace if he wanted to practice. Initially I tried to make him go through step by step and try to memorize the steps. But I found that he kept losing focus and thinking about his toys, about whether the fan is on, about what he wanted to wear.. and so, after an hour, I decided that the best course of action was just to dance the dance together with him a few times and call it quits. On the way there, I just told him that there are two very important things to remember when he goes up there and perform today: 1) Enjoy yourself and be happy, 2) SMILE.
Well, my 'hard work' paid off. He did dance a little better on the actual performance.
BUT LEH, he still forget his steps, he still was one step behind, he was still lost, he even fell.. BUT YET, Ace received the most performance and most cheering even though me and his Daddy were his only supporters there cos he followed my two golden rules.
You see, when Ace fell, he just picked himself up and like nothing happened and went back dancing.. for that everyone cheered to encourage him.... And then he got lost and when everyone finished dancing, he was still there trying to dance and people laughed...
And at the last part when he was supposed to posed, he got lost, did not know where to stand, suddenly realized it, went into position and did a really cute pose and then, he received a very loud cheer and alot of people luff... Somehow Ace always gets alot of people luffing whenever he is on stage... he indeed has a gift of humour...
My mum says it is a flawed success but I beg to differ.. I told Ace that he did very great and he had so many people cheering for him because he was so brave (picking himself up and continued dancing) and he did so well because he remembered to enjoy himself and to smile so we went to eat sushi to celebrate his graudation from dancing class.. next, we will let him try out art class:)
Here's the video of his dance.. (Ace stands in the far left corner in the second row)
PS: You can't see in the video but during the parts where the other group was dancing, he was actually grooving at the back behind the curtains.. hahaha...
PPS: When I showed him a video of his rehearsal and told him that it is because he cannot remember his steps that his steps are different from others and he said, "Not only me mah.. my friends all forget also.. see, this one also forget, this one alsoforget.."
The other day, it was the last day of Ace's weeklong holiday and while watching TV, he saw that there was some carnival going on at Suntec called Curious Tots.. and so he said he wanted to go there.. I told him no and gave him an exegeratted "Oh No!!!!!" and he giggled and so it became just some game we played whenever he sees the advertisement or whenever he remembers and keeps chanting, "I want to go curious tots.. i want to go curious tots..."
Anyway, because Max was working that day (he was on leave on the other days), so I decided to ask Karen Ganma if she wanted to go out with me and Ace. She agreed and we decided to think about where to go on the actual day itself... so early in the morning, she called me and asked me if I have decided where to go and initially, we decided to go Orchard.. but midway in our conversation, Ace started saying, "I want to go curious tots.. i want to go curious tots..."
And so in the end, we decided to meet in Suntec instead.
Turned out that we reached Suntec early and so we started queuing up to play games and all that at the Curious Tots Carnival... Because Ace wanted to get a balloon sword, I queued for half an hour just to get the balloon man to make him a RED SWORD using balloons.
And then there was a game segment and Ace was actually chosen to go on stage to play games. My son was surprisingly not shy at all and while other people being interviewed, he was shaking and dancing by himself.. and he very loudly told pple his name, his age and that his ambition is to become a policeman.. hahahaha...
Anyway, his competition was that hte person who wins s the person who can say, "Oktooooooo" in obne breadthe the longest time... and Ace was the youngest contestant.. so I did not expect him to actually win it.. but he gave it a good shot and went, "Oktoooooooo..." for about 10 seconds and then he started to giggle and everyone there laughed together with him.. he just has this thing about uplifting people's spirits and the MC said that even though he did not win, that was a very good and very cute try...
He won himself a post it pad which he subsequently used like sticker and stuck paper all over my clothes and my bag... Ganma Karen arrived in time to take photos together and then we decided to go and have a quick bite.. we walked into Yakun and Ace immediately told me, "I want to eat Jelly Egg.." and so Ganma bought him what he wanted to eat.
Then we went shopping and then I realized that Ace thinks that this trip is all about him and what he wants to do. When he was in Carrefoure, he just wanted to be around the toys... and then after a while, he got tired and insisted that we bring him to Toys R US..
The best part is when he was in Toys R Us, he saw this nice sword while I was on the phone with Max and he just turned around to his ganma and asked her, "Do you want to buy this for me?"
Faintz lor... I did always tell him "ask and you will be given", I did not expect him to buay paiseh and just ask for things.. but his ganma really took his request seriously and said that the plastic sword is not safe for him.. so she found a foam one and bought that for him instead...
And this guy.. is roti prata one lor.. immediately after he gets his foam sword, the undid the balloon sword that I queued for half a hour for and told me that he undid it because that sword is NOT NICE AT ALL cos Ganma's sword is BETTER! And on our way to a farewell dinner party, Ace fell asleep in the car with the sword in between his arms and his feet... so precious is ganma's sword.. hahaha... When we reached, no matter what he said, he INSISTED that he wanted to bring the sword along with him to the party and insisted he has to have his sword because he was STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS...
Well, by the time he reached home, his red balloon sword was one long balloon and he turned it around here and there and said he is a balloon man. Alas, after like 5 minutes, the balloon finally had enough of his torture, punctured itself and let out all the air.. hahahaha...
I guess it was a fitting and wonderful ending to this long and fun day...
Ace is like a mini image consultant for himself when he goes out now.. he will pick out his shirt, his pants, decide if he wants to wear belt, decide what shoes to wear, what watch to wear and the other day, he even insisted on wearing a cap when we told him we were going to Orchard.
I told him I wanted to take photo of his very nice outfit and he even posed by himself into this very nice pose.. hahahahaha..
Ace is usually quite a scaredy cat when it comes to animals... he likes having them around to SEE but he never wants to touch them because he is afraid.
Recently, the wild cats at our void deck has given to a litter of kittens and somehow, they have all 'migrated' to these two motorcyles who seem to be perpetually parked at the parking lot.
The other day when we saw the kittens, we went over to meow at them, send them love and stroke then a little bit... and suddenly, Ace was there with us, touching and stroking the cats.
When we left, I asked him how come he wasn't afraid of the cats and was brave enough to stroke them and he said, "Because the kittens are so cute!" and he actually went back to stroke them a few more times after that incident.
That just goes to show that when people are totally irresistable, anyone and everyone will want to come close to them. But we are no more small, cute, babies, so how do we be totally irresistable? According to a book I am reading, you do that by totally being ourselves and living our vision... part of the reasons I feel why babies and young children are so cute and irresistable other than their miniature size is also the fact that they are always very true to themselves.. such that even when they are naughty or do something nasty, they are still 'cute' and it is alot more easy to just forgive them:)
For example, ff Jack Neo weren't a "preacher" in people's eyes.. trying to teach good values in his movies and always talking about the importance of family... but rather, he has always been openly been having girlfriends but is still popular due to his talent in movie making, I feel people would be much for forgiving towards his infidelity because they might think "Yeah, he is someone who is like that..oh, his poor wife and poor children" Alot of people react strongly because they think of him as someone like a saint.. cultural medelion winner, always known as the model father and model husband (a picture painted by the media in the past)... so they find it more difficult to forgive him with his infidelity. Jackie Chan is openly flirtatious and everyone still loves him:)
Anyway, my personal view is that the saga is a result of all the decisions made by Jack, his flings, his wife.. so everyone has a part to play.. there is no one who is more guilty or less guilty than the other... when a many has such a big infidelity issue like that in his relationship, usually his wife is also equally uncommitted in their relationship in some other area... how do I know? Well, I guess you could say I have seen many of such stories happening around me... :)
Anyway, Ace now wants to bring the kittens home and keep them as pets. I asked him if he would still like them and take care of them when they grow up into cats. "No.." he said. So I told him that until he was ready to take care of them all the way till their death and until the time he is staying in a house tat HE PAYS for, the house rule is no pets:) hahahah...
And then I explained to him how now that I am grown up and not staying with my mum, she still takes care of me... and how I still take care of him even though he is a toddler and no more a baby.. we dun throw babies away when they grow up.. so we cannot throw our pets away when they grow up...
Ask and you will be given.. tat's what we always tell Ace.
The other day, we after our Wild Wild Wet adventure, we decided to have a meal at New York, New York.. and surprisingly, Ace actually rememebered that the last time he went there (which was about two years ago), Uncle Black (an indian service staff there) gave him a "curly curly one" (candy floss).
So I asked him if he wanted to have Candy Floss and he said yes.. so I told him that if he wants it, he has to ask for it himself. So I taught him what to say and then he overcame his shyness and said it and got his candy floss:)
So Max reminded him.. "See, Ace.. ask and you will be given..."
We had some free tickets to the Wild Wild Wet and so the three of us went there and had a great day there!
Well, I found out from this trip that Ace is really a whole lot braver and more receptive to water slides as compared to the last time we brought them to the Zoo water playground and he was just crying the whole time...
Initially, he was kind of frightened but as he started playing there, he started to be braver and braver... and when we were in the Shiok River and there were massive 'tsunami waves' making his float go up and down, instead of being frightened, he went "Wee! Woo hoo!" and started to laugh.
As the time went on, he started to enjoy going down the water slides and almost did not want to go home:)
"Do you want to go again?" I asked him. "Yes, I do!" he replied happily...
Went to Penang again to visit Arthur. This time round, Ace was very matter of fact about it and did not even ask me to buy anything for him. But still, his dad told him that we would buy him some nice toys... and in the end, we bought him a transformer toy...
Arthur bought a new piece of land in front of a private beach.. and a new Formula 1 boat...he also bought another boat which he would get next year.. I was just telling Clari about this and she was like, "Wah...."
But leh, one mountain still got one mountain high... Clari was telling me abt our fren J who has houses all over the world and travels around the world in business class flights on her own money...
I wonder if I will one day be as rich as such... but J is already in her 50's or 60's ... so maybe if we keep manifesting for the next 20 years.. we will still have a chance:) hahaha...
When I was growing up, my mother would often ask me to throw away this and throw away that but I never did.. and my mum would ask me if I wanted to keep them for my children.. and so like i mentioned before, Ace really managed to play with alot of my toys from growing up...
What I did not know, however was that Max also had tonnes of toys stored up in the storeroom.. ready for Ace to have tonnes of fun with and one such example is this 25 year old Play Mobil set!
The other day, Max was inspired to take it out for Ace to play and the two of them had lots of fun building the house and playing with the characters...
It is amazing how the toys are still kept in their original boxes after Max and his brother who is 11 years younger is done playing with them... will Ace be able to keep them for his children and make this a family heirloom? We shall wait and see.. hehehe:)
