Qing Ming

It is time for Qing Ming again and we once again go bai bai lor... and as this is sort of like a family tradition, Ace always comes along... It is the only day though tat Ace gets to learn how to gold Gold Ingot and how to fan out the paper money:) Thank god for Ji Lao Mm and Shu Shu who were there to patiently teach Ace how to fold everything. Ji Lai Mm also very thoughtfully brought along some biscuits specially for Ace in case he got hungry:) A very happy Ace with the finished end product... When they started burning the money, Ace wanted to go too and because the top layer is plastic and not suitable for burning, Shu Shu took it out.. Ace took the plastic money and ran to me and told me, "Mummy, look! So nice! So colourful! Can I bring home?"

When Ji Lao Pek heard this, he quickly told Ace not to bring this home and I had to explain to Ace that these are hell notes and are dead people's money.. we are alive so we use money for live people. Anyway, Cheeky was very cheeky and showed off his cheekiness to Ji Lao Pek lor.. when we were going home, Ace kept asking why why why sort of questions in the taxi so when we alighted, Ji Lao Pek scolded Ace (I am not sure if he was teasing), "Aiya, Ace, dun keep asking WHY WHY WHY lah.. I hear already I very angry lah..."

Not going to be outdone, my son retorted, "Why, leh, why is ji lao pek like that leh, Why is he so crazy leh, WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY.." and the initially angry Ji Lao Pek cannot help but giggle together with Ace...

And then when we were back home for a meal with the family, Ji Lao Pek said to Ace, "Come here little chicken!" (cos Ace was born in the year of the rooster..) My son ran up to him and told him..."Ya, I am little chicken, you are big chicken!" Upon me asking Ace for more details, I found out that my father in law has been telling Ace that ji lao pek is big chicken because he was also born in the year of the rooster:)

Anyway, after lunch, Ace was happy to play with shushu (and shu shu's NEW IPHONE)... he found Shu Shu's army gear and decided to pose for a picture for us:)

PS: He has been so engrossed in playing with the iphone that he din want to play or talk to Yeye at all at our supper sessions... upon seeing that Ace really likes the iphone so much, Yeye asked him,"You really like it ah... you realy like it ah...?" And the very clever Nai Nai already predicted what is coming and intercepted in and told Yeye in cantonese (a language Ace doesn't understand) "He is so young, he doesnt need such a good phone lah. Dun spoil your grand child lah.."

Hahahaha.... Shu Shu also complained tat it is unfair that he only had his first phone when he was very old and had to make his own money to buy it... so in the end, Yeye decided not to go ahead with his plan.. PHEW.... If Ace had his own iphone, then dun need to play, dun need to talk to people, dun need to do homework liao lor:)

Previous Post: BINGO!

BINGO!

When we went over to Laoma's house for dinner, Ace discovered a Bingo Set and wanted to play with it immediately after dinner.... And so, Ace, Popo, Laoma, Sarina Jie Jie and me played a game of bingo together... and guess who won? Laoma lor.. she always win one leh.. we played a few times and she is always the winner:) Ace always wants to be the one pushing the numbers but he takes such a long time to read the numbers and so I became the number reader instead...

Because we had so much fun playing, Popo said the next time she would buy some chocolates so that the winner can win some sweets or some chocolates.

"What about this time?" Ace asked... "This time to bad lor..." I told him...

"I got an idea!" he suddenly exclaimed and he ran to the table, took out a piece of paper and pen and drew THIS.... He says this is to be presented to Laoma for winning Bingo this week.. hahahaa.. so sweet of him :)

Previous Post: Ace's Easter Egg

Ace's Easter Egg

Lao Ghou bought an easter egg for Ace and he was so excited that he wanted to open it up the very day he recieved it... Ace pretending to look shock when he finds a DINOSAUR EGG! When you open up the egg, there are more mini eggs inside.. so cute:) Mmm... Milk chocolate.. GOOD!

Previous Post: Ace's Day In School

Ace's Day In School

Now that he is on the roll, Ace has decided to do another comic style storyboard titled Ace In The School...

Pic 1: Ace reaches school and greets his teacher, "Good Morning!"

Pic 2: They start a lesson...

Pic 3: He goes for outdoor play at the playground

Pic 4: He goes back into the school

Pic 5: More lessons...

Pic 6: It is nap time

Pic 7: The school bus comes to pick him up...

Pic 8: The school bus brings him back to our flat

Not bad ya?

Previous Post: Ace And Tanya Big Book

Ace And Tanya Big Book

Some time back, I borrowed a book from the library for Ace... and it was about a little boy who decided to make his own book...

Inspired by the book, Ace also decided to make his own book.. and it was a book about Tanya and him and their "LOVE STORY" lor... wahahahahahaha....

Page 1: Both of them go watch a movie and in the cinema, Ace holds Tanya's hand and tells her "I love you..." Page 2: They go have an ice cream together after that. Please NOTE that Tanya's dress says "Ace Loves Tanya Chua" and Ace's shirt says, "Tanya Loves Ace Chua."

Also note that I was not at home when he drew this and that I REALLY have NO IDEA where he learnt all this from!?:P Page 3: That is the two love birds transforming themselves into a heart and DANCING AROUND A COCONUT TREE! Wahahahahahaah Page 4: The only page that made no sense is the last one where he tried to draw the pair of "3D" glasses that his classmate hongbin gave him.. I really dunno what he means by he loves 3B and 3D... I pray he is NOT referring to cup size... wahahahahahah...

Previous Post: Ace's Gan Mei Mei

Ace's Gan Mei Mei

Ganma Karen's bb is finally out! Her name is Phoebe and she is a cute little girl who is often peaceful and happy.. just like ACE!:)

I wanted to visit Ganma Karen by myself but thought Ace probably wanted to visit his godsister too.. so waited for him to come back, eat his dinner, draw his "welcome Phoebe" card and finally when we reached the hospital, the baby had to go back to the nursery so we all did not meet the baby.....

But at least both Ganma Karen and Gandie CK look well rested... Ace didnt get a chance to see his godsister and so he got bored and wanted to watch tv.... and he really made himself VERY comfortable lor.. took off his shoes and socks and rested on the bed to watch tv! hahaha Happy Gandie, Happy Ace... Too bad the baby is already back in nursery.... Ace was so tired by time we reached home...Thankfully Uncle Ah Bun sent us home... Anyway, we were supposed to visit baby Phoebe after she got home.. but leh, unfortunately, I fell sick and so after so many weeks, we are finally able to visit baby Phoebe at home...

Ace was really excited when I told him about it cos everyday he would ask me if we are visiting Ganma Karen and Gan Mei mei today... Because Baby Phoebe does not know how to play with Ace, we told him to tell her stories or read her story books.. so he sat there and told her the story of three little pigs... hahahah And then he tried to read some story books to her.... Phoebe is happy that Ace gor gor is telling her story.. hahaha..

Anyway, after a while, I told Ace we had to leave so that we could go have our dinner...

When we were waiting for the bus, Ace started throwing a tantrum and insisted that he wanted to eat mac donalds for dinner.. he stamped his feet and started to whine.. and so in bid to stop him.. I told him I wanted to ask him something...

Me: So Ace, if one day, you walk to a bus stop and saw a little boy stamping his feet and shouting "I want mac donalds, I want mac donalds.." do you think he is being nice or throwing a tantrum?

Ace: Throwing a tantrum..

Me: So do you think he is a good boy?

Ace: No...

Me: Oh I see.... After his mummy explain to him why cannot eat mac donalds and he still throw a tantrum.. do you think his mummy is very happy or very sad?

Ace: Sad...

Me: Then if he knows his mummy will be sad and he still continue to throw a tantrum.. do you think he love himself more or love his mummy more?

Ace: Love himself..

Me: If you were him, do you want to be a considerate little boy and listen to your mummy?

Ace: Yes!

And he started giggling when he realized i was talking about him... anyway, that put an end to an awkward situation...

BUT, that was not the end of the story...

I started playing with him at the bus stop and started tickling him.. and suddenly, Ace said, "Mummy.. I want to talk to you something.. if one day you go to the bus stop, and you saw a mummy keep tickling her son and being silly, will you think the mummy is very crazy?"

Wah, very good lor.. use the same method to suan me lor...

But anyway, we had a good laugh about it...

Previous Post: Ace's Political Views

Ace's Political Views

With the recent hoo ha over the General Elections, and given that there are so many interseting stories to talk cock about in Singapore, everyone... including me, my sister and even my hubby who is still far far away in Dubai have been talking about the recent HOT TOPICS.

Be it Tin Pei Ling (Tin Tin), why Lim Boon Heng is crying, how Goh Chok Tong talks about how farmers are not aware of what is the quality of life... to even how our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has talked about why opposition wards to not enjoy upgradings, I must say it is an exciting time for the political scene in Singapore. Never in my many years would I think there would come a day where PAP will actually suffer from so many "hiccups".

As it is exciting, I have also been following news related to the GE at the various internet platforms and eventually, I went to one of my favourite bloggers, Mr Brown, at his blog at The Mr Brown Show . What I found tickled me to no end... and as Ace is also a fan of Mr Brown, he also wanted to listen to the podcasts that I was listening to...

And this is Ace's favourite song by Mr Brown at the moment... My mum and my sis love it too and we have been "paying it forward" very generously to all our family and friends.. hahahaha...

Anyway, because of the song, this sort of gave Ace some sort of political interest and he started having a somewhat political conversation with me.

Ace: Mummy, what is an MP?

Me: MP stands for Minister of Parliment. They are the leaders of Singapore. Because Singapore has many different places and each different place will choose one MP to be the leader of that place....

Ace: Then what about the Prime Minister?

Me: Oh, the Prime Minister is the leader of all these leaders. And together, they will make decisions to help singapore to grow...

Ace: Mummy, who made Singapore the Singapore now? Is it Lee Kuan Yew?

Me: Well, alot of people made the growth in Singapore possible. Everyone helped. Everyone was important. But we have done it so well especially because we had a very good leader and he is Lee Kuan Yew. You can say he helped the most.

Ace: So is our Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew?

Me: No, Lee Kuan Yew was our former Prime Minister... he is now Minister Mentor.. the current Minister is his son, Lee Hsien Loong.. That's the uncle with spectacles that we saw on TV the other day in the show, Wo Wen Zong Li.

Ace: Why Lee Kuan Yew make his son the leader? Why he cannot make other people the leader?

Me: I am not so sure. I think it could be because he feels that his son is the most suitable leader. But actually, after Lee Kuan Yew retired, Goh Chok Tong was the Prime Minister... only after Goh Chok Tong retired, then Lee Hsien Loon, Lee Kuan Yew's son became the Prime Minister.

Ace: So can you tell me who is the second leader after Lee Kuan Yew again?

Me: His name is Goh Chok Tong...

Ace: Mummy, why they have to retire? Why they cannot be leader forever?

Me: Well, that is because people grow old. As our leaders grow old, they may have less energy to run the country and do so many things so they pass the job on to another new leader...

Ace: Lee Kuan Yew is a great leader right?

Me: Yes he is...

Ace: Mummy, why people want to become MP?

Me: Erm.. people want to become MP for a few different reasons. For some people, they want to become MP because they want to contribute to Singapore and help the people of Singapore. For some people, they want to become MP because they want to become famous and want everyone to know them. For some people, they want to become MP because they want to make alot of money as MPs are paid quite alot of money for their job.

Ace: Mummy, is the Prime Minister like the KING?

Me: Yes, you can think of it this way since they are the most important people in the country...

Ace: Then why Singapore dun have King but have Prime Minister?

Me: That is because in the world, not all countries have kings. Kings can be found in countries like Thailand, Japan, England and many other europeon countries. These countries with Kings and Queens usually have a long history.. this means that they have had kings for long long time and so they pass the kingship from one generation to another till today. Singapore is very young and when we started out we chose to have a liberal government system instead of the system of the Kings which is called monarchy.

Anyway, I stopped him and asked him to sleep as it was very late already...

As I was writing this though, I asked Ace, "Would you like to be an MP when you grow up?"

"Mmm.." he gave it a thought for a good 10 seconds and told me, "No mummy, I want to be prime minister. After I be police, I will be prime minister.. because I want to be famous and I want everyone to know me.."

Hahaha.. so I had to remind him that leaders who want to be leaders to be famous will seldom be really popular because it is the leaders who really care for their people and contribute to their country tat will be remembered and be popular...

Previous Post: Ace And His Drumstick

Ace And His Drumstick

My dad bought a pack of frozen vegeterian drumsticks and they are Ace's current favourite.. every other day, he would ask for his chicken drumstick....

The other day, because my dad cooked mostly spicy food and so he steamed three chicken drumsticks for Ace..

After he finished the drumsticks, he decided to wash the sticks and play with them.. somehow, at Gong Gong's direction, he learnt how to "knock" a toothpick into the stick and formed a T shape...

When I wanted to go out to buy some snacks, Ace wanted to come along as well and brought along his T shaped structure.. one in each hand...

I asked him why he brought these along.. "So difficult for me to hold your hand leh.. and hor.. when people see you, they will wonder why this boy is so funny..." I told him..

"I am not funny lor.. I am creative boy!" he retorted...

Wahahahahahahaha!

PS: We wanted to buy a snack from the NTUC express at the Esso station near our place... cos it is newly opened but i found tat the snack I wanted is very ex there lor.. so we walked furthur down to NTUC tobuy the snack.. in the end, I bought the snack at $1 but Ace saw a tin to give donations and said he wanted to donate one dollar.. so and we still paid the same amt but we were both glad we saved the $1 for the people in Japan by just walking a little bit more:)

Previous Post: Ace's Art Class

Ace's Art Class

I signed Ace up for an art class at the community centre. He was really excited to be going back to art class again and as he has been drawing and colouring quite often at home. He was so excited to hear about the art class that since I signed up, the first question tat he would ask me everyday when I picked him up from the school bus is, "Mummy, is today my art class day?" If I told him no, he would ask me when can he go for art class... the next day, he will ask me the same question again! hahahahaha...

To get him started, I bought him a drawing block and some crayons and gave him a new bag to be his "art bag". That is him at his new art class...

I left him in the class and went to my in law's place to watch TV till the time is up and then I can go and pick him up.... When I came back to pick him, I realized that when I was away, the whole class has finished their art work except Ace! Cos he said he was bz looking at other people's work and because it was his first lesson, he did not know wat to do.... His teacher said he can colour very well and say she will teach him how to use water colour to paint the background next week and gave him 4 stars.

But leh, I am really curious how the teacher taught them how to draw cos Ace told me his teacher helped him a little with the drawing of the bird...

I saw his teacher talking to other parents and didn't like what I observed...

Apparently, the teacher was complaining to a parent about her kid.. and commented that the kid has one BAD HABIT.. which is that he likes to use colourful colours. He likes to colour the sky purple and colour the trees all sorts of different colours.

"Huh? What is wrong with that?" I wondered in my heart. The kid is only 4! At four years old, I think that we should respect their creativity than force them to colour specific colours.....

At this point, I noticed that Ace erased away the smiling face he had in the sun he drew.. I asked him why and he said it was because his classmate told him that the teacher does not like them to draw faces on the sun... and I was quite angry.. whatever happened to respecting creativity and free will!? On top of that, the teacher can neither speak english nor chinese well.. everything she says.. is ji deh ji deh.. (one piece one piece) one... plus she as bad class control (if not why and how can ace wander around aimlessly and not know wat to do for so long?)

Hai, well, like wat my mentor used to say.. "Pay money, get peanuts..." The previous lesson that he went to was $40 a lesson. This one is $60 for 10 lessons lah.. so the focus of the lesson I guess is different.

The most important thing though is tat Ace learnt how to draw birds. He was so happy tat he kept drawing and even drew one more drawing of the same layout for Yeye.. Yeye and Nai Nai said it is very nice and that the would past on their mirror.. Nai Nai said tat his art is so good that his work will definitely be put on display.....

But because I still did not feel good about the way his teacher taught him, I had a talk with Ace about this....

I told him that I did not agree with some of the things that his teacher taught.. like not being able to draw faces on the sun.. because I feel that when we are doing art, sometimes it is important to draw exactly the same as what you see.. so if the son has no eyes, you cannot draw eyes.. but sometimes... or rather, most of the time, in art, creativity is MORE important than drawing it right... so I really love his photos with all sorts of colours and eyes in the sun ;)

Previous Post: Responsible Ace

Responsible Ace

I think Ace really takes the responsibilty to take care of me when max is not around very seriously.

The other day, my tummy wasnt feeling so well... so I kept passing out really smelly gas....

So when Ace smelled the smelly gas.. he asked me why i kept passing out gas, I told him my tummy was feeling unwell...

Suddenly, he disappeared and then when he reappeared, he had a ru yi you in his hands and he said, "I apply for you..."

"Dun want lah.." I told him..

"Want lah want lah.. I apply for you lah..." he said...

Not wanting to let him feel let down, I agreed and so he happily applied ru yi you for me lor... and after he finished, he reminded me.. "Now you go and rest, and tomorrow if your tummy is not feeling well still, you must tell me and I will apply again for you.. okie? Remember to tell me ah.. I apply for you ah.. you dun apply yourself ah..."

Hahahahaha... I went to bed that night feeling warm in the tummy and warm in my heart...

Previous Post: Ace Was Invited To A Wedding