Carebears!

Children are so totally adorable! I am always thankful that one of the greatest benefits of parenthood is that children open up my eyes to what is true...

Ace has been asking for a carebear for a long time.. he has about 6 little ones.. but he always wanted like a big one.. and somehow, even if I saw it, wanted to buy for him after some thought, when I tried to search for it, it is gone.. so, he has to make do with his 6 teeny ones..

And they are serious business for him.. everynight before he sleeps, he needs to arrange them into some order.. and if one of them is missing.. he whines and he cant sleep..

But like, results equal intent.. watever you think about for a long time, if you really do want it will eventually appear in your life...

So leh, after so long, someone decided to pass Ace two big carebears.... one is a super big Cheer Bear and another one is a medium sized Wish Bear.

On the first night that Ace brought home these two new friends, Ace declared that "I will use Wish Bear to make my dreams come true and use Cheer Bear to cheer myself up.." (as he has been crying about missing his daddy for a few days).

When I switched off the lights he gave both bears a big heart and then he started doing a commentary that went like this:

Okie, now, Wish Bear will make all your wishes come true... Mummy, what wishes do you want to make?

Okie, Daddy come back with a better job that pays more. Drrrrrring! (He clutches his hands into a fist as if catching this wish and puts it into Wish Bear's tummy as he does the Drrrrriiiing sound..)

Okie, Ace grow up happy and healthy... Drrrrriiingg....

Okie, Mummy be happy and healthy... Driiiiinnng....

And now, is time for Wish Bear to make the wishes come true... Brrrrrrrrrrrrr Brrrrrrrrrr Brrrrr... tata tata dah!

AND THE WISHES ALL COME TRUE!

Isn't he amazing?!:) Hahahaha.. i think he in a few words really summed up how we can get everything we want in our lives:) See, life is very simple if you look at it from the point of a kid:)

Previous Post: Policeman Ace

Policeman Ace

One of my friends used to be a prisons officer and so when he mentioned he was throwing away his uniform, I asked if he could pass it to me so tat I can let my son use it to play his make believe policeman games;) and so he agreed..

When I told Ace, he was so excited! Everyday he asked me when can we get the policeman set... and when we finally got it.. he reminded me 10,000 times in the night to wash it the next day when he is in school... in the morning before he left for school, he brought the shirt to me and reminded me one last time before he left to take the school bus...

So leh, I quickly wash lor.. and thanks to the very hot weather, it was dry by the time Ace reached home and he was so happy ;)

So Ace was so excited to recieve not only the blue blouse but also the buttons, a hat, a belt, gun holster, bullet holder and an assortment of things you hang by the belt..
That is Ace's COOL look.. hahaha.. cool or not.. ignore the orange plastic from the toy gun lah.. hahahaha...
Anyway, the belt, because it is made of leather and have not been used long kind of disintegrated.. so we threw it away and used another belt to replace it..

Despite the very warm weather, for the next three days, you perpetually see Ace walking around the house in his police getup which consists of his own tshirt and the police shirt outside... HOT!

Anyway, to thank this friend and his gf (who also bought him a packet of Buzz Lightyear biscuits), Ace made both of them Thank You cards with their names on it.. wahahahaha..

Previous Post: Ace Has A Golf Teacher!

Ace Has A Golf Teacher!

It was another lazy boring Saturday.. so leh Josephine invited me, Ace and Stef to Seletar Country Club.. where Jon was working... so Ace my friends loved Ace and Ace loved them, Ace was super duper happy to be able to go out with them... we even brought along paper and pen and colour pencil so that he can do some drawing while we were there...

Anyway, it was a good break for me lor.. I felt like Jo and Jon were practicing parents and they literally just took good care of Ace amongst themselves and I was just really there to relax.. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hehehehe... We had lunch there and afterward, dessert too:)

The scenery there was really beautiful and it was really relaxing:) After joining us for a while, Jon had to go over to his office to work and when he asked Ace if he wanted to go to his office to take a look, Ace jumped at the idea:) I guess the lack of fatherly presence plus the fact tat Jon is a very loving man made Ace happy to hang out with him...


Afterward, Jo's colleagues whom i got to know when going to the WP Rally joined us too. And then we all decided to go to the driving range to let the guys practice... before we went over, we dropped by the shop because someone wanted to buy a glove and to my surprise, my son started to show me how to play golf because his TEACHER JON had taught him how to play golf.. the "seh" (posture, style) is not bad right? ;)

That's Ace posing with his kids sized golf club that we borrowed from somewhere...


I asked Ace why his face so bad.. he shhh me and told me that "I am CONCENTRATING..."





Teacher Jon joined us after a while and gave Ace more pointers...



The very happy Ace got tired though after another 10-15 minutes and said he wanted to drink MILO.. so leh, he followed Teacher Jon to office to drink milo....

While he was there, he kept calling me... first time to tell me that he missed me.. 3 min later called me again to tell me he is drawing something... I wondered why he kept calling me and finally at this 3rd call a minute later, I understood why he called.. the real reason he called is"I want to ask you can I eat chocolate or not?"

Once I gave him permission to eat chocolate, he stopped calling me... wahahahahhaa.... Anyway, on our way home, Ace said he is very happy because Teacher Jon taught him golf and kungfu... he even drew a nice picture while he was in Jon's office.. ;)

Since it was so fun, we agreed we will go again one saturday when everyone is free:) Hahaha..

Previous Post: Black Eyes Ace

Black Eyes Ace

We were playing catching at home that day and then leh, my good son ran into the bedroom and ran around on the bed in the dark... and suddenly, BOMB! Someone fell off the bed onto the floor....

He cried and cried and cried and cried.. which is unusual.. in my experience, children are actually very hardy and rarely cry or cry alot when they fall down and hurt themselves. Send them some love and kiss them a little and they are on their way... but leh, my son kept crying and kept saying, "very pain, very pain, very pain..."

So I quickly switched on the light and asked him to stand up by himself because I wanted to make sure he had no broken bones..

And upon closer inspection, I realized the corner of his left eye is swollen and looks a little blue black.. afraid that it might get very serious or there will be very bad blue black on his face.. I quickly applied some Eumora bar on it and then promptly used a towel to cover an ice cube to dab on his swelling...

Initially he kept saying it was very painful.. and still cried.. so I continued to ice it and continued to send alot of love to his bump.. and then after about 3 minutes, he became his original cheeky, happy self....


Phew.... heng ah!

That night when we slept, Ace asked if i can ask s0meone to board up his side of the bed so that he will not fall off the bed.. i asked him not to be ridiculous... he fell off the bed cos he was running on the bed in the dark... if he is lying down and sleeping, he wouldnt fall off easily.. he has slept on this bed for so long also never fall off... hahahaha..

The next day when I woke, first thing I did was to check the wound. No wonder he kept complaining it was painful.. apparently, there was some light abrasion on the skin at the eye lids. But leh, the swelling was gone and the injury was much smaller than I imagined it would be.. the blue black instead of a big patch over his eyes.. was just one small 0.3cm blue line at the corner of his eyes.. the line subsided and was gone in a few days.. PHEW....

Anyway, it made me realize that even though I was often at home in that week, Ace probably still wanted more time with me and so I made effort to play with him and he is ok again:)

Previous Post: Love! By Ace Chua

Love! By Ace Chua

Ace made another story book when he was at home the other day...
He says his book is titled LOVE! and of course, it is important to tell people it is by Ace ;) hahaha...

Page 1: Ace's daddy is getting ready to board his A380 plane.. somehow, Ace heard 380 and thought that the plane is called 3AT... hahahahaha...

The plane takes off and flies into the sky....

So Ace is very heartbroken and cries...

Then whenever Ace misses his Daddy, he would draw pictures of him and even makes a book about their story...

And now, Ace is happy again because he is counting down on his calender...

And this is the calender he bugged me for 3 days 3 nights to make for him so that he can countdown to when his daddy is back... he requested for police design.. and so it is:)



PS: This was pre-written.. it is just in time for today as well.. cos Max is coming home today.. HURRAY!!!!

Previous Post: The Story Of The Prodigal Son

The Story Of The Prodigal Son

I have been attending Family Constellation workshops and these workshops are workshops tat resolve problems in your life through realigning the positions of the souls in your family system.

During the workshops, i realized that many people are unable to lead their own proper lives because they are unconsciously bogged down by what is going on between their parents. So many people carry extra burden in their life because they are unable to leave their parents' problems to their parents and carry it on themselves as excess baggage in life...

So leh, as I always confide in Ace my emotions and feelings (since I figured he can tell through my energy and expression.. so rather than have him guess if it is his fault, I rather tell him straight), I was also afraid tat he will want to carry it on as his own problem..

So the other day, I took effort to explain to him that his listening ear is the best help he can offer me. And should there be any issue between me and his daddy, it is our issue and he can leave it to us, we can sort it out and it has nothing to do with him...

Somehow though, it struck a chord in him and he huggged me tight and said, "Sorry sorry sorry Mummy! So sorry sorry sorry..."

I asked him what he was saying sorry for and he said that he is sorry that he caused daddy to go to dubai... I asked him why he thought so and he said tat daddy went to dubai because he has been a naughty boy...

So I hugged him and told him he is a good boy and daddy went to dubai because it was his choice.... it has nothing to do with Ace...

"No no no..." he insisted and started to wave his legs and arms in anger..."I hate myself, I hate myself! I hate myself!" he said...

So I hugged him and told him to stop. I told him that I love him very much and daddy love him very much.. but if he does not love himself.. it makes us very sad...

And then I asked him if he has ever heard the story of the Prodigol Son.... this is a biblical story that talks about how a son wasted away the riches that his father had given him and was ashamed to go back to his father because he felt he had made his father sad and had disgraced his father. But when he approached his house, his father welcomed him with open arms happily.

I asked Ace if he knew what was the moral of the story... and then I explained to him that the moral of the story is tat children are treasures to their parents. NO matter how good or bad or what a child does, a parent will always love their children...

And as a child, the way to honour their parents and their love is to lead their own lives happily... like one of my teachers said... chidren are like arrows.. who are here to go farther than their parents.

So I say.. lead your lives fully, be happy, only then will you be able to truly make your parents happy! :)

Previous Post: Airport

Airport

It is interesting... tat somehow as Ace's daddy is coming home soon, his teacher taught him how to draw a picture of Changi airport and how to draw aeroplanes:)

When I arrived to pick him up, everyone already finished.. except my son! I wonder what he was doing during class.. luckily he only needed to paint the background and that did not take too long...




Swee boh?

Previous Post: Now I Know I Am A Bad Person

Now I Know I Am A Bad Person

In the morning, I woke up early and went for a jog.. so because of this, when my son woke, I was already not around, he got upset and called me.. but because he was already late for school, my grandma pressed the cradle midway in our conversation and got really upset...

My mum wanting to pacify him asked Zeng Popo to say sorry to him but she was not willing and grumbled instead, "I dun want to say sorry, why must I say sorry... sorry, sorry stupid!" Unfortunately, my son overheard this and he got even more upset...

And so I had a session of heart to heart talk with him..

I first asked him what had happened and if he was angry with Zhen Popo...

And then he told me he is very upset because Zhen Popo scolded him Ben Dan.. "How can she scold me this word?" he asked me..

I agreed that she shouldnt have said that and told him that Zeng Popo is very old liao.. "So as she is our elder, can you just forgive her immediately whenever she does something wrong?"

"Yes.."Ace agreed and went on to tell me how angry he was that she scolded him instead of apologizing... so I had to explain to Ace that Zeng Popo is not right is saying that to him.. but if he were to understand her.. old people tend to be grumpy.. that is because Zeng Popo is mostly at home and nothing to do.. and she also does not like to see him cry.. plus when pple are old, they tend to have lots of aches here and there tat makes them even more grumpy....

And then i reminded Ace how much she loves him and how much she has done for him as she always baths him, wakes him up, prepares his uniform, packs his bag, refills his water bottle...

And so i asked again if he can forgive Zhen Popo immediately whenever something like that happens again..

I also shared with him a good way to resolve the issue when it happens again. I explained to Ace that when we are angry, everything we say is not in integrity and does not help matters.. so leh, a good way is for him to feel his anger and burn it away first.. afterward, he can nicely tell Zeng Popo how what she did made him sad... because he is saying it nicely without attack, she will likely listen and respond cordially, so everyone can be happy...

"Ok, " and then he went silent for a while.. after about a minute of thinking, he told me, "I know now that Zeng Popo is a good person and I am such a bad person for always shouting at her... she is good and I am bad... she wins and I lost..."

So I had to explain tat the purpose of my discussion with him is not so as to blame him or scold him. It is just to explain to him what happens. In a fight, no one is more right or more wrong or more good or more bad than the other.... I just wanted to share what I did so that if he chose to reach out to Zeng Popo and our family will be happier....

I gave him an example of how if we were in a fight and no one wanted to make up, our family will be unhappy but if one person remembers the love of the other person and tries to make up, all will be good and the family will be happy again...

I also explained to him that in a family, we help each other out. Zeng Popo helps him with his school stuff and if he wants, he can help her by hugging her, telling her jokes to make her happy, saying thank you to her whenever she helps him....

At this point, my good son says he wants to drink water and asked if I could pour some water for him.. and while I was out pouring water, he walked over to my grandma's bed and apologized at 1am in the morning for shouting at Zeng Popo and gave Zeng Popo a hug... hahahha..

I gave him a hug and told him I am very proud that he is quick to apply what he has learnt.. what a wonderful little boy!

Previous Post: Who Will You Miss?

Who Will You Miss?

The other day, I was chatting with Ace and so I asked him.. if we were to go to Dubai to stay with Daddy, who would he miss most...

Ace thought for a little while and said, "I will miss gong gong lor... because gong gong buy breakfast for me everyday... if I go dubai, I cannot eat the breakfast he buy for me already..."

So I asked him who will he miss second most..

He suddenly gave me a cheeky smile and said, "That one lor.. that one who always like that..." and he used his hands to do the "open and close mouth, yak yak yak" hand signal...

"You know who lah.." he said.. referring to Zeng Popo. So I was quite surprised and asked him if he misssed Zeng Popo and her nagging..

"Yah, I will miss her telling me what I never do right... because I know she tell me what I never do right because she love me..."

Pengz lor!

PS: I think Ace has a love hate relationship with Zeng Popo lor.. the other day, Zeng Popo tried to open the jelly packaging for him and spilled some water on Ace, being anxious to eat his jelly immediately and dismayed tat he had to go and wash his hands ONE MORE TIME (which translated to more time wasted before he can eat his jelly) and so he kicked up a big fuss, cried and complained that it is all Zeng Popo's fault that he could not eat his jelly and it is her fault tat she dirtied his hand... which made Zeng Popo super angry and so they started a conversation like tat...
Ace: It is all your fault.. all zeng popo's fault, you made my hand dirty (cries)...

ZPP: I was just trying to help you open the jelly mah.. hao xin mei hao bao.... next time I dun help you anymore... you little bit cry... I dun care about you, I dun want to help you anymore..

Ace: It is all your fault... you made my hand dirty.. (cries louder)

ZPP: Help you also get blamed, I dun help you anymore lah. You are so xiao qi. You do what you like...

I had to intercept and ask both of them firmly to STOP and wait for Ace to cool down before I prep talked him (since I obviously cannot prep talk my grandma:P).

My sis who witnessed this exchange commented that she dunno wat to say lor... one old child and one young child quarrelling.... hai....

Previous Post: Phoebe Full Mth

Phoebe Full Mth

We attended a full month party the other day.. it was Ace's god sister, Pheobe's party.. and Ace also got to meet his new friend, Qi Rei, for the first time:) Too bad for Ace that Phoebe slept throughout the party.. so at least there was Rei to play with..

As I was somewhat in a in a reclusive mood, I actually just mostly sat down and minded my own business while I listened to other people talk amongst themselves instead of getting engaged in conversation myself...

What I heard though was rather shocking to me... There were a few people who were also parents themselves.. talking about their chidlren's experiences in primary one...

One parent recounted this story.. of how her kid and a friend's kid were in the same school in primary one so when she asked her child how she scored for a test and how her friend's child scored for the exam, her daughter said, "Dun need to ask about him, his results always is worse than mine, I am better than him.." And she commented with a laugh that children nowadays are so young and already know that results are important...

When I heard tat story, I felt like primary school education here is so scary. If this is really the case, I think I wish my son can stay in preschool forever lor.. at least the teachers in preschool are respectful towards a child's creativity and still care about the impt things like your heart and whether you are happy.

And another talked about how her pri one kid was actually very concerned about results and how he ranked among his peers... and these parents talk about it happily... I guess they feel that it is good their kids know how to push themselves...

I was actually quite upset when I heard all these and I wish my son will have a much different experience when he goes to primary school. Given the very sensitive and creative nature of my son, I think that primary school might be a teeny challenge for him.. I prayed for him.. in that he would meet many good, caring teachers like I did in life and will still be able to totally enjoy his education:)

When discussing this with two different friends who are tuition tutors, they both lamented that the educational system now is really "jia lat".

One friend said she had a 12 year old student who did badly in school.. after tuition, she improved and was first in class.. so another boy in class who was originally first in class challenged her to be number one in the next exam.. both of the children worked hard for their exams.... her student got 57 marks in the end.. and she was top in her class... the boy was second or third in class and I think he failed..... we wondered what is the point of testing children on things they have not been taught yet and the point of demoralizing them just before their PSLE.

Another friend talked about how a girl came to her for help because she was failing her math exams consistently. So after a month of tuition, the girl actually passed her test.. but upon passing, she failed the next test again and so my friend asked her what was the reason she was not passing.. her reply was quite upsetting as well..

She said that when her teacher saw that she had passed, she actually accused this student of cheating.. "So why make effort to pass.. just fail lor.. anyway, that is what I am expected...fail is better than being wronged.."

And that is not the only case of this happening, another case is also of a student who improved in studies when doing practice but failed at the exam.. when asked for the reason, the student said the teacher would think he peeped at the answers and even his own mother would think that he cheated in his exams...

What is it with parents these days?

Anyway, I came across this post by a fellow mother, and I hope tat her letter will be read by the higher authorities. A more creative or holistic way to approach education in Singapore is needed... I certainly hope it will happen in time to benefit my son:)

Ending on this note, I think parents also have to take the biggest responsibilty of guiding their children about what are the truly important things in life. I commit to my role as a mother and to stand by the things that are truly important than the pressure of excelling academically...

Previous Post: Ace's First Purchase

Ace's First Purchase

We bought Popo a pair of sketchers for her BD...

So leh, the person said if we bought something else, we can get to be their member... cos we were only a few dollars short.. so leh, we bought the cheapest thing we can find in the shop.. which is some sort of sneaker freshener... It is shaped into two small balls and you are supposed to put them into your shoe to make them smell nice..

Ace was so curiuos about it and when I explained how it worked, he was so excited to want to try it! He told Ah Yee he wanted to use it and Ah Yee said only if he paid her $5 for it and Ace really went to his piggy bank, took out $5 and paid her lor! wah lau, and tat Ah Yee actually accepted the money and kept it lor!

Actually should Ah Yee to use it as Ace's contribution to Popo's present..hahahaha...

Next morning, Ace very excited tat his shoe smells very nice..

BUT leh, after only one day, he very sian liao.. and stopped using it... so we just put inshoe cabinet for the benefit of ALL the shoes :) hahahahaha

I hope this is a one off and not his purchasing pattern...

Previous post: Daddy and Son Telepathy