Visiting Laoma

First 2weeks that we were back, I was either bz or tired... so I did not get to go and visit Laoma. The other day, since popo is visiting laoma, we decided to go along with her...

To be honest, when I first saw Laoma, I was hit by how much she has deteriorated.. when we first walked into her house, her face was totally vacant and there was no recognition whatever in her eyes.. she was just staring into space..

I thought I will give her some space and so, I let her finish the ice cream that my mum bought for her before going to talk to her.. I also asked Ace to call her and ask her if she has eaten and if she is well in Teochew before explaining to her that that is all the teochew he knows...

Then I self intro and told her who I was and also who Ace was.

I am quite happy that after asking me who Ace was, how old is he and whether has he gone to school already now for about 5 tiimes (Once every 3 minutes), she started to ask me instead... "Is this your son.... is he my great grandson.. is he 8 years old... he is going to school now, right?"

I think Ace is quite lucky in that whenever we visit her, Laoma is always in a good mood. Sometimes, she doesnt like it if other people touch her things but when Ace asked for permission to play with her Blokus set, she gamely agreed... or if he wanted to go in and out of the rooms, she will also say, "OK, let him be, chidlren are like that..." even though she will sometimes get upset if people go into her room...

But leh, Ace end up very whiny.. cos he played Blokus with Popo and lost a few games in a row... and it didnt help that Popo kept luffing happily... Ace could stand it whenever people said or did things to make him feel that he is WRONG or that he is LOSING... sigh.. wonder when he will out grow this and learn to handle these feelings...

We also watched a DVD with Laoma.. it is a DVD of a woman chatting and singing with whoever is watching.. I was telling my mum.. maybe we can make a video like tat and introduce ourselves to grandma so tat she can rewatch the video and remember us.... Since you just need to talk and pause and pretend like the person watching is responding... Maybe even my cousins can all do it.. wahhahahaa...

Before we left, I asked Ace to take a photo with Laoma...

 

And I was quite surprised to find that Ace is already TALLER THAN LAOMA!

 

Anyway, the other day, I saw something on FB which talked about this guy coming up wiht books and flashcards that taught kids how to speak dialects like Teochew, Hokkien and Cantonese...  and I told Ace it is important that he also learns a little bit of teochew and hokkien lah... beyond the "jiak pab buay and li hor boh"..

We practiced naming some items in the bedroom in hokkien and teochew and Ace found it really amusing when we did that...

So I teased him by speaking to him in hokkien by saying things like...

wah jin jia kiang... (I am very clever)

And Ace will go, "No, you not kiang, wah jin jiah kiang..."

And then I went on to say "wah jin wu lui..." and eventually, "wah jin jiah swee..."

So when Ace repeated that he also "Jin jiah swee",  so I laughed and said I din know he is VERY PRETTY... IS HE A GIRL?

And we had a GOOD LAUGH about it.. :)

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