Jenga

Well, before we went to Penang to visit Arthur's house, we promised Ace that we would buy him a present..

But when we were there, we only had time to shop 3 hours before we were due for the air port.. and so we decided to go to Gurney and just quickly buy something for him...

And then we saw the Jenga toy which Max says that Ace likes because the other time when we were in Yaping's house, he played with all the other children and the loser has to dance...

So we bought him the set... true enough.. our whole family had alot of fun playing with it... but no prizes for guessing who ended up dancing most often :)

After a while though, Ace got tired of playing it the usual way and so I stacked it together into a pattern to show Ace what is a domino effect....

Previous Post: Dreams

Dreams

Children.. up to 7 years old.. always achieve 100% of their dreams. Whatever they dream, they always achieve because they always talk about it, think about it and work on it. But as they grow up, the percentage gets smaller and by the time they are an adult, only 5% of the people left have dreams... and only these 5% get whatever they dream of.

I think this is rather true as Ace usually gets whatever he keeps talking about real quickly. Always someone will give it to him after he thinks about it for some time.

When I heard that talk about children and their dreams, I started thinking about MY dream. There is a chinese saying that goes, "人因梦想而伟大"... Loosely translated to english, it means that a man becomes great because he has great dreams.

In my early days in biz, I was mentoring under a certain someone who taught me the secret of success-- the success formula. My mentor, Mr G often told us... that "人因梦想而伟大"... and I agree... logically... But I have not really have had any big dreams.

I was inspired when we talked about making the company a world known top company, inpsired about how we could change the whole world, one step at a time, inspired when my leader drove a lexus RX300, inspired when they bought a nice, cozy walk in apartment...(cheong for biz most during tat time i think.. hahaha) maybe a little bit inspired when I saw the types/brands of bags and clothings that another two of my female mentors were using...

But then in the recent one, two years, I guess my dreams were still mostly small dreams... you know.. just wanted to earn 10-30K a month.... live in my same HDB flat, drive my same Nissan Selphy.. buy one LV bag.. I am really happy liaoz.

I always thought I was just well, comfortable and contented... until I visited my current coach's house. And then I realized that I was not comfortable.. or contented. I just did not have a big dream.. because I never knew it is possible to be so bloody rich to enjoy this type of freedom this type of quality of life.... I never knew houses like this existed and mostly, I just did not believe that I would ever have this type of house.

When I visited one of my fren's houses in Bukit Timah, I thought I had seen it all... until I visited my coach's home in Penang... It is really a very first time for me because:

1. I have never seen such a HUGE house. The drive way, unlike most houses in Singapore is a long distance up. Once up the driveway, you still have to walk up a few flight of stairs before you reach the main house.. which holds two living rooms, a mezzanine, a dining area, two guest rooms each with their own small living room on the outside, a double storey children's room, a double storey master bedroom, a deck, a pool, a space where an open office will be build, a back courtyard....
   
2. I have never seen such magnificent views.. right in front is the huge huge sea... and at the back of thouse it is all mountains.. with a feeding programme, you can even see squirrels when you wake and around 10am, you even see eagles flying around.
   
3. I have never seen such BIG furniture. All the furniture are really oversized... but they look just right in the house. After being in the house and sitting in those furniture, a visit to Ikea made me feel like all Ikea furniture are midgets!
   
4. I have never seen such a lavish house! The stones that make up the walls are all hand pieced together by craftsmen. Each retaining wall costs about 300 thousand to build. That is enough to buy a rather nice Merc and there are 9 retaining walls like tat in the house... and everything you find in the house, the lamps, the furniture, etc.. even the electrical switches... are are different and the best... just the bed is like 12K and costs 12 days to build from scratch because it is so expensive they only produce upon order.
   
5. I have never seen such a big dream.. because as perfect as the house is already to me... Arthur still has new plans to add new things and to build new things. And the way he thinks and the things he thinks of adding are just really things to make the house more magnificent! There is no need to consider budget... no scarcity thinking but just really decisions made on what he and his wife likes.
   
6. I was also inpsired because someone about my age, a few years ago, saw the house when it was starting to be built. At that time, he was poor and totally broke.. he was driving a run down car and did not even know if he would have enough money for the next day to eat. My coach told him.. "one day, you will own a house like this.." he believed in it.. and now, he is a multimillionaire and has bought the land next to this beautiful house to build his own palace :)

Here are some pics just so you get a feel of it.

So I have decided.. that if there is one thing I want to teach Ace, it will be to teach him how to Dream.. and DREAM BIG! Because when you have a big dream, everything is possible!

And true enough, when we started to have bigger dreams, we started to realize that houses like tat are possible in sgp too.. and this is what we found when we went house hunting...

Previous Post: I Like You

I Like You

Okay, so other than singing about us, Ace has other ways of showing his love..

The other day, he said to me, "Mummy, I like you... so I will buy Hello Kitty for you..." Wow, he is really observant.. and even knows that I like Hello Kitty! :)

And then another day, while we were in the car, he told me that he likes me and he wants to buy something for me. I told him that other than buying things for people you like, you also do things for them.. so I asked him what can he do for me...

"Erm..." he gave it a good thought.."I can clean the house for you!" he exclaimed...

And true enough, that night, he helped me mop the floor, wipe the door, sweep the floor...

Such a sweet little boy! :)

Previous Post: I LoveYou...

I LoveYou...

Ivy's present really brings out the SONG WRITING TALENT in Ace.

To date, he has written like at least 20 different set of lyrics to the song Jingle Bells and the other two demo tunes that are being played by his Piano toy.

I have with me here a video of him singing impromptu...



Anyway, for your info, his songs are usually about the things he likes.. they usually go like this..

I love Mama.. I love Mama

She is so beautiful....

I love daddy, I love daddy,

I love the whole family....

I love Mama.. I love mama... She is like chocolate cake...

I love the blue sky.. I love the blue sky...

I don't like bad people.. I don't like bad people...

I love mama, I love mama.. she is so beautiful....


I must say I am very honoured to be the main subject of his songs and it really feels good everytime he sings the "she is so beautiful..." part! ;)

Previous Post: Excuse Me!

Excuse Me!

I think Ace is rude because he has no idea of what it means to be polite... He probably still does not understand what it means to be polite or rude...

I discovered that because recently he has learnt how to say "Excuse me..."

So because it is a polite word, I always praise him and tell him he is a polite boy by reminding him that it is polite to use "excuse me". The end result is that he is really motivated to become 'polite' and so whenever he talks to me, he says, "Excuse me Mama, can I do this?"

"Excuse me mama," and then he continues to tell me what he wants to say... So his whole conversation is peppered with excuse mes.

The only problem is, sometimes, when he is frustrated or angry, even though he still says excuse me, he shouts and says it like he is scolding people...

There was once he got upset and did that and so me and Max asked him to remember to be polite and dun talk so rudely.

"But I said excuse me what..." he insisted.

And so I explained to him how when people speak, not only what you say is important but the tone of the voice is also important. I also explained to him that when you talk very loudly to a person.. it usually comes across as being rude.... I dunno how much of it he understood though...

But he at leasts continues to say "excuse me" in a much softer and gentler tone after that.

Previous Post: Happy Birthday, Ace!

Happy Birthday, Ace!

Ace had a very happy birthday this year...




Well, his birthday was kind of a week long affair... and here's a brief description of all the celebrations he has had and the pressies he has recieved so far...


Pressies received this year:

• Ang Pow- from Yeye, Nainai, Popo and Gong Gong and zen popo


• Magic Set- From Me and Max


• Spiderman Shirt- From Ah Yee and Net Net


• Panda toy + Writing books- From Shu Shu and Diana Jie Jie


• Little Big Club + Taoshu Bookset- From Ganma Karen and Gandie Zhiguang


• Toy Laptop- From Evon Ganma


• Thomas the Train Toy tat gives out steam- From Ganma Megan


• Ben 10 Bag- From Aunty Liming


• Piano with mic - From Teacher Ivy


• Remote control car- From Tiff, Mel and Germaine
• A snoopy and grumpy bear soft toy- From Diana's tuition kid


• Lots of hugs, love and warm wishes- from everyone!

And I must say his celebrations began real early too... early in the month, he celebrated with Ganma Karen and Gandie ZG at the Little Big Club concert... They bought him the best seats in the house and even thought him a light stick to wave in the dark... and after tat, we happily went to eat sakae sushi...

And then we also had breakfast with Megan Ganma...

But mainly, his celebrations revolve some form of food lah... he had quite a few parties being done.. One party was in Yeye's house and there was a cake and lots of food and everyone sing song...

And after that, he had a celebration in school where they sing song for him and he gave out some small little gifts after that. According to his teacher, he told his friends that he had a birthday cake that day and if they were not good boys, they would not get to eat the cake... hahahaaha... guess where he learnt that from???

And then there was a celebration with Evon and Kev at Zi Zai vegeterian restaurant... where he drank too fast and tat is why the last few photos were of him semi naked cos he made his shirt so wet we had to remove it..

Last but not least is of cos our own personal celebration lor. But I guess it was not a very 'successful' celebration so to speak. Since it was his birthday, that meant that he would get to eat something that he liked-- sushi!

So we brought him to sakae sushi.. it all started well since he was really happy there. And then Max told him that we would bring him to choose his own present witha $30 budget. But sadly, we walked around the whole of Tampines Mall and Ace just could not find anything he liked other than the magic set which was actually for 6 year old onwards.. so I was reluctant to buy him the set since I felt it was too difficult.. plus.. the set was beyond his $30 budget...

So in the end, we did not buy anything. To make up for it, we brought him to the arcade.. he won some tickets and won some chocolates but they tasted yucky and so I kept it.. Daddy said he would buy popcorn for Ace to eat in the movies but because the queue was so long, he was in such a huge hurry to go in we just went in.

Initially when they were showing the adverts, Ace was still engaged and ok. By the time the movie started, Ace started to throw a tantrum because he asked how come there was pop corn.. Daddy told him no pop corn but will buy him a cake later... or buy him ice cream later...

But Ace was indignant and proceeded to throw a full force tantrum in the cinema when the show was going on.. to so shut him up, Max went to buy pop corn for him even though the movie has already started. I mean I understand that it must have been disappointing tat one shot, he din get his present and he din get his popcorn tat was promised.. so I know why he felt really upset.. and exhibited such unusual behaviour.

Alas, Transformers was also a bad choice for a movie.. everything was dark.. the robots were dark, the background was dark, there was a lot of dialogue that Ace did not understand... Ace told me before we went in, "Cannot talk loudly in the cinema you know... it is rude..."

But children are inconsistent and have poor memory... After a while, Ace got bored.. started to talk loudly, command me to hold his popcorn for him and complained when i ate "HIS" popcorn (he said, "Eh, I ask you to hold, not to eat!").. all in a very loud voice. If not he asked me about the storyline loudly.. or he would get upset and kick the chair in front of him.. midway he turned around and started to climb up and down his seat and turned around to smile at the other children there. I swear there and then I would never bring him to the movies again...

"I dun like this boring boring show..." he told me 30min before the hsow was due to end and I had to carry him in my arms to make sure he doesnt go running around to disturb other people.

Anyway, when the show finally ended, Max was disappointed cos he felt it was a lousy show. But I guess it was also because he could not concentrate and keep having to put Ace in check.

And when the movie finally ended, it was almost 11 already.. (2.5 hours is really too long for a 4 year old manz) and so there weren't any cakes available.. so we told him we would replace it with ice cream instead.. which made him really happy as well.

The next day, just to make sure we kept our promise, we went shopping for toys again.. I then realized it is so difficult to shop for Ace now that he is older... mostly cos he has strong ideas abt wat he wants and dun want plus he has all sorts of educational toys at home.. there doesnt really seem to be anything else we can buy him...

Thank god we finally found a cheapo magic set tat cost $15. Nevermind that it is more suitable for a 7 year old.. most important is that it is a magic set. And surprisingly, Ace really liked the grumpy bear and the snoopy and hugged them to sleep.. so because we rather he hug a happy bear, we bought him a Tenderheart bear to replace the grumpy one.. we told h im we bought him tenderheart bear has a big heart and is a leader.. just like him.. plus he is orangy in colour...Ace's fav colour..

But I guess he was happy overall lah.. cos by the time he went to Trio Center on saturday, he still told Peiqin that it is his birthday and Teacher Peiqin still sang birthday song for him ;) hahaha...

<ah yee & net net>: Happy Birthday Ace, when u celebrate your 5th birthday we will be back soon!! love love love and miss miss miss u sooo much!!

<eVon>: We are enjoyed the birthday celebration with Ace!! haha! and Kev keep on telling me, Ace call me Gandie!

<eVon>: Thanks to you and Max for the dinner and companies.... I like Ace's magic show! haha! will be back in August!

<eVon>: Oop! Can you sent a few photo that we took with him! Thank you so much! Sent to my mail!

Previous Post: Too Much TV!

Too Much TV!

I think Ace is really watching too much TV.

Not only is he able to sing ALL the advertisement jingles, he has actually been totally sold by all the advertisements that he watches too.

The other day, he was supposed to bath himself in the room but he was inside for a long long time. I opened the door and realized that his body is still dry. I asked him why he was just washing the floor and he pointed to the hair on the floor... "I washing this.. whose hair is this?"

"My hair lor.." and then he said, "Mummy, you never go new york skin solutions, that is why you drop hair...."

And later in the day, when we went out for cake and I read out the different cake names for him and asked him what he wanted, instead of saying New York Cheesecake, he told me that he wanted New York Skin Solutions cake!?

Faintz!

Previous Post: Lion Mama

Lion Mama

Ace has a new nickname for me... he calls me Lion...

That's cos I recently bought a Herstyler Straightener and learnt to use it to curl my hair...

When I was practising, Max said, "Wah! Look, mama's hair like the lion's mane. Mama is a lion king now!"

And Ace giggled because he thinks it is so funny.. and after that, he kept asking me, "Lion, can you help me do this..."

"Lion, can you help me do that..."

Humph :S This is all Max's fault...

Anyway, remember how he said he like girls with straight hair? I asked him if my lion hair is nice and he said, "No, I like straight straight hair. I dun like lion hair..."

I wonder why... I mean, for most part of his life, I have had curly hair.. I only straightened my hair about half a year ago!

PS: Just a short note.. remember how he always says he wants to marry Xu Ai.. Xu Ai is leaving his school already.. and it seems that she has not been going to school for a long time already... so I guess, he just might want to marry someone else soon.. hahahaha :)

PPS: The other day when I was sleeping with him, I asked him if he still wanted to marry xu ai cos she is leaving school, he thought about it and said he don't want already. Now he wants to marry Tanya cos Tanya has many nice nice dresses... hahahaha...

Previous Post: I Don't Want To Eat So Much

I Don't Want To Eat So Much

"I don't want to eat so much..."

If you are very familiar with Ace and his habits, you will realize tat you almost NEVER EVER have a chance to hear Ace say tat.

But the other day, he actually voluntarily told me that he doesnt want to eat so much... hahaha.. surprised?

Well, not quite if you hear what his reason is...

"If I eat so much, my stomach got no space for the chocholate cake later. So I cannot eat so much now..." he insisted.

Well, I dun want to tell him otherwise as I think it is great that he has a good habit like this.. so he wouldn't end up over eating... And he does eat a decent portions of the healthy foods that I ask him to eat....

Previous Post: Ace Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Ace Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Well, now that you have seen the pics of Jay Chou to be singing...

Want to see a video of him in action?




Previous Post: Jay Chou In Making

Jay Chou In Making

It's interesting how when a child is given the right tool or instrument.. they suddenly develop talents! ;)

Here is Singapore's very own Jay Chou in making... Hahahah... (I especially like the last photo cos he looked like he is really singing some nice love song... just like Jay Chou when he plays and sing at the same time on the piano.. hahaha)

PS: The only downside is that he now wants to sing day at night.. when he wakes, when he plays, after his nap, before he goes to bed at night...

Previous Post: I Love You

I Love You

Ace has started to learn how to write...

The other day, he took out his pencil, started doodling and showed me this:

I asked him what is it..

He said he is writing...

And when I asked him what is he writing, he said, "I Love You..."

Wow.. not bad.. there is somewhat of a semblance.. hahahaha

Previous Post: Ace's readers

Ace's readers

Ace brought back two new reader books and because Daddy is not always at home to hear him read, I have taken a video of him reading these books...

Happy Bobby




我的幼儿园




Previous Post : Shaolin Kungfu

Shaolin Kungfu

There was this mediacorp show called Shaolin Senbing..

When I first watched the first episode, I already decided that this is a boring show and I will not like it.

So I told Ace to switch channels because it is so boring. But Ace told me, "But I like the boring boring show, Mama..."

And so, the show became known as the boring boring show..

In addition to that, Ace also loves the opening song and likes to imitate the kungfu that he sees inside.. and he has this paper stick that he uses to do what I call the Shaolin Kungfu dance.. he does it so often that he can now sing the song... and whenever he sees the trailer on tv, he tells me, "Mummy, look! The boring boring show!" and giggles.

Here is him trying to do his rendition of Shaoling Kungfu.. hahaha




Previous Post: Angry ACE

Angry ACE

Okie, I know, I shouldn't focus so much on angry Ace, what you focus on, you attract...

Still, I tot he is quite amusing when he is angry...

Just for those who cannot imagine Angry Ace, this is how he looks like when he says he is angry... (Power, look like KL Ah Yee or not??)

And then if you go into how he should smile and move... and he is not really in the mood to listen to you becuase he is still upset, he will pretend to sleep.. like this...

Hahaha.. funny rite!?

It is not so amusing though to Daddy, who has to see these two faces everytime he tries to send him to Popo's house so that we can go for our meetings..

Previous Post: Mummy, I am so angry!

Mummy, I am so angry!

Ace actually is a very expressive little boy.

Just that my only complain is that he gets angry easily. For the smallest things, he would fold his arm, show an angry look and get angry. After alot of careful explaination, encouragement and education, the phase passes...

But everytime me and max goes overseas without bringing him along, he would get really grumpy and get angry easily for the next 3, 4 days.. sometimes it lasts up to a week.

The other day, after Sakae sushi with his god parents, we decided to walk around. He saw ice cream and wanted to eat ice cream but I told him that we would eat later. Alas, we forgot about the ice cream until we were in the car...

"Mummy, we forgot to eat the ice cream!" he exclaimed.

I told him he would eat another day and then he started crossing his arms and telling me, "I am angry with you, Mama..."

And then I asked him what he was angry at.. suddenly he exclaimed. "You always go penang! Humph!"

And then I explained to him why I could not bring him along with me to penang.. because we went to Penang to my coach's new house in penang...

But he was still angry and so I told him I would not talk to him till he decided not to be angry.

And then he got even more angry. "I give you a chance ah.. is this the right thing to do?" He asked me. Probably he wanted me to pacify him.

And so I told him i already explained nicely to him why I cannot bring him to penang and if he still choose to stay angry, I would not want to talk to him becuase I don't like to talk to grumpy people.

And then he kept very quiet and I kept very quiet.

And suddenly, he changed tactic and told me, "I am so cold.."

I asked him if he wanted me to hug him and he nodded his head and so I put my arms around him to keep him warm.. after 2 min, he told me, "Mummy, because you hug me, I not angry with you anymore..."

"That's good... " i told him and asked him again why he was so angry.. cos I already explained to him why we could not bring him to penang earlier on and he already agreed that it was ok. "I angry because you forgot to let me eat the ice cream..."

Well, I am really pleased my son is so aware of his emotions and feelings..

Only thing though is everytime he gets upset, he forgets his manners and becomes really rude. According to nainai, the other day, she brought him to the market and someone passed her an important piece of paper. Ace wanted to take the paper and she did not want to pass to him and so Ace told her he was angry with her and then twisted her hand, got upset and ran away. So Nainai stared at him to warn him not to misbehave and then he told her, "看什么看！"

When Nainai told me this, I explained to Ace that it is rude to do that and it is not a smile and move thing to do... so I got him to say sorry to Nainai.. which he promptly did.. Good boy, Ace. Stay nice and happy, will you?

PS: I read somewhere that children this age will tend to talk rudely.. I wonder why...

Previous Post: Frog Sushi

Frog Sushi

My son has a soft spot for sushi...

In the past, if you asked him what he wanted to eat for dinner, he would always say chicken rice. And then some time ago when he discovered lor mee, it became "sauce mian" which is his designated name for lor mee...

Now, he has an 'improvement' in appetite and tells me, "I want to eat in a nice nice place... I want to eat SUSHI!"

The other day, he mentioned that he wanted to eat sushi and so we told him that if he was a good boy for one week and collected 7 smiley faces, we would actually bring him to a sushi place...

And so, Ace was a smile and move little boy for one whole week and because we haven't been to Tampines One before, we decided to bring him there to look for a sushi place. Alas, there was only one choice there.. sushi Tei.. which we go to rarely... since most of the time we go to sakae sushi...

Of course while he was eating, he was really happy lah... (see his satisfied look in the picture..)

Alas, I think he might have gotten used to the Sakae Sushi taste. Some time later, we were supposed to go for dinner with his ganma, gandie after they brought him to the Little Big Club concert... and as asked him what he wanted to eat, "SUSHI!" He exclaimed.

As an after thought, he added, "I want the frog sushi. The other sushi not so nice..."

We laughed until we *pengz*

Previous Post: Rider's Cafe

Rider's Cafe

We made a trip down to Rider's cafe the other day...


And when I told one little boy that he would see horses there, he was soooooooooooo excited. When we were driving into the cafe, he saw so many horses and he was so happy. When he finally got off the car and saw the horses from afar, this little boy told me, "I am not afraid of the horses!"


But when it became photo taking time and we asked him to go nearer the horse to take a picture, he refused to move no matter what happened....


Hahahaha...


Anyway, we didn't eat at the cafe in the end cos there was a long queue of reservations and we were hungry... Initially Ace was really upset cos he wanted to sit in the cafe to look at the horses jog past the windows and also, he wanted to eat at a "nice nice place".


He refused to leave even though we told him we were bringing him to eat cake. He kept insisting that he liked this nice nice place and finally only was willing to leave when we promised him that we will bring him there again another day... ( I wonder what does he constitute as a nice nice place.. i know he thinks of sakae sushi as a nice place.. but i wonder what he defines as a nice place...)


After tat, we made our way to some other cafe where we had breakfast and Ace learnt how to use a fork and a knife ;)







Previous Post: Handsome Boy Ace

Thomas The Steam Engine!

Well, it is June.. which is Ace's birthday month.. so that means he is going to start to receive lots of presents.


Anyway, my good son has been reminding me CONSTANTLY that his birthday is coming soon. "Remember to buy presents for my friends and buy a cake to school, ok? Mummy?"


Anyway, he has already received so far:

1. A BARNEY Little Big Club concert and Taoshu reading Books from Ganma Karen


2. A piano with mic from Ivy


3. A bag from Aunty Liming


4. and a thomas the train steam engine from Megan Ganma


5. A spiderman shirt from Ah Yee and Net Net
   

The steam engine is really cute lor.. it gives out light and gives out steam! And it is very safe.. because the steam is actually just very small droplets of water... he was so happy he played with it for a long long time... Before he sleep, play.. when he come home from school.. play.. he sometimes even wants to play with it before he goes to school! hahaha

Well, me and max havent decided what to buy him. I asked him the other night if he wanted me to buy a bed for him for his birthday and to my surprise, he gave me a really grown up answer...

"Don't need, we buy the bigger bed when Didi or Meimei come.. now I can sleep this bed..."

Previous Post: Handsome Boy Ace

Handsome Boy Ace

My grandmother has discovered one of the best motivating factors that will get Ace moving...

Even I didn't know this thing has such a huge impact on Ace!

Anything goes.. and anything he will do, as long as you tell him that he will look handsome if he does it... VAIN POT! hahahaha

According to my grandmother, as long as Ace is doing something you don't want him to do, all you need to do is to tell him, "Aiyoh... if you do this, you wouldn't look handsome..." and he would immediately stop doing it...

And if you wanted him to do something, all you needed to say to him is that he would look more handsome if it did it..

Anyway, if you asked Ace who is the most handsome, he would automatically say that it is him! hahahaha...

Previous Post: Ace Chua, Polite Little Boy