We Are Family

My son is getting real good at persuasion...

The other day, Max bought three gao deng kways and then i told Ace that we would share it. Since there are three, "Papa will take one, Mama take one and Ace take one..."

And Ace agreed... but after he finished his share, he wanted me to share with him.. "We are family right, Mummy, we should share...." he told me. I told him he already had his share and said, "But mummy, a family should share.. so you must share your gao deng kuay with me..."

A few days later, when we were having a meal in a restaurant, they put three pieces of dessert on our table and to counteract this possible scenerio, I told Ace that he can only start eating when all of us have finished our meal.

My very clever son still told me that we will share the dessert and just outright told us that he wanted two. "You share with papa.. we are family, we share..."

What a warped sense of sharing he has. "Well, Mummy really likes this dessert and I will not share with you.. so you eat your share.. there are 3 people and 3 pieces, so we get one each..'

"But we are family, you have to share with me..." he insisted... and in the end, Max offered to share with him and he was happy...

A few days later, he showed off his skill of persuasion again. We were eating lunch at my mum's place and we told Ace that he would be able to eat the KinderJoy chocolate only after he woke up from his nap.

He didn't listen to us and still opened it and said, "Too late.. I open it already..." And then he gave me a little bit of the chocolate and told me, "Next time when I big, I buy more KinderJoy for you ok, mummy?"

And then he fed his dad somemore chocolate and told me, "Next time I also buy Daddy more kinderJoy... you know why? Because I love you mah.... so you love me you should let me eat now mah.. right?" with a cheeky smile...

Buay tahan lor... He win lor!

Previous Post: I am MORE handsome

I am MORE handsome

The other day, we were having a bedtime conversation and then just to teased Ace, I asked him, "Who is more handsome, yeye or gonggong..."



"I am more handsome...."



"Then who is more handsome? Papa or Yeye?"



"I am more handsome!" Ace replied.



So I changed tactic..



"So Ah Yee and Mummy, who is more pretty?"



"Mmm.. Mummy!"



So I asked him why he didn't say it is himself.. "Boy must say handsome mah... only girl say pretty..." he reasoned..



"So why you say mummy is prettier?"

"Cos I like you mah..."



"You dun like Ah Yee meh?" I asked him



"Ah Yee in fa guo so long I never see her, I dun remember her face.." he said...



Well, she is coming back soon lah..



"Yeah!" And he clapped like curious george...



"Why are you so happy?" I asked him...



"Because I like Ah Yee and I like Ah Yee to come back..."



:)



Previous Post: Round Round Sour Sour One

Round Round Sour Sour One

While Ace eats very quickly by himself when he is in school.. it still takes some sort of motivation for him to finish his meals quickly by himself....

So to speed up the process of him feeding himself.. Gonggong would often buy some treats for him.. sometimes it is Honeystars, sometimes it is chocolate waffle biscuits, sometimes it is strawberries... and recently, Gonggong found something tat attacked both Ace's weakness for SWEET and SOUR foods--- PASSION FRUIT!

So when Ace eats, Gong gong will tell him, "After you finish your meal, I will give your the round round sour sour one..."

And Ace would clap his hand like Curious George and try to eat faster...

Hiya, I didn't know that he likes passionfruit so much.. if not I would have bought alot when we went to Malaysia cos they are dirt cheap since it is considered a local produce...

Okie.. maybe I will make passionfruit ice cream for him with my ice cream maker... But dunno need to buy how many to make a little bit of ice cream lor. Each passionfruit has so little meat and seed inside...

Previous Post: Self Intro

Self Intro

You know how whenever we ask someone to introduce themselves, they will say something like, "Hello, my name is Tan Ah Gao... I work in Dogs United company as a Dog Trainer...."

The other day, we brought Ace out and then he was playing at this playground and then somehow the children started to self introduce... and then when it was my son's turn, he said, "I am Ace, I am from Kinderland K1..."

Oh my gosh, so my son is now self defined by the school he goes to and the level he studies...

How would you introduce yourself?

Previous Post: Care Bear Broke Your Umbrella

Care Bear Broke Your Umbrella

Since the rainy season has started, it has started to rain fairly frequently..

The other day, while fetching Ace home from school, there was a slight drizzle when we came down from the car, it was still drizzling but we had shelter...

But when we got to the point where there was no more shelter, I realized that the drizzle had stopped but Ace still wanted to use the umbrella and so I took out my Hello Kitty umbrella for him to use.. which turned out to be a great idea...

Halfway, my son started telling me that he wanted to go to toilet and that it was very urgent. I asked him if he can wait till we reach our home cos we were not tat far away and he said he was very urgent.. so out of desperation, I used the umbrella to cover him while he peed and gave nutrients to the tree... sigh....

The worse thing was that Ace actually enjoyed peeing out in the open cos after that he told me, "I am very happy... I like to shee shee on the tree...." Max says I should not give in to such requests anymore lest it becomes a habit for him...

Anyway, when we reached home, Ace took my umbrella and brought it into his room to play. I jsut let him be lah..since I thought there was not much harm in playing with the umbrella.

Alas, I was wrong, 5 min later, Ace ran out of the room calling me, "Mama, mama!" with a shocked look on his face. "Someone broke your umbrella!" And he passed me the only umbrella in my house and showed me the broken metal support...

"Who?" I asked him...

"It's the carebear... he bang on the bed and spoil the umbrella..." he said with a totally straight face and with utmost sincerity...

Now, if not for the fact that he was actually pinning the blame on an inanimate object, I would probably have believed him.

"But the carebear is not alive, Ace, how can he spoilt the umbrella...tell the truth, Ace.."

And then he stuttered a little bit and tried to explain to me unsurely how carebear had broken my umbrella.

I reminded him that he should tell the truth and finally, with his eyes averted, he admitted that he had spoilt my umbrella. I told him that if he had been truthful and said he was sorry about spoiling my umbrella, I would have forgiven him but because he told a lie, he would have to go and do a time out...'

And so, he quickly told me he was sorry and tried to wiggle out of a time out by changing topic..

Previous Post: Only Boy Can Do

Only Boy Can Do

I think I mentioned before sometime back that Ace has learnt to 'kiss like a boy'.. very probably from the tv shows that he has watched...

Occasionally when he wants to please me or when he is in the mood, he will use his two hands to cup my face and then kiss me and twist his head and his lips so that it looked like we are having a passionate kiss.

Recently, he added a new trick and he started to even suck on my lips! "Oi! Where did you learn that from?" And then he smiled cheekily at me...

Anyway, yesterday, he tried to do the kiss again and then after thte he said, "Oh, I forgot to eat your mouth!" So I told him that it is ok to kiss but not to eat my mouth...

Sometimes I tease him and say I want to copy him and kiss him like that and then h will say, "No,only boy can kiss like that. Girls cannot..."

And then another time when I teased him and asked him to kiss Nai Nai like that, he refused.. seems like he was only willing to kiss me like tat.. is it oedipus? Hmmm...

Anyway, the other day, I asked him why he liked to kiss me like that, "Because I like you mah.." he said. So I asked him why didn't he kiss Daddy like that, "Boy cannot kiss boy like that.." he said.. Hahahaha...

Previous Post: Ah Mun's Wedding

Ah Mun's Wedding

Ace attended a wedding with us the other day.

Well, it was the wedding of one of Max's cousins and Ace met alot of his other cousins and uncles there and had a lot of fun running here and there.

Still though, I think he is probably not ready to attend any events that require him to sit still for too long.

Before the wedding, he promised that he would be a good boy and stay in his seat and once he reached there, saw the children, he was off like a rocket, running around the whole room and playing, dancing, picking up things from the floor and of cos.. doing PR (by giving and sharing his M&Ms with everyone...) And once he got started, it was very difficult to get him to stop and sit down again and he was the only one who was running around throughout the whole wedding.. like he was on drugs and on a high or something.. and he was supposed to be tired since he just finished his swimming lesson...

One interesting thing happened during the wedding. During the second march in, the tables by the sides were given some party poppers and because we didn't realize that our table was given 3 poppers, when Ace said he wanted a party popper, we asked him to ask the other jie jie from the toher tables to give him one.

He went to the table, hung around for a long time but din talk to them... and then he came back. And so we encouraged him again and then on his own, he decided to feed them with his chocolates first.. he gave them some chocolates and then after that hang around and slowly let them know that he wanted a popper and of cos, he got one in the end..

He is good ah.. I wonder where he learnt tat from... HAHAHAHA...

Previous Post: Mummy, I Can't Go To School

Mummy, I Can't Go To School

Ace is up to one of his cheeky antics recently...

On sunday, Max informed me that he would be on duty again the coming monday. When Ace heard that, the first question he asked me was, "Who is going to send me to school tommorrow?"

And when I told him that Daddy would do that, he was immediately at ease and then on monday, me and max went to fetch him home before Max left to do his duty.

"Why is papa not going home?" And then he threw and tantrum and he got upset that his dad was not coming home. "I want to sleep with Papa..." So I told him that he can sleep with me instead...

And then when we were sleeping at night, Ace told me that he would like Papa to go to work and he wants me to stay at home to cook for him and keep it till he comes back from school and then the three of us have dinner together... I guess all children like to eat and bond with the family....

Anyway, the next day when he woke up, he started sniffing and said, "Mummy, I can't go to school because i have flu and a cough..."

"But your teachers did not say anything leh..."I told him... since I noticed that his cough is rather infrequent and happens like once every 3-4 hours.

"But my friends say I cannot go to school... *Sniff* *Sniff* *Sniff*" he told me. And so I explained that people with flu like symptoms should stay at home in case they have H1N1 but he doesnt have that so he can still go to school.. "But I have.." he insisted... and continued sniffing very loudly once about every 2 seconds..

I bought a chocolate cake for him to eat as breakfast and so I told him, "If you are sick and cannot go to school, it means that you can't eat the chocolate cake and I will eat it instead..."

And the thing is.. he was EVEN willing to LET ME eat his CHOCOLATE CAKE so that he doesn't need to go to school...

When i told him that his Daddy would be coming home to send him to school BY CAR, suddenly he is ok and can eat the chocolate cake.. suddenly the sniffing is totally gone.. suddenly, he is all smiles..

Haiyo.. never seen such a creature of comfort man!

Previous Post: Will You Throw Us Away?

Will You Throw Us Away?

The other day while we were out, Ace accidentally tripped and the strap of his slipper broke.

"I don't want this shoe anymore, I want to throw away and buy new shoes.. This shoe old already.. that is why it spoil.. I want to throw it away.." he told me when we finally made it back into the car."

"Ace, when mummy and daddy grow old, we will also start to spoil...will you want to throw us away as well?" I asked him.

"No no, I want daddy and mummy to be with me. i won't throw you away.." he said holding and squeezing my hand with force.

"That's what he says now.. I then dun expect him to take care of me..." Max says.

Even though I have long decided that I will not depend on my children, I told him, "Ok, remember what you say now when you grow up, ok?"

And Ace surprised me by telling me, "When I become old, my children will also keep me..."

"Yes," I told him.." You know why? Your children will do what you do.. they will continue to love you and take care of you because you still love and take care of me and daddy..."

Previous Post: Painter Ace

Painter Ace

Ace was in a good mood and wanted to paint the other day.

He painted this and said he wanted to give it to me because he likes me.

Can you guess what the painting is about?

Ahem.. actually, those two red and orangy things are robots. According to Ace, The red one is optimus Prime with a triangle head and the orange one is also some sort of transformer robot.. hahahaha...

Previous Post: A Visit To Haikal's House

A Visit To Haikal's House

I visited Haikal together with Max and Ace again.

When I look at Haikal, I am so happy at the progress that he has made. When we first visited him, Haikal was often uneasy when he is at home and bites his hands. But he is always happy to see us and as we visit him more, we realize that he recognizes us and responds to the love that we have showered on him.... I feel happy thinking that we would have played a small part in helping him to get rid of the habit of biting on his hands. (I told him gently that he should love his hands and take care of them.. Ace reminded him not to bite his hands and then I sent love to him.. hoping it will resolve the emotion that is causing the hand-biting. After that, I never saw him wear the glove again and when i asked, his parents say he has stopped biting his hands)

Because we only visit them once every two months, we hung around and chatted with his mum a bit... we talked about how Hakal, despite being down with cerebal palsy and not being physically able, Haikal appreciates soccer and shouts "Goal, ma!" when he watches soccer on TV.

And then we talked about how Haikal's dad, despite turning 59 yesterday still has to wake up at 5am in the morning, walk 20 min to the MRT station, take an MRT to bedok and then be sent to his work place- a construction site and do 8-1o hours of labour intensive work... before he returns home...all that to earn a mere $900 to support his whole family (Haikal's mum is force to stay at home because taking care of him is already a full time job)... we were discussing if we can find a safer and easier job for him..

And then, Haikal's mum told us that Haikal will be turning 12 on December 2nd this year and a little shot of pain went through my heart....

I have always thought that people who are underpreviledged are pitiful. But when I got to know this family and many other poor families through my work with the lions club, I discovered these people whom I have deemed 'pitiful' are happy in their own way and are in no way worse off than me.. other than what money came buy, they are usually many times richer than most of us in spirit and in their hearts. So since then, I have decided to stop 'pitying' them and share out of love than pity...

But when the talk came to be about Haikal's age, I couldn't help but feel sad and a small tinge of pity....

I often wondered how Ace will be like when he grows up to be 10, when he is 12, when he turns 18, when he is 21, when he is 25..

And in my mind, when Ace turns 12, he will be having lots of fun... he will probably be playing some sports games in school and would be taking his PSLE and even score very well.. he might even start to realize that his voice is breaking or that girls are starting to notice him a little more.. At 12 years old though, all Haikal can do is lie on the floor and smile at us happily.

Haikal grunts when he talks and only can do one syllabul at a time. His hands are twisted and have lots of marks as he likes to chew on them and in trying to shake hands with him, he at best manages a high five with us. He cannot sit up straight without support or help and cannot even crawl. He needs help to go to toilet (which is why our Lions Club supplies him with XL size diapers), he cannot chew all that well (which is also why he needs the very expensive sort of milk powder to supplement his nutritional need). He is 12 but he looks only slightly longer than Ace who is 4. Haikal is also on medication which his mum says are for his kidneys and he has to take his medication daily.. till the day he dies...

Even so, Haikal doesnt seem to think he deserves pity or complains that life is unfair to him and neither does his parents.... everytime see them, they are always filled with love and joy...

Despite all his limitations due to CP, Haikal is just a little boy at heart. He appreciates a good joke and likes watching Mr Bean. He love watching musical dramas as he has a good ear for music. Like all little boys, he loves watching football and refuses to let his mum change channel whenever the football match comes on. And even though he is not able to express himself very well, he understands all that we say and smiles when we tell him he is handsome or when we talk about his upcoming birthday.

He understands when Ace is playing with him and plays along by looking at Ace and giggling at him. He smiles especially happily when we are sending all our love to him and he loves taking photos... immediately going into a smile the moment we take out the camera and breaking out into an even wider grin when we show him the picture.

The thing is this; most children with Cerebal Palsy like Haikal do not live to adulthood. The more severe their condition, the lower chance they have of surviving into adulthood. Since Haikal is unable to sit up straight on his own and unable to do many things, I would think his condition is quite severe.

A year older, seems to indicate that he has one year less left on earth... and that pains my heart...

I am sure his parents are aware of the low possibility of him making pass 20 years old but here they are, old as they are, doing their utmost to love their son and shower him with love, care and concern... using every ounce of strength they have to protect him and to give him a good life. This, I feel, makes Haikal a very lucky kid, possibly even luckier than children who have able bodies but no love from their parents at all.

His parents are really quite old (I think old enough to be my grandparents)... and while they are not down with any sickness, they too suffer from the aches and pains of old age and despite that, they have to carry Haikal to the toilet, carry him around, feed him, change his daipers and that is really not easy. If I think the 4 year old and 19kg Ace is a huge load to carry, I am sure his mother finds it much harder to handle the 12 year old Haikal on a daily basis.. and still she does it.. without complains and always with a smile on her face...

I guess, I should not pity them.. even if Haikal leads a short life, he would have lived a life filled with love... that is something worth rejoicing over and something to be proud of...

One day, when Ace is older, I would like to have a talk with him about this.. while it is important to desire to be successful and rich, and it is important to have money, we must never forget or neglect the richness in our spirit and in their hearts.

For now though, I am just glad to share the richness in their hearts when we also open our hearts and share our love and a little of what we have with them.

If you would also like to contribute to make Haikal's life better, you can help by doing the following:

1. Donating diapers (XL size) in kind. He wears like 3-4 pieces of diapers everyday.



2. Donating Pediasure Vanilla flavour milk powder in kind (cos he drinks that daily)



3. Donating a ticket to watch a LIVE football match in the Sleague to fulfill his birthday wish



4. Donating money in kind through our club. We would use the money to buy him diapers and milk. Our help has made it possible for his parents to bring him for a 3 day trip to malaysia.



5. Last but not least, if you are unable to donate any of the following, it would really be enough just to send blessings to Haikal and send him lots of love. It helps to know that others care for you and I assure you, Haikal can feel all your love :)

Previous Post: I Like People To Laugh At Me

I Like People To Laugh At Me

Ace came home from his concert and the next day when we wanted to go out for breakfast, he said he wanted to wear his concert costume.. including his GOAT hat which he wore when he played the role of a goat in "The Sound Of Music" in his school concert.



His Daddy thought it would gather too much unwanted attention and tried to persuade him not to wear the goat hat out but Ace insisted...



"But people will look at you leh..."



"Yeah, I want people to look at me," Ace said...



"But they will laugh at you and say this boy is so funny..." His dad tried to reason with him...



"Yes, I like people to laugh at me because it is so funny.." Ace said.



So his dad boh pian.. (had no choice) and had to leat him wear the hat out.



For me, I think Ace just liked to be different... and it is just an aspect of his being a mismatcher.. i guess he inherited from me because when I was younger, I had a quirky dress sense and liked to wear things that are a little special or attention grabbing too :)



Anyway, not many people noticed his hat except the aunty who sold drinks.. so I guess people are used to children going out all dressed in funny things...



I even once saw two girls dressed at princesses go to a hospital to visit their relative!

Previous Post: Taxi!

Taxi!

Ace is quite creative!

Waipo bought a new printer and when Ace found the printer box, he ran into Ah Yee's room, took out his markers that Ah Yee bought for him and started drawing over the box.

He drew four wheels (two on each side), two headlights and even a car plate with the numbers 2010.

He put a stool inside and started to 'drive' his taxi happily...

Later in the evening and 12 napless hours later, a very grumpy Ace got very upset when he realized that his taxi CANNOT MOVE and so he started to throw a tantrum...

But too bad, Ace.... Tantrums cannot move the car wor....

Previous Post: Gong Gong Is A Horse

Gong Gong Is A Horse

The other day, out of nowhere, Ace just ran out and rode up on gonggong's shoulder and said, "Gong Gong is a horse!"

I told him that Gong Gong is old already, cannot play this sort of games cos his back will ache. But he still refuses to come down until I went over to carry him.

On a side note, we had a very interesting conversation the other day. Ace asked me, "Is popo old already?"

"Yes," I told Ace and explainec to him that Popo is many years older and she is old because she has got white hair already. On this note, he said tat Popo and Gong Gong are old but Zhen Popo is not old because she does not have grey hair. Hahahaahah

Previous Post: New Ambition: Police Doctor

New Ambition: Police Doctor

The other day, there was this new show on TV about forensic scientists and pathologists and Ace asked me if that was a police show... Because I did not know how to explain their nature of work to him, I just told him that these people are police doctors :) They are the people who look out for the clues to solve crimes.

And then after that Ace became very excited and kept saying that he wantd to be a police doctor.

So we told him that he had to study well and get good results so that he can study in medical school and can become a forensic pathalogist...

"Yeah, I can do it..."

"Study is easy for you and you will do it well and get into medical school or go anywhere you want or be anything you want right?" Asked Max.

"Yes, Daddy, I can do it!" Ace said confidently with an affirmative nod.

Wonder what will be his next ambition...

Previous Post: Ace's School Concert

Ace's School Concert

Here are the school concert videos as promised...

There is a limit to wat I could do with my camera phone... and plus he is not always standing in the first row..

Here's him in the DO RE MI song... he's class is the third set of children who came in and he is third from the left.. the one who is always one step slower because he was busy looking out for me and Max in the crowd of spectators.. hahaha...




Here is one of him in the Goat Song.. he is the goat in the second row, second from the right...




Here's the one of him in the dancing segment where he was kind of like a moving prop.. hahaha. he is the little boy first from the left... But he is only in the first one third of the video though.




Here's the one where he sings So Long, Farewell.. he was in the last row and the frist one to say goodbye..... you have to be patient though cos the first part are the Just Kids jumping around.. but they are so totally cute!




Here's one of him at the grand finale..




This is one of him.. not wanting to leave the stage and wanting to say bye bye first before being pulled off stage...





PS:I've also uploaded the rest of it on youtube, you can go youtube to find the rest of the concert videos.. i wasn't sure when he will come on and took quite a bit of videos...

Previous Post: Mr Ai Swee

Ace Can Do STAR

Some updates about Ace's swimming class.. he has finally progressed to the point where he can do the STAR and float.. and the teacher has already started to teach him to practice the basic strokes of the freestyle so that he can get used to the movement..

Ace enjoys swimming so much that after his lessons, he doesn't want to go home ;)

Previous Post: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Mr Ai Swee

The other day, Ace was complaining about his lunch because he had a heavy breakfast and he was taking such a loooooooooooooooong time to finish his lunch...

And then I pointed to the soup and told him that the white fungus soup is very good for the skin and will make him very handsome. On top of that, it is good for the lungs and make sure he will not cough...

"Ok ok.. I want i want.. ! It's good!" he said.. immediately changing his tune and immediately finished the whole bowl of soup!

Previous Post: Ace Can Do STAR

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I left my hairband with diamante butterfly in Max's car the other day.

When we came home, he saw it, picked it up and then put it around his head and posed in a silly girly pose... and me and Ace had a good laugh about it...

And then when we reached home, Max took out the hairband and left it on the table and suddenly, my son was posing in front of the mirror..... and giggling WITH THE HAIRBAND ON HIS HEAD!

Swee boh?! Hahahahaha

Previous Post: Family Traditions

Family Traditions

I think family traditions are such an important part of growing up of a child... because these traditions are things that will give us the sweet memories for many more years and months to come...

For Ace, I think the faimly traditions he has so far enjoyed are things like drinking juice in the morning at Popo's house, eating fruits at Yeye's house, feeding the tortoises at Yeye's house, going to Lions Club to help the old folks, drinking home made soya milk, having before bedtime conversations.. and I hope these will give him lots of wonderful memories when he grows up...

I too, had my fair share of wonderful memories of family traditions... like us eatintg fish head pot every CNY, going over to my grandma's place to stay every holiday and forcing her to buy us tao huay and cai tao guay in the morning for breakfast... asking her to cook us a famous soya sauce chicken and eating canned lychees for dessert after that.....

My sis had a bout of nostalgia and decided to cook soya sauce chicken when she found the receipe in far far away france... alas, she says it is not as nice as granny's chicken.. so I have documented down how to cook Peng Family style soya sauce chicken.... Peng Family Cousins.. here you go...


Step 1: Put two table spoons of sugar into the pot and stir constantly using low fire... after about 15 min, it will turn dark brown and you can add a little bit of water....

Step 2: Put in the chicken and the black soya sauce and steam/cook for 20 min... constantly ladelling some of the sauce and pouring it over the chicken so that the chicken can turn back...



Step 3: Poke the chicken with a chopstick.. if the opening does not look pink or red.. it means your chicken is ready to be taken out to be chopped and served...




Previous Post: Dancing Ace