Brave Ace

Actually hor, me and Max sort of miss the days when Ace was still a scaredy cat... afraid of heights afraid of this and that.. as we feel that natural instinct and fear will keep him safe...

But after a few months of exposure in the international school with very active and vivacious playmates .. and some exposure in the local playgrounds that feature children who are all about having fun minus the manners and waiting for turns, Ace has some realization too that being a scaredy cat will not help you have the most fun...

So, he made a decision to be brave (or so he said to me) and since then, we have been seeing him climbing all over the places and doing many dare devil stunts he would NEVER ever want to try in Singapore.

The other day, brought him to the mall and he saw this stone structure (which is actually made of plastic lah) and Ace exclaimed that his school has this rock climbing like thingy too.. and he loves to climb it and then without a nary thought, he just climbed right to the very top and when I wanted to stand below to support him or catch him in case he falls, he asked me to go away and told me, "You don't have to stand here, Mummy.. I can do this by myself..."

Max felt his legs turn jelly as Ace ascended right to the very top and stood there, on his very own Mount Everest, looking very smug that he has conquered a new height:)

I talked to him about this on a seperate occasion and told him that I am very happy that he has shown much more courage and bravery and that he is having more fun now that he is more adventurous... But I told him that I was like any parent, worried for him...

"But Mummy want Ace to be brave.. so mummy reminds myself that I have to trust you... So Mummy trust you that you will know the fine line between having fun and being dangerous and that you always know what you are doing and that you will always take good care of yourself... can you promise me to always take good care of yourself?"

"Oh Mum, I always know what I am doing.." he said...

Anyway, being away from the very Chinese society here has allowed me to make some interesting observations about parenting in other parts of the world.

I have always thought that being careful and overtly protective is a very Asian thing... But I noticed here in Dubai that it is really more of a very CHINESE thing... cos the Indian parents are actually very easy going parents... As I observed, many a times, very young indian children as young as 2 or 3 are allowed to roam freely... jump up and down staircases and their parents would usually be oblivious to the dangers presented in front of them while typical chinese singaporeans like me and my friends will either make comments or think in our hearts, "Oh no! Is tat little boy/girl going to fall off? Why the parents let them loose like tat??"

Arabic parents seem to be pretty much the same way... when they bring their children to the playground, they usually just leave them there and just sit by the side and they dun seem to interfere with how their children play....

Ang moh parents also let their kids do pretty much what they like. They keep and eye on them but dun really restrict them unless they are in some real danger or wat... Young kids can crawl all over the place (in singapore we will say the floor is too dirty to do that).

Come to think of it, Chinese parents actually also allow their children to roam freely.. (And without pants somemore lor)..

so conclusion, our very super protective style of parenting is merely SINGAPOREAN style.. Kiasu, Kiasee...wahahahahaha... People always say Singaporeans cannot think cos we always follow what our govt ask us to do.. but what to do? Since young we have been conditioned by our parents wor:) hahahahaha...

Anyway, just very happy that Ace is much more brave n willing to do alot more now:P

Previous Post: Emma's Christmas Card

Emma's Christmas Card

Well, since Ace was a xmas baubel in his school concert, we decided to use his costume as a decoration for our door :)

Ace also recieved many xmas cards from his loved ones and his classmates.... and so we used them to decorate our wall:)

Then one day, Ace came home from school and showed me a very special card:)

Hehehe.. it was a christmas card from the girl he said he liked in his class called Emma;) wahahaha.. so I teased him and asked him... "Emma sent you a card????? Wah...."

And then Ace became very paiseh and shy and tried to hide his head and giggle behind his hands.. wahahahhaha

He looks so sweet when he is embarrassed right?:P wahahaha





And most importantly, he is very happy lah:)


Anyway, while we are on the topic of christmas;) I got my christmas pressie from Max-- tadah.. KINECT.. that comes with kinect adventures and Joy ride.. we also bought other games like Dance Central and Kinect Sports...

My son is super excited lor.. it is the first thing he wants to do when he comes home.. and for about 2 weeks, he has been coming home, doing his homework quickly, eating quickly and just doing everything happily and quickly just so that he can play with kinect.. wahahahah:)


But after two weeks of it, he not so excited to play liao.. but still tries to complete his tasks, albiet a little slower and with less enthusiasm so that he can get to watch The Simpsons and logon to the dairy of a whimpy kid website to play games...



In addition to the Kinect, Ace also got a remote control car from Max as a christmas present. This remote control car is quite cool lor..it can go really fast and can even drift:) hehe

Previous Post: Max Gets His Head Chopped Off!!!

Max Gets His Head Chopped Off!!!

I read online that there will be magicians performing in Mirdiff City Center in line with their xmas promotions... so one weekend, while we were free, we made a trip down to watch the magicians perform.. the two magicians are arabic magicians, Gino an Costa.. I think Gino is sort of like the Chris Angel in the arabic world as he has his own magic show on street magic here in this part of the world..

Anyway, for the first half hour, Costa the magician was up first... He was more of a hit with the kids as his brand of magic is more humour.. and his magic tricks were sort of easy to guess how to do (after we hav watched many episodes of breaking the magician's code).. hahahaha..

The magician was looking for people to help him with his tricks.. first time he picked Max, Max act blur and purposely ignore him... but second time he called Max again.. max gamely went up the stage.. Max has this sort of look.. always go where also kenna call up the stage to do things one.. I guess he has the "I am fun and game for anything" sort of look.. hahaha

Costa asked Max where is he from and Max said "Singapore.." and the world very small lor.. our frens who were also in the mall heard this word and got interested to look at the stage.. see the botak head look very familiar from far and came closer to take a look.. wahahhaa...

First he got Max to help him with some sort of card trick... (Here is a video of how it worked)


Then came the HEAD CHOPPING ONE:)

Gino told Max he is going to chop off his head:)



I asked Max what he was thinking when he was there and he said he was also slightly afraid that the trick might fail and he might be hurt.. but then I know if the trick is not safe, they wun ask LIVE audience to do one lah... Ace, however was dam kan cheong, thinking his dad is going to lose his head.. from sitting down, he stood up and looked anxiously at the stage...

This is how the trick went..


When the trick ended, Max heaved a sigh of relieve and Costa said he will make something for Max's son to thank him:)

Despite Ace wanting a dinosaur.. Costa only knew how to make dog.. wahahaha:)

So our frens came up to us and said Hello after tat:)

Then after hanging around abit, we realized that Gino was coming up next.. he is more like Liu Qian.. his magic is very grand music type one... first trick is the unimpressive "let the table fly" trick....


Then it built up to a slightly more interesting one where they would cover his assistant in a curtain and everytime they lifted their curtain down after 3o seconds, she would be in a different outfit!


The highlight had to be this.... He got a random member of the audience, hypnothized her and made her float in the air! I cannot figure out how this is done man.. but anyway, this is my favourtie trick.... and here is a video of how the trick went...



This is part two... and the girl just wakes up and din know wat happened!


The next trick is the magician getting an audience who wears a coat.. he gets him to tie up his beautiful assistance in all sorts of crissed crossed tricky knots.. double knot somemore...


Then after tying many knots and you are sure she cannot escape right.. they raise the curtain for a minute or so with the man with coat standing in front of her and tadah, now they are still in the same position but the girl has the coat underneath her knots!!!

Aint it amazing?

Anyway, after the care of losing his dad.... Ace claimed tat his fav trick is the one tat Max almost got his head chopped off... wahahahahaha....

Anyway, we walked around a little bit and decided to go supermarket shopping and head home..


And while walking in the shops, Max bought me a new pair of Klipsh earphones.. HEE :) Excellent noise cancelling... now we will each have a pair of earphones when we take plane together when travelling:)

Previous Post: Soccer With Daddy

Soccer With Daddy

Because Ace stated in his SOS book that his term go is to get better at playing soccer, while I was out on a girls day out with Fayth, Max and Ace went out to have some soccer fun too:) But alas, right after they bought a ball from the shop (no kidding, they HAVE to buy Liverpool one which is more expensive..) Ace fell asleep in the car and by the time they reached the park, I was already done! So Max came to pick me up and we went to another nearby park to play...

First Max tried to give Ace specific instructions on how to dribble the ball...

While I just camwhore away:P

But Ace seem to have problem following the instructions as his body cannot seem to move accordingly.. or maybe he doesnt really understand the instructions fully..



In the end, Max gave up, just let him play however he wants and Ace seem to be playing much better after tat! wahahahahaaha








Afterward, we went to GREEN CITY.. an indian restaurant to eat our dinner.. (I tried going in the afternoon with my girl friends but it was closed.. so I still got to eat there in the end.) Their egg prata is very special and very yummy too....


At the end of the meal, we were served this. These are spices with sugar tat indians take to freshen their mouths after a meal. Max told Ace it is nice and asked him to try... which Ace gamely did..

Eww... what taste is that??


Can LONG BIAK lor... wahahahahahahah

Once Ace realized he was tricked by daddy, he swore never to eat this again.. wahhahahahaa

Previous Post: Ace's Random Doodlings