Lego Master Builder Ace

 Sometime back, Aunty KP posted in her FB that there is this lego event where you can build a police car and bring it home..

Ace was excited when he heard it and said he wanted to go with LL... but LL has already attended but we decided to try to arrange to go together lah... Alas, we were unable to find a good timing to go early (as I forsee there will be long queues).

I realized that on Saturday, before Ace's dance practice, we had some time and we will be in the vincinty of the event and so I thought maybe we can try our luck first..

Wah.. we were in luck lor. The event started at 12 and when we went to reckee at 11am, the person said to come back at 11.30 and they will start.. and true enough.. it started at 11.30 for us.. no queue! shiok!:)

 Part 1 you supposed to run around the store and fill in the number related to this picture you see in a worksheet they give you..

 After 5 min of running around (could have been faster but we kept missing out the last pic and couldnt find it for a long time.. hahaa), finally time to build.

They give you some basic pieces and you only get one set of the basic piece but the rest you can just take more if you need. They just ask you to please also give other children a chance and dun build it too big :)

 Our good friend hor.. fix and fix for a long long time.. fix liao.. new idea, take apart, fix again.. by the time the next two batch of children go in and build cars liao.. HE WAS STILL BUILDING!:) wahahahaha...

And then, I saw this mother who was really very interesting... she brought her children there and then when her daughter got the lego parts, she was rather overwhelmed. I guess she dun play lego often. And so she told her mother, "I don't know how to do this..."

And then the mother said, "Just use your imagination..."

Exactly the answer I will give.. and I thought she will leave it at that..

And then the girl started fiddling around with the lego pieces and the mother got impatient and started "guiding" her... "First you have to start where? start where? Start at the wheels right? And then after the wheels, what do you do??"

And then she also instructed her son to build the car in the way she thought it should be built and told him where should which item go to...

I want to laugh but dun dare to laugh out loud lor. So much so for using their imagination... Max says no wonder they are very lost what to do lah.. maybe they have never gotten a chance to work things out for themselves before..

 And then he gets a certificate of completion..

 His car is odd shaped and made of odd parts:) wahahaha.. But he gives thought to each process one.. see the sticks sticking out? Other children use to for driving or maybe as a radio thingy.. he says that provides WIFI for his police car.. hahaha


Anyway, in the end, we canceled the appointment and Ace did not get to go again lah.. cos exam period. I dun think we have the time to go twice.. plus.. I told him we could still arrange for a play date after he finishes his exams.

Then we went walk walk in courts and saw this.. ooh... my my.. reminds me of Lan Kwai Fong! I miss Dai Gor's soup!!! Wahahaahhaa..

Previous Post: Being Funny Vs Being Rude

Being Funny Vs Being Rude

Recently, Ace has started to be quite a bit of a smart mouth.

Sometimes it is outright rude and so I will correct him there and then..

But sometimes what he says really make me 啼笑皆非.. And I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

The other day, we were invited to Nai Nai's house for dinner. And Ace says he wanted to bring his semi precious stones over.

When he left dubai, one of is good friends gave him some semi precious stones as a memento. The boy's dad was a gemist and gave him some and so he has a rather large collection and so he just gave Ace a few. Ace treasured them very much and treats them as his treasure..

He said he wanted to bring them and show them to Yeye and so he brought them along.

Turns out that Yeye is also a lover of semi precious stones and never in a thousand years will we imagine the 9 year old and the 65 year old discussing about semi precious stones together! hahaha.. Max says Ace is a young lao uncle:) wahahaha... (It's true, Ace likes alot of uncle stuff like he likes to eat canned choi sum, likes to eat gu cai guay, prefers MJ to Justin Bieber..)

Then leh, Yeye started showing off all his collection and said he had this emerald which is "very expensive" (relatively compared to Ace's man made ones).. After he finished showing it off to Ace, he asked Ace to put it back into the box and place it back into the display cabinet.

And so Ace asked him, "This one is very expensive meh?" (He  not very happy Yeye said his emerald is not so good as compared to the one Yeye have..) "But why you just put it here? It is a USELESS very expensive emerald..." he said with a smug look. "If it is expensive, you should make into something and wear it everyday not display it in the cabinet..."

Wah, this line about the stone being a very expensive USELESS stone really 一针见血and pierced right through Yeye's heart. Cos he really loves his stones...  But it was also super funny.. so Yeye dunno whether to laugh or to cry.. but end up cannot help it laughed and laughed...

And then just as we were about to go home, Ace found this stool that can be folded up and carried around and he carried it and said, "Oh, we are going to vietnam already...!"

And then he started walking around the house and after every 10 steps, he will say, "Aiyah, leg pain... " and opened up the chair to sit down.. and so everyone laughed because by now then we realized he was trying to imitate Yeye. Ace found this really funny and started laughing himself and he repeated a few times and laughed  until he was rolling on the floor...

But on our way home, I told him that even though I know he meant it as a joke and it was really funny and it made Yeye laugh rather than hurt Yeye because Yeye loves him very much and has a great sense of humour as well... but it is not nice to laugh at people and much less talk about or talk to your elders like that because that is actually bordering on being rude..

PS: He found a pair of sunglasses and promptly amused himself by doing this.... and declaring, "Mummy, I am ah beng!" Hahahahahaa...

Funny boy...

Previous Post: Soka Youth Cultural Festival

Soka Youth Cultural Festival

When  I returned to Singapore, my mum kept asking me if I wanted to sign Ace up with the Junior Pioneer Division meetings. I think Ace also sort of missed all the "parties" he had in Dubai and so I decided to sign him up.

The first meeting we attended turned out to be the general meeting where the whole Singapore congregated at one meeting point. As a result of that, I got to meet up with so many of my koteketai friends.

I joined koteketai when I was 9 and only left when I was in my early twenties :) So I was really happy to meet these long lost friends again as I have not been in touch with them for the past ten years or so.

Ace was equally happy.

As the children were grouped according to where they were staying or where they go to school, Ace  met other children who were going to Yuneng Primary School and most importantly, he found out that his class monitor was also in the same group as him!


Then I found out that there is a Youth Cultural Festival going on and I had such great memories of myself in those festivals.

Throughout my life, I have taken part in quite a number of Soka Youth Cultural Festival.. the first one I took part in when I was 8, doing a hoola hoop dance and the last few with my koteketai friends :)


So I asked Ace if he wanted to take part. I think he will find it fun and learn a little about group working and get a good work out too:) hahaha... Initially, he asked me what dance they were dancing and told me that he likes to dance but only likes to dance his own style..


But in the end, he found out that his monitor is also taking part and so he decided to take part as well ;)


So far, he has attended a few practices and first practice complain the steps are so simple and that he was very bored because his class monitor was sick and did not attend the practice..
Second practice  he complained that his leg very pain...

I am hoping he will soon warm up to the people there and start to enjoy YCF as much as I did when i took part:)

On a positive side, many of my koteketai friends have kids taking part and so it is like mini gathering for us during their practice:)

Previous Post: Shi Shang Zhi You Ba Ba Hao/ 世上只有爸爸好

Shi Shang Zhi You Ba Ba Hao/ 世上只有爸爸好

平时不唱题的爸爸为了儿子的考试陪他唱题:)
Max doesn't usually  chant but just to support Ace on the eve of his composition exam, he has decided to chant with his son. 

Hopefully, it will help Ace create miracles for his chinese composition exam.

Previous Post: Vegeterian Jap Food

Vegeterian Jap Food

we were hanging around in town and wondering what to have for dinner..  my two month old gucci wallet was spoilt.. the button came off and we had to bring it back for repair.

After that, we made our way to Marina because I bought some bedsheets for Ace online and we were supposed to collect them from the shop in Marina. Max knocked off late and by the time he was done, we were already in Marina and it was time for dinner.

So he picked us up and we were discussing what to eat...

In the end decided to try the vegeterian jap food I have heard so much about at this restaurant tat serves fusion and jap food...

Ordered a curry rice to share with Max and Ace ate our jelly ;) haha..

Ace's favourite inari...

And since we are here, must order the vegeterian sashimi!:) hahaha..

But leh, I must say that after we finished and paid for the meal, I think I still prefer to eat at sakae sushi. The price is about the same but the inari and stuff taste better.

But well, been there done that!:)

after that, we walked around the place and saw a book fair going on.. many second hand books were on sale and we saw this garfield comic that me and Ace saw in Takashimaya earlier... and Max bought it for Ace and he was soooo happy cos he paid like a quarter of the price for it :)

Previous Post: Make A Guess!

Make A Guess!

The other day, Gandie was sorting his stuff and found this picture. He sent it to me and asked me to guess when this photo was taken...

Can you guess? ;)


I thought Ace looked like he is 3 years old here.. so I guessed sometime around when he is 3 and gandie says I am quite close cos this was taken a few months after he turned three... He was impressed.. BUT hor, I am the laobu leh, of cos I sort of can remember lah:) hahahaha..

What about this.. can you guess how old Ace was when he took this photo?

Previous Post: 100% Improvement For Chinese

100% Improvement For Chinese

The last time I updated, Ace scored something like 24.5 out of 100 marks for his Chinese test.

So well, it was a rather bad failure.

Because of that, he sort of lost some confidence and kept telling me that his Chinese is the worst in class.

Just so he is not that stressed, I told him, we must at least aim to improve himself by 100% and score at least 50 out of 100 for his end of the year exam. But of course, our final aim is that he improves so much till he is on par with his classmates. But for this exam, we shall only aim for the passing mark or more.

Today, Ace came home and told me that he scored 24.5 out of 50 for a chinese diagnostic test in school.. which works out to be roughly 49 out of 100.

Wow.. I told him is good try. Cos he improved by 100%.

BUT.. it is still a failing mark and he is only 1 point away from passing... But I told him, it means that the 50 passing mark is a very very possible outcome! He just needs to keep working on his chinese and continue to put in little bit of effort everyday. At this point, he gave me a happy grin and I know he gained a teeny bit more confidence for his Chinese now.

These days, I am trying my best to encourage Ace along because I know screaming at him doesnt work at all. And so I try my best to encourage him and I explain to him that I keep trying to talk to him about exams and the desire to do better because I want to encourage him and help him score better in this coming exam and that we can do it together!

I read the other day that there are two types of children in this world. The type who believe that people do well in things because of their inborn talents. And the other type who believe that all talents can be acquired or learnt. I asked Ace to guess which group of children tend to fare better in tests.

Ace says he doesnt know.. but he knows that he belongs to the first category.

So I explained to Ace that the studies show that children in the latter group tend to do better in their studies in long run. That is because, for children in the first group, because of their limiting belief that people are defined by their natural talents, they will tend to give up easily because if they meet something they are not good in, they will think, "No point working hard since I will never be good in it anyway..."

But children in the latter group will think, "No problem. As long as I learn, I can get better at this!" And so they improve and eventually score better overall.

I asked Ace now that he knows this, which group does he want to belong to?

He says he prefers to adopt the second thinking. And I told him because he already believed the first thinking for some time, it will take a constant awareness and willingness to think differently for him to  change this mindset and attitude since many of our thoughts are also "habits".

I reminded him that he is good today in Science and English.. not because he is merely "talented" in it. He did not used to be good in science, he got better because he got interested and read more about it and put in more effort for it.

I certainly hope to see that he can score a 70 or more in the near future for his Chinese. Ganbate ne, Ace!

Previous Post: Breakfast With Carrie Jie Jie

Breakfast With Carrie Jie Jie

Heard about this breakfast place called Wild Honey a few Singapore holidays ago..

When I returned from Dubai for a holiday back home, I will try to arrange to go with my sister or my hubby but somehow always never manage to get a reservation etc...

The other day, Carrie came back to Singapore for a holiday and we decided to do a get together... she suggested that we visit Wild Honey and I was happy to try :)

Blessings in disguise that she suggested this place cos while asking GoogleMaps how to get there, I found out that I actually have a direct bus to Orchard! ;) How cool is that!

Anyway, even though it was school holiday for Ace.. exams were coming.. so we took the chance to do reading and ting xie on the bus journey. I think pple must think I am super kiasu :) hahahaha..

Ace ordered scrambled eggs as usual...

I did some sort of tunisian breakfast.. reminded me of turkey:) Actually hor, I have thought of making something similar for dinner before :) But I never got around to doing that...

Carrie's english breakfast looked fantastic too!:)

Ace and his very "good" photography skills.. ask him to take photo for us in the end is like tat..

Then we went with Carrie to do some shopping for things she want to bring back to Dubai.

Nevermind.. we take one more shot together we say goodbye.. hahaha :)

Anyway, many thanks to Carrie for the lovely treat at Wild Honey. It's delicious!:)

Previous Post: King Of Karaoke

King Of Karaoke

 We are so happy we are back in time to celebrate our Lions Club's 19th anniversary:)

When we told Ace that we were going for the dinner, he asked if he could come along as well and so we asked if it was convenient and since they said ok ,we brought Ace along..

 He was useful.. cos can help to take photos:) wahahaha

 The room that we booked came with a karaoke system.

Initially, Ace came to me and told me he wanted to sing song. I told him he can go choose whatever song he wanted to sing.

And he said, "But I am embarrassed.."

"Then you dun sing lor.." I told him.

But maybe the gathering that is filled with adults is a tad boring for him.. so in the end, he finally went to fiddle with the machine to sing.

And then people started clapping for him.. and he really got into his element and even started DANCING! Wahahahahaaha...

Here is his Karaoke "performance".

I asked Ace afterward if he will like to go karaoke with me in future and he said "YES!" Wahahahaha.. now that he has some songs to sing, maybe not so boring.. but leh, I usually sing chinese songs at karaoke ;) wonder my love for chinese songs will rub off him a little if we karaoke together:)

Now he is asking me if we can buy a karaoke system to sing at home:) hahaha..

Previous Post: World War 3

World War 3

I don't like to go into Ace's room.

If I can, I try NOT to go in because every time I go into his room. I feel very pek chek.

I am a messy person by nature but my son's room's mess is even messy people like me cannot tahan one...

This is just a SAMPLE of a part of his room...

Everytime I go into his room, I feel as if I have stepped into a war zone... World War 3... and then there are dead bodies, booby traps and bombs everywhere... if you are not careful, you will be trapped.. or worse, KILLED!

Hahahahaa...

While chatting with other mums about their children's room, I described how I felt Ace's room is a war zone and they told me I am very funny:)

I guess it is not so funny when you have to live with it everyday.

Previous Post: The Luckiest Little Boy

The Luckiest Little Boy

Ace was REALLY "LUCKY"!

On Childrens' Day, his teacher gave out some small packets of skittles to the whole class...

And when he reached home and happily opened out his packet....

THERE WAS NOTHING INSIDE!

Wahahahahaaha... so he was rather upset..

I told him he can just tell his teacher about it and if she has extra, maybe she will give him one more packet..

Over the weekend, he met his class monitor N at the dance practice (they are both taking part in the Soka Youth Festival dance item) and found out that the monitor was also unlucky... the teacher also gave them a flapping pen each and his monitor got one that had no ink...

"So, he is more unlucky than me..." he told me.. feeling slightly better because he is not the most suay person.. hahhaa..

The following week when he went back to school, his told his teacher what happened and she exclaimed.. "Oh dear, you are really unlucky.." and promised to give him a replacement packet.

Ace says though, he is going to write in to SKITTLES to complain.. wahahaahaha :) And he will tell them to "Please check that all your skittles packets have skittles in them and don't make children disapppointed! That is a very bad thing to do..." Hahahahaha...

Previous Post:  Thoughts About Racial Harmony

Previous Post:

Thoughts About Racial Harmony

Ace came home the other day with his portfolio and only then did I realized that one of his works got displayed in school.

Apparently, during racial harmony, they got to watch a video and after that, they had to write a reflection about the video they watched.

I am a little surprised that Ace is rather insightful :)

Good job, Ace:)

Previous Post: Cockroach Of Taiwanese Drama

Cockroach Of Taiwanese Drama

Today, we went to Popo's house after school and when we near the lift, Ace suddenly gave a shout and pointed on the floor... which gave me quite a fright.

When I got over the fright and took a closer look at what he is pointing to, I saw that it was a overturned cockroach.

"Dead cockroach.. you shout so loud for what?" I asked him.

"It is not dead lor. It is still alive.. see, it is still moving.." said Ace.

When I took a closer look, I realized Ace was right and the cockroach's feelers and legs were moving slightly..

"So is that the cockroach of Taiwanese drama?" Ace asked me..

"Huh?" I was puzzled why cockroaches were linked to Taiwanese drama.

"You know mummy.. the cockroach is like the dying people in Taiwanese drama.. they always want to die and still never die for every long and still move and move and keep talking... and 讲很多废话..."

Hahahaha.. sometimes I really marvel at my son's sense of humour and where he get all his "logic" from :)

Previous Post: I Am Inspired!

I Am Inspired!

Sometimes having conversation with Ace is very interesting.

The other day, on the way to school, Ace was telling me about his day in school the day before.

"Yesterday, mummy, our music teacher gave us a talk about how and why not to be egocentric.."

"Wah.. egocentric is a big word.. do you know what it means?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it means you only think of yourself as the most important and everything is just ME, ME, ME... it means you keep thinking like you are the best person in the world and that you are better than everyone else..."

Ok.. so far s good. But I was curious WHY would the music teacher be the one giving this talk.

"Because there were a few boys in our class who kept fighting over who should carry the books and so the teacher gave us this talk because they were disturbing the class with their fighting.."

I still don't quite get when the teacher will give this talk because the boys are fighting over who should help her.. but I guess it could be because also Ace did not understand the full story and so could not express it fully to me. But before I can wonder more... he told me, "And then I was inspired..."

Wah, like that inspired liao ah.."Inspired to do what?" I asked him.

And then Ace went on to tell me, "Today, we learnt a beat called a pocket full of stones... and then my teacher gave 10 points to my group because I made up my own..."

I asked a few more questions and found out that Ace came up with his own beat and his teacher gave his group 10 points because he was creative.

His ditty went like this.. "What do you do, with a pocket full of money? You buy all the latest toys and gadgets. That's what you do with a pocket full of money."

But hor I still did not understand how and why this is linked to him being inspired and the talk about being egocentric.

Turns out, he was trying to tell me two different things at one go. His music ditty has nothing to do with what he was inspired about. Hahahahaa...

"So how were you inspired and what did you do?" I asked him.

"I was inspired after her talk to do kind things and so I did kind things after that. Like I let people choose their folder first when my teacher was giving out the children's day present."

Good job, Ace:) Please continue to be kind... not only when you are inspired :)

Previous Post: I Miss Lan Kwai Fong

I Miss Lan Kwai Fong

 For the past few weekends, whenever we go out for a meal and ask Ace what does he want to eat, his reply is always... "I want to eat brinjal!"

Ace never used to like brinjal. When he orders a dish that comes together with brinjal, he will usually pick it out and pass the brinjal to us...

So I was really surprised and asked him, "You eat brinjal meh?"

"Yeah, I eat liao. I started eating just before we left dubai.."

So why is he eating brinjal again and again?

That is because at his favourite restaurant in Dubai called Lan Kwai Fong, we always order this favourite dish of his called Jia Chang Doufu.. and it is toufu stir fried with brinjal... and he says he misses LKF... hahahaha..

As I was detoxing, I was drinking soup all the time but poor Max had to eat brinjal every meal every day for a few days to satisfy Ace's craving! hahahaha...

I tried to recreate the dish again myself but without a recipe, it was tough for me leh... so I was not successful. I wish I can email Dai Gor (owner of the restaurant) and ask him to teach me how to cook the dish.. and also to tell him THAT I MISS HIS SOUP VERY MUCH! Hahahaha..

Cos when we visit, he always gives us a bowl of free soup! It is cantonese style boiled for many hours type of soup and is my comfort food in Dubai.. and it is one of the reasons why I frequent this restaurant at least once a week or once every two weeks when we werre living there!:)

Dai Gor, 我很想念LKF的食物！想念lychee ribena, 想念菠菜三色蛋，想念家常豆腐，想念你的炒米粉，想念粉皮还有你那用很多小时来才能做得那么“好味”的汤！

PS: That is Ace after he finished his meal.. very boh liao and trying to do XI, NV, AI and LE.. but they all look like the same cheeky face to me! hahahah...

Previous Post: Our House Has Good Fengshui!

Our House Has Good Fengshui!

The other day, Ace exclaimed that our house has very good FENG SHUI!

Why?

Cos when it is not raining, it is usually quite windy.. so alot of wind coming in.. especially when his room is next to an air pocket and messy Ace will have paper flying all around his room when that happens:) wahahahaa..

And then when it rains, the water always splashes right into the room and once even flooded the bay window area when I tried to leave a 2cm gap when closing the window so that it is still airy.

And so, Ace declared that since this house has alot of FENG (wind) and alot of SHUI (water), it has very good fengshui.

Also, as a result of living right in front of a park, usually after rain, there will be insects visiting our house one. Usually they are varieties I cannot name. I just pick them up with tissue and throw away.

Yesterday though, a different visitor came...



Max took picture and posted on FB and we were told that this means good luck.

The praying mantis prayed to me and asked me to help it go out.. so I asked Max to direct it out to the open again. Hope he has reached his home and thank you for gracing our home and bringing us luck:)

PS: I am amazed that even though I stay so high floor hor, my house still got so many insects fly in and out. Probably the result of having a park near my house. The strange thing is.. they all like to "come and die" in my house. I always find dead insects here and there in the house. I cannot imagine how they got here except that they decided they will come here and die. I wonder if it is because they find this is a very peaceful place to die.. hahaha...

PPS: Ace realized that usually after rain, there will be lots of visiting insects in the house. And because he does not want them to visit his bedroom.. he has taken to sleeping with ALL WINDOWS closed and the door closed. That is so crazy.. have to keep opening the window for him.. his room right next to wind pocket lor.. so windy he dun like go and close the window.. what a waste man!

Previous Post: Can You Say Sorry To Me

Can You Say Sorry To Me

As discusssed... Ace kenna HMFD...

BUT.. his is a very very mild case of HMFD... so for him, it is just a one week school holiday.

And leh, ask him to study.. dun want... tell him choose.. sleep or study.. he will go sleep.. and when he got sick of sleeping, he just nua in bed also dun want to do some work.

Explain nicely to him his exam is coming... he also dun care...

And then, it was really very overwhelming for the very tired me to take care of him as I have to sterilize everything he uses so that he will not spread to us... and Max was also bz and always not home during that week that Ace was at home..

To make matters worse, I was still recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction and I was in the midst of detox... and was getting rashes all over my arms and legs. It was super uncomfortable.. and I was also really tired... initially I was not sure if it was a healing crisis or if I had gotten HMFD like Ace as well... so my mood was super bad...

But still i had to pick up after him.. ask him to do something.. still have to say 10,000 times before he will move... So leh, finally, my volcano erupted and I scolded him very fiercely... and then he went to his room to cry..

And then leh, after a while, he slowly crawl to my room.. and passed me a note that he wrote..

After I read his note, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. He was sad I told him if he doesnt want to listen to me, I am not going to care about him anymore... and he said he was sad thinking that even if he dies, I am not going to care about him.. so he wrote me a note and asked if I could say sorry to him...

Hahahaha.. best part is he added a portion and asked me to sign.. and say that I will not sue him for sending me the note!

IN the end, I of course hugged him and said I was sorry I shouted at him and that I said I dun want to care about him.. because really the only reason why I am so upset is becos I care so much for him...

I care for him.. that is why I want him to start working on and preparing for his exams so that he can give his all and have no regrets..

I care for him and that is why nag him to do this and that and get upset when he dun do it...

Anyway, I am really impressed that instead of just crying, he attempted to make contact and have dialogue with me and shared very clearly why he was upset and what he was upset about.

Sometimes I really think he is Emo King and am amazed at his emotional development:) hahaha..

Previous Post: Dinosaur

Previous Post: Dinosaur