Hang In There Cat Poster

There is a Chinese saying that goes, "有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎?" that means something like "When you have friends visiting you from afar, you will feel very happy!"

And so, when my FIL's godsister visited with her two daughters, we were happy to meet up for a meal:)

Time really flies lor.. when I got married, these two little girls were my little flowers girls but now they are grown women... I can only imagine how in a twinkling of an eye, my own son will also become a fine young man:)

Anyway, we had dinner at this coffeeshop where there was a machine for you to play pinballs.. the prize is some sort of rubber ball and Ace was so happy to win three of these rubber balls...

Because it is a zichar stall we visit often and also cos they made a mistake in one of our orders, they made up for it with free dessert. When Ace saw the dessert was pudding... with longan.. he was soooooo happy ....

 We thought good service boy is trying to serve everyone.. turns out.. he was just trying to get a big piece of pudding! hahahaha..

But afterwards, when we reminded him he is good service boy.. he helped to scoop and serve everyone:)

 Time for a group photo!:)

 Ace trying out the pull up bar in Nai Nai house.. . He says that he looks like the HANG IN THERE CAT POSTER :)

Ok.. maybe this one looks more like it?:P wahahahahahah...

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with xmas presents from them and Ace even received a antique... 15 year old Star Wars sling bag from Lao Gou lor:) COOLNESS to the Max!:)

Previous Post: Ace's Dream

Ace's Dream

Every now and then, I will ask Ace what he wants to be when he grows up.

When he was much younger, he went through phases of wanting to become an inventor, a scientist, a forensic doctor, prime minister of Singapore, King of his own island and a policeman...

Then he went through this phase of not really knowing what he wants to be when he grows up...



After dinner today, while we were on our way home, we were talking about what sort of cars Ace wants to buy when he grows up and he says he wants to buy a Lamborghini...

And then we started talking about how to earn alot of money so that he can own a Lambo... and Ace suddenly declared that he knows what he wants to do for his future already.

"I am going university! I am going to major in mechanical engineering... and I will do a honors degree in that..."

I was a little surprised that he has already decided on what to major in... And that he is so precise.. Actually, I am pleasantly surpised;) 

When I asked him why he chose mechanical engineering, he said it was because he wanted to learn how to make useful machines and also build robots.

Max told him then that perhaps he can choose Triple E engineering because he will have a larger chance or making robots if he does that.

After chatting more, I discovered that the week-long Maker Faire Camp inspired him to want to build things.


And suddenly Max asked him what does he want to do when he graduates and Ace announced, "I am going to be a policeman!"

And I think it could be because I once told him that his good friend, Kerr gor gor, has an honors degree and thus earns more money in his career as a Police Officer. That impression is made deeper when we met the Policeman Uncle at the Home Team Festival who reminded Ace to study hard and make sure he gets into university if he wants to go into the force..

At this moment where his ambition is huge and his emotions are high, his dad splashed a pot of cold water by telling him..

"Wah lau, study honours and you just want to become a policeman?! Seriously?! You study till honors and you want to become a policeman??!!!! Sigh... I tell you, if you become a policeman, then unless you take a bribe, you will never EVER be able to buy a Lambo..."

At this point, I asked Max to zip it up... I mean, people now at an emotional high talking about their dream, as people who have been working on making our dreams come true for almost all our lives and students of personal development courses that teach psychology, success mastery and goal setting.. this is likely the best chance to motivate Ace to take action to work towards his goals and do well for his P5 and also PSLE....

And even though it is true that if you are a policeman, while it is possible to earn a comfortable living, a Lambo might be out of reach. But there are better ways to communicate this mah:)

I think he suddenly realized that he may have unknowingly crushed his son's dream instead of supporting him and so he kept quiet after that.

And then when we reached home, Max changed and went out again to meet up with his friends who are visiting from overseas.

When Max walked out of the door, Ace came to me and hugged me and cried. He did not say anything but just sobbed rather sadly.

And this is the time I get to put all I learnt in life to good use. I hugged him tight and tell him that there is no need to be sad. Life is like that, many times.. when we tell people our seemingly impossible , grand dreams, most people will not believe us and may try to talk down to us or talk us out of it... or keep reminding us that this is not achievable and yes, more often than not, the people who will do that most are the ones closest to you.

Plus, daddy is in grumpy mood today and that is why he shoot his mouth off without really thinking through...

I hugged him and told him that we love him no matter what and support him no matter what he wants to do... and when faced  with people who tell him NO.. he has two choices...  be negative, believe them and give up... or... he could have a good cry now and be positive and continue to take steps towards his goal because it is his goal and will affect his life :) No matter what other people may say, this is HIS LIFE and not THEIRS:)

Anyway, I think Ace has decided that he will keep on to his goal... and whenever I tell him something cannot be done, like eg I dun think we can cross the road in time to catch the bus that is approaching the bus stop because we are so far away, he will tell me, "Mummy, don't be negative! Must try.. cannot give up till we try.."

And we will rush along and when we finally get on the bus... he will remind me.."See, we made it! That is why you have to think positive!" Hahaha...

Anyway, I asked him a few days later why he cried that day and he said he does not want to tell me. I asked him if it is because he is sad that his dad did not support him or that his dad did not believe in him... "It is a little bit of that..." And so I asked him what was it mostly about and he said, "I am not going to tell you.." And so... I guess maybe Max may have to ask him himself:) hahaha...

Previous Post: Headphones!

Headphones!

It's all Rebecca's fault... Hahahahaha..

She invited us to her house for housewarming so we were trying to get her a housewarming present... and so we ended up in the audio section of Challenger...

And because Ace wanted to buy a headphone too.. he also very happily checked out all the headphones...

When we were trying out, Max fell in love with the Marshall Headphones... and then kept asking if I wanted it for xmas :)

I told him I already have earphones and that was it lah...

And then Ace wanted to buy the Marshall headphones but I recommended that he does not buy so expensive ones in his first purchase lah... so he said he will go home and think about it..

Then hor, the item we bought for Rebecca turned out to be only compatible with iphone and she doesnt use apple products in her house.. so we had to go back ther again...

After lots of trying and again... (we returned to this place three times within 3 days)...

And Ace ended up with a blue and orange headphone....

And me with the Marshall headphones:) hahaha

Anyway, just to try out our headphones... we did a cover of Payphone on SMULE and it was awesome :)



Previous Post: Ace's New Doggie Friend, Sunshine

Ace's New Doggie Friend, Sunshine

Rebecca Jie Jie invited us to her new house (ok, not that new.. she shifted in for long time but it first time we visiting) on Christmas Day and Ace was so happy that he got to meet her doggie, Sunshine :)

And hor, after all his very pleasant experiences with the myanmar puppy and the one we saw during our Malacca trip, he was looking forward to meeting this new friend :)

And the two hit off quite well :)

According to Rebecca jie jie, Sunshine is particular about who he plays with and usually only plays with people who genuinely care for animals.

Sunshine was happy to play with and Ace enjoyed himself so much he said he was thinking of buying a pet puppy....

But Rebecca jie jie reminded him that a puppy is a lifetime commitment and means you have to take care of their needs even when you are not feeling well... Best is he go take care of her for a few days before deciding... hahaha

So Ace said OK he will just visit and play with Sunshine :)

Phew.. guess who will end up taking care of the puppy if that became reality??

Hint: There is one person who had to feed Molly and Xiao Yuan and Xiao Yang everyday and wash their fish tanks.. and take care of potted plants that her son brings home..

Previous Post: Christmas Eve Party

Christmas Eve Party

Had our yearly gathering on Christmas Eve and this time, M and G volunteered their place for the party.. which worked out fantastic cos the kids had a long corridor to play in... and they ownself segregated into appropriate age groups to play togehter.. hahaha..

And the adults gathered around the dining table to chat and yak...

Too bad though that many with small kids had to leave early so their kids could go to bed...

THe children had presents galore... but I think it is very siong to get presents for so many children. plus someone mentioned tat these kids are all blessed and have so many toys lia.. really dunno wat to buy them lor:) So someone suggested can also donate to charity or do away with the kids presents altogether...

Looking at their happy faces.. I think very difficult to tell them NO PRESENTS at all next year:) hahahaha...

So after the clock struck midnight, we decided we will just take a picture with all who are still at the party lah:)

The kids also took a picture together...

As they started to grow, I found that Ace and the other girls take some time to warm up before they will play with each other.. but because they warm up so slowly, by the time they played with each other, it is already time to go home..

So I told Ace on the way there that he should warm up faster with them lah... And he can do so by talking to them... especially T .. Eg, he can ask them how they spent their holidays, what do they like to do... etc... and then instead of always playing guns, I suggested that he finds out what they want to play and play those games with them first...

And hor.. Ace not only did that and warmed up quickly... he went extra mile and got hold of people's phone number lor... *wink wink*... wah... fast hand fast leg leh:)


Previous Post: Growing

Growing

Father and son recently started a new project...

That is to take a picture of a newly grown leaf of this plant in our carpark and to document the leaf's growth with a photo a day...

Ace is supposed to make a collage or a video of it... But... people holiday mood.. very bz with watching youtube and going to play dates... so leh.. I made the video liao.. hahhaaha..





Nice or not?



Previous Post: I Can Eat This Everyday!

I Can Eat This Everyday!

Remember the Little Prince Veg stall we visited that day after the The Future Of Us exhibition..


Max who subscribes to the Vegeterian Society's feeds saw the owner of the stall posting this picture!

THe picture looked  so delicious Max could not help but travel all the way to Ngee Ann Poly to eat it:)

When he was there, we were discussing about dinner and then suddenly, we had a brilliant plan to dabao this home for dinner!:)

 

Alas, Aunty forgot to pack noodle and soup seperately... SO by time Max reached home and we waited till dinner to eat it... it was already gluey lor... But it still tasted great!

Ace who had bee eating non stop since 2pm (first he had noodles.. then he ate snacks... and then he went on to eat this noodle... it was like he had lunch, tea and dinner one after another) was amazing lor...

So full liao.. eat wat also cannot really enjoy right.. but he still slurped it up and commented "Mummy, this is delicious! I can eat it everyday!" So I figured it is really delicious lah.

I had prep talk with him afterwards lah.. I explained to him I am ok with him eating but he has to eat his proper meals at proper times and not eat everything one shot.. cos our body uses most of the energy to digest food... when we eat and eat non stop.. we will make our body weak and will fall sick easily... it is also harmful for our stomaches when we do that...

The next day, when offered snacks ,he declined and told me, "Mummy, 我已经反省了，我以后都不会这么吃不停了..."

So impressive leh.. use the words  "反省" leh. hahahaha..

On a side note, I wish the Xiao Wangzi Laoban can think about shifting his stall to Temasek Poly instead... so much nearer to home lor:) hahahahah

Previous Post: VIsion Workshop 2015

VIsion Workshop 2015

My Vision board made in dec 2014

 Last year, I brought Ace along to the Vision workshop and we made our vision boards....

For a long time, I could not figure out what my vision board meant.. though I knew that the cards I picked for that year were very the very description of my struggles I had.. and same for Ace too:)

My teacher told me it is because I refused to acknowledge what has come to me.. and interestingly.. once that got through me. my board started to make sense to me:) hahahaa


Anyway, Ace was excited to attend again and again, he was the life of the party.. jumping around and doing this and that.. and then he was so adorable that our teacher said she will treat him to lunch.. and she did:) hahahaha

 And as part of his quirky antics.. Ace drew a picture of our teacher Chiching and gave it to her... She asked if  that was his masterpiece and how much he will sell it for and he said he will sell for $10 and so she said it was her investment in her belief that one day, he will become a super famous artist ;) And so she bought his "artwork" for $10.

 I am amused that when Ace drew an ARROW that pointed to Chiching and wrote “您”, he used the hornorific.. instead of just saying 你。。。



Other than master artist, Ace also built a reputation for himself as kopi boy ;)

Started with him saying that his buddy, Selyn Jie Jie, looked very thirsty and so he made Milo for her.. and she went "Oh, you are so sweet...such a good boy...." And he was encouraged to do the same for others.. and then he started making coffee for more pple.. to taking active orders like going around the class to ask, "Do you want coffee? Do you want coffee?"

I asked him why he wants to make coffee for everyone.. he says it is because a) making coffee/tea and milo is very fun; b) he thinks that the special way he uses to make coffee makes his coffee EXTRA NICE (which everyone else agreed) ; c) he feels very good when everyone says he is a good boy, a helpful boy, a good service boy

He took his coffee duties very seriously lor.. next day morning he said he wanted to go earlier cos many people placed orders with him the day before and so he had many cups of coffee to make:) hahahaa


But leh, I think he still has problems following course flow and doing all the homework..  When asked to list top 10 things that happened in 2015... he only listed 3....

I think my son has goldfish memory and also cos he is the type of person one something passes, he forgets about it. So when he had to sit down and recall the top 10 things that happened in 2015... he really only recalled Laoma's death.... and some random things like how his friend bullied him.. I thought he might put down his myanmar trip or wat... but he didnt...

He even said he did not want to do one of the exercises.. and while the teacher told him that was fine as long as he told his group nicely, I was like.. "wah lau.. waste my money again.. last year he also din wanna do lor.. promised me this year he will do and now never do.. not going to pay for his course fees anymore lor..."

On our way home from Day 1.. I reminded him he promised he will complete all the exercises this year and he did not keep his promise...so I am not going to pay for next year's vision workshop liao. He then said ok ok. he promise he will do when he is 11 years old. blah blah blah...

 Ace making his first cup in the morning of Day 2 for Bee Ling jie jie:)

 I also salute him lor.. cos after some time of making cofee, he actually took this biscuit container and cut a hole, add a lanyard and then put in the coffee sachets and cups and stirrers inside and this became like his roving coffee stall!:) Very innovative!

 And everyone was so excited when he made a stand for his vision board.. and they all said he is so intelligent! Hahaha.. He is creative.. no doubt about that..

We made our vision boards and then they were jumbled up and we were given a random one tat represents our SUBCONCIOUS VISION boards..

Our teacher tells us that our subconscious mind is very strong so we may end up completing these items faster than those on our own boards...

 Very interesting that the one I picked was made by someone who just got married and trying for a b.. hence all the family and child and bb photos:) But well, I know now that sometimes vision boards are not literal and there could be other meanings in it... we shall wait and see how the new year unfolds...

 Class photos....

 Sending blessings to the boards...

Kerr, who got Ace's board in the subconscious board thingy said he now knows tat subconsciously, he loves money and he loves toys:) hahahahhahahaaha....

 Our two trainers and the class's favourite coffee boy:)

 My son's vision board is all toys and stickers tat say "Billionaire Boys Club".. I really think he is a money face.. even the storm trooper helmet he stick is all MONEY one...

Anyway, just FYI, he pasted headphones on them and again.. year havent started and he already got it:)

 Me and my buddy:)

 Ace and his buddy :)  She wrote that Ace reminded her to stay outrageous and it hit me that I was actually like Ace when I was much younger but over time as I aged, I sort of judged this part of myself and hid it well... and probably that is why I have a son who is SOOOOOOO OUTRAGEOUS and always LIFE OF THE PARTY... and if I do put aside my judgements.. tat IS quite cool and attractive!:)

 My family group :) Was such great fun to be with them:)

Ace's family group and I am so thankful for them for loving him so much and taking such good care of him and putting up with all his nonsense:) hahahaha...

 Managed to catch the coffee boy in action finally!:)

 Ace got the vision board of the only other child in the workshop... and they are so cute lor.. cos they are so shy.. after we are done with the subconcsious vision board exercise, you suppose to return it to their rightful owner and give them a hug... so everyone hugged everyone.. except these two kiddos.. they just shook hands:) hahaahahahahahah...

And interestingly, I think Celeste's vision board does reflect Ace's true desires cos it is all about having fun and doing well in school :) hahaha

 I realized later that Ace actually wrote something liek TIPS TO BE PUT HERE on the cover of his container:) hahahaha..

While he din get tips, he really got lots of love from his family group.. HIs grp leader, Aunty Audrey gave him a lightning cable (he had tat on his wish list) that can glow in the dark and light up with colourful lights and has smiley face.. so cute and nice lor!

 Staff dinner at Indian restaurant and Ace and Max got to join in too:)

Was a great two day workshop.... Looking forward to 2016 and see how it will unfold:)

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