Our phone call

Told him I bought a monopoly card game but have not tried it yet because I have nobody to play with.
> He tells me I should open it and start reading the instructions so that we can play it when he gets here.
Told him I also bought a 2X2 rubik cube and that I tried to very hard solve it but couldn't. Explained that these cubes normally come in 3X3... he knows what it is but couldn't understand what I meant by 2X2.

Told him we'd give him a budget to buy his own birthday present at the toy shop.
> What's a budget? He asks.
Well, it's an amount of money.
> Twenty dollars?
I think it's going to be a bit more than that... if it's not enough, you can use your savings to top up. Or if it's too much, you can save it for another day.
> Orh.

Then we talked about the Toys R 'Us in Shanghai vs. the one in Singapore. Told him to shop in Singapore because the price is cheaper.
> It's because one Singapore dollar is 5 Renminbi, that's why it's more expensive.
No, when you do the conversion, it is still cheaper.
> What is a conversion? He asks.
...I explained with a couple of examples...
> Orh. Then proceeds to tell me he wants a control car... the one that is being sold in Shanghai - the one that comes with the steering wheel.

He tells me when he is coming back to Shanghai and that I should buy some dumplings from the market the day before he arrives so that we can cook them when he gets here.

I told him I cleaned up our apartment.
> He made me promise to drive his 'drifting car' on the floor to test (the cleanliness)....saying I should be able to make the remote control car crash to the wall if the floor is smooth.

I told him about the green worm I found curled up on the handle of our electric kettle.
> He asked if the worm got electrified.
Told him no, electric kettle is for boiling water. Won't electrify the worm. Told him I threw the worm away
> Asks why I never take some newspaper, put the worm on it - a newspaper big enough so that it will not crawl on my fingers - and bring it downstairs to the bushes.
Told him I didn't think about it... because I'm a girl and I don't like worms.
> He laughs, tell me he is not afraid of creepy crawlies and asks what I would do if he had a creepy crawlie.
I told him he would have to live alone.
> He tells me he doesn't like spider webs but he is ok with spiders. He doesn't like them because of the insects on the web. Tells me that spiders live in between rocks and that the web is only for catching their breakfast, lunch and dinner.
(I didn't know that!)
> Tells me again I should have brought the worm downstairs...
What if I threw it out of the window?
> Then it will smash onto the ground!!!
Oh.

I want to be ..... when I grow up.

Asked him several times before.... and again last night.
The answer is the same.

"I want to be a fireman when I grow up!"

Told him it's going to be hot!
He says, "I have a suit."
Told him he'd have to carry people on his shoulders.
He says, "I am strong."

Don't know where he got his career ambition from. There is nobody in my family who's a firefighter. We've only ever brought him to a Fire Station open house, once. There might be one book he owns ( which I don't recall him obsessing over) about Firefighters.

In any case, quite interesting to note that a survey by Reader's Digest Singapore last year showed that firefighters topped the 'Most trusted jobs' list:  Ref: http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20100226-201009.html

1 Firefighter
2 Doctor
3 Judge
4 Teacher
5 Surgeon
6 Pilot
7 Paramedic
8 Nurse
9 Pharmacist
10 Dentist

And suddenly inspired, I asked him.... There are 2 men in the house. One's blind and the other's crippled. Both were caught in a fire. How do they get out? He thought about it... then told me the blind man should carry the cripple and the cripple can tell the blind man the directions.
.............................. me wonders why a particular firefighter didn't turn up.

Recent

Marriage
Who do you want to marry when you grow up?
> I don't know.
Auntie M asked A and A said she wants to marry you.
> OK OK!!! *nodding vigorously* I marry her!
*Hahhahaa*
Why not QQ?
> Too many.
What do you mean by "too many?"
> She has twins already!!!

Exhausted
Do you want to drink Milo?
> No.
What do you want to drink?
> Milo.
*I raise my eyebrows... the Big one started wheezing from trying to contain his explosive laughter.... the exhausted boy slowly realized what happened.... and laughed tears.

Entertainment
On the road, he plays the games we downloaded on the iPhone, Uno, blackjack and 4 different types of hand games.

Hand Game 1: Players stick out 1 finger on each hand. You start swiping your opponents fingers. 1st one to add up to 10 wins. Player with 2 on one hand and 8 on another can placed the 8 (shaped like a gun) on the 2 (shaped like a V and looks like a stand) to shoot your opponent down.

Hand Game 2: (2 players) Scissors paper stone - winner gets to swipe a finger on the loser's head... loser makes a guess which finger was used. If loser guessed right on the 1st try, loser gets to pull the other party's ear. If the guess is wrong, the other party gets to pull. ( 3 players)... Determine who is the loser by playing "black or white"... Odd one out is the loser. Remaining 2 player plays scissors paper stone... winner gets to play with the loser.

Hand Game 3: "Chee-koo-pak" (variation of scissors paper stone). Players show their chosen scissors, paper or stone sign(s) on both hands. On the players call, he/she gets to shout out the sign(s). The idea is to switch your signs such that it is not the one(s) being called out. Otherwise, the hand 'dies'.

Hand Game 4: Clapping sequence... determine and agree on a pattern  from the start. Start from 1 and increase the cycle to 2, 3, 4X etc. For example, if the pattern is
Clap both hands, clap right hands, clap front & back.
Then 2X will be clap both hands twice, clap right hands twice,  clap front & back twice... and so forth.

We were on a train for 18 hours at a stretch on one leg of our recent trip...these games, especially the hand games, helped us passed time joyfully.

Laundry
Been doing laundry non stop for 2 days now. We wore every single piece of clothing we brought along plus more that we bought along the way during out recent trip and wore them all for 5 days straight. The boy's record was wearing 8 layers on top, 5 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of socks, heat pads, hat under his multiple hoods, mask, scarf, 2 pairs of gloves and woolly boots.

Trip
We travelled from Shanghai - Harbin - 长白山(ChangBai  Mountain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekdu_Mountain) - Shenyang  - and back to Shanghai.

Wouldn't recommend anyone make this crazy trip. It was sooo cold! The temperature at the mountain peak was minus 40 degrees Celsius...and the winds was so strong, I felt like I was being lifted every time I took one feet off the ground. The cold was so bad, my head hurt madly from skull-freeze. I think the boy could easily have been blown away had he not thankfully refused to wake up - he stayed in the car while we attempted to make the short climb to the lookout - to see the caldera. I didn't make it... Hah!

Unesco
The old imperial palace in Shenyang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Palace is the 4th Unesco World Heritage Site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_List the boy has visited - after Halong Bay (Vietnam), Angkor (Cambodia) & Kakadu National Park (Australia).

Bad
Too bad we were only given an hour at the site before being rushed to shop ( guide gets 5% commission - a very maddening culture!)

Good
The meal specification on the tour is 8 dishes and 1 soup- a great way to learn how to dish up a 9-course Chinese meal!

Finally
2010 is coming to an end. It's been quite a journey!

Death and 5-year olds Part 2

The old man told the small one that he was going to die soon.

The small one replied, "I know. "

Death is not much a mystery to a five year olds
It's simply a matter of fact

Let us not forget

It's that simple

Work for food.

".... later ants will come."

The small one: I know. The ants help clean up the house! They come and eat up the food on the floor.

???!???!?!

Death and 5-year olds

So my paternal grandmother passed away when I was five. The funeral was so much fun! No school, lots of visitors, cousins to play & camp overnight with, plus an endless supply of cold drinks and food. It was so much fun, I wished the only other grandparent I had could die soon so that we could have another 'celebration'! When she did die, I was already in my late twenties and by then, funerals had taken on a different meaning and colour altogether.

Fast forward to yesterday. We brought the small one to his Great-granduncle's wake...

Your Ye-Ye's Gu-Gu died. We are going to his funeral. He's body is lying in the coffin.
>>> Is he going to be a star?
Yes.
>>> Can he open his eyes?
No.
>>> So how is he going to get out?
...he's already a star now. Everyone has a soul and the soul leaves the body to become a star.
>>> *Pointing to his feet* HERE???
No lar! This SOUL is different from the one on your feet.
>>> Where's my soul?
... Close your eyes!
*he closes his eyes*
...THERE!!!
*he opens his eyes in wonder*
>>>So how does the soul get out? Where's the hole?
Do you perspire?
>>> Orh!!! Through the tiny tiny holes in our skin arh?
YEP!

Later, at the wake...the big one lifted the boy up to have a look. I was looking at them both. The big one, by his expression, was worried that the small one would be frightened to see a person in the 'box'. The small one however, was not one bit scared. He saw what we told him he would see - a body in the 'box' and nothing more.

In fact, he wanted to look very closely, and from all sides! He even noted that there was a pair of spectacles in the old man's pocket! And made us lift him for another 2 times to see.

It was an amazing experience for me to watch them both.

Through the eyes and minds of five-year-olds, death is simple, purely an incident of nature and unadulterated by any irrational fear.

Factual morning

So I told him I was going to make him bacon & eggs for breakfast. 15 minutes later, I back to the bedroom and told him it's bacon & cheese instead because I can't find the eggs and that I think the chickens flew in through our windows in the the middle of the night and collected their eggs.

The almost 5 year old said, "No. The eggs finished already lar!" "Chickens live in cages, the hole in the cage too small. They cannot come out. Only the eggs can come out into the packaging."

*sigh*... all grown up. No fun anymore!

A phone call and a conversation

So he's been calling me on my phone regularly:
"Mummy, where are you?"
"Mummy, are you coming back to get me?"
"How many minutes??"

This afternoon, he called and we talked:

How was school today?
Great! It was GREAT! They call me something in school today. I can't remember the word and I called them back the same.
Who called you what?
*S* said I was RUDE and I said she was RUDE back and then she said I was RUDE and then I say she was RUDE and we QUARRELLED. Then *V* took the eraser and didn't want to give it to me but I found one on the other table. We have two separate tables in our class. I showed the eraser to *D* and *D* told *V* and then they were surprised but I tell *D* it's a secret. .........

Hmm... that is his definition of a "GREAT day at school" ?!? Most other days, he tells me school today is "GOOD".

A simple solution

me on the phone to the small one: Whey! there are ants in the car!
innocent: Why are there ants in the car?
me: Because you drop food in the car so they decided to eat them!
guilty: orh.
me: So how? how are we going to get home with ants in the car to bite us when I pick you up?
activating his brains: Let me think!
me: Okay

*pause*

( me thinks... don't eat in the car , don't drop food in the car, kill the ants? ... )

the boy: I know! *SHOUTING* AH GONG!!! YOU NEED TO SEND ME AND MUMMY BACK HOME LATER! WE GOT ANTS IN OUR CAR!!!!!

I'm not Ready.

YY: I want to go to the toilet.
Me: Alright, call me when you're ready.
YY: When I'm ready?
Me: Yes, you can scream for me.
YY: So, I scream very loudy?
Me: Yes!
YY: Later I scream, "I'm READY!" very loudly then the people downstairs can hear me scream also and then they will think I'm Ready but my name is not Ready.

???

Question.

Me: YY, I ask you a question?
YY: What?
Me: Do you like to be YY?
YY: Yes.
Me: Don't you want to be somebody else?
YY: No.
Me: Sure?
YY: Yes.

He's way ahead. I'm only beginning to be happy being me.

Conversations ......about school

Me: What did you do in school today?
Boy: I flush before I pee.
Me: That's good. What else?
Boy: I flush before I pee!!
Me: Oh!!!!!!!! You FLUSHED before you pee.... Why?
Boy: Because there was 'nrg nrg' inside!
Me: *laughing* Oh my!... so someone didn't flush?
Boy: Yes! Someone didn't flush. I saw him! But I'm not sure what is his name.
Me: Hahhaa... never mind. What else did you do in school today?
Boy: Nothing.

Right, I send my kid to school today to flush away somebody else's poo. Excellent!

Unbroken

The little one 'threw' a kiss out of the window. I feign horror and told him I'd pick it up downstairs. His response: "Mummy, it's not broken! You go downstairs and pick it up and bring it to the office OK?"

Stainless Steel

YY, look, there's a crack in the wall
>> Where?
There!
>> nrg
You want to look at it closer?
>> Yes
*carries him up for a closer look*
YY, you think the roof will crash down on us?
>> No, because got stainless steel inside, very strong, won't crash down
???!?

I asked my father: Did you tell him that there is stainless steel inside the wall?
>> No.
I asked the Big One: Did you tell him that there is stainless steel inside the wall?
>> No.

I don't remember reading any books telling him that there is steel inside the walls either. Where on earth does he pick up such information?

**Baffled.

Conversations

Yang arh! Keep your toys!!!

" OK! ... *eh? so kwai arh? * ...NO THANK YOU!"

>>>right!