Kong vs. T-Rex

I thought Gooly likes Rock. Not that I was dead sure. But he seems to like electric guitar and stuff. But then again he dances hip hop and "nobody nobody but you". So I wasn't really sure on his choice of genre.

There are times that he opens his larynx and lets out an audible scream and calls it a song... So, rawk seems to be one of the categories he likes.

And I realized I was wrong. It's not rock that he likes but METAL!!!!!! Gah! My poor ears.

Heh, actually I do listen to Metalicca , like them in fact. But only James Hetfield I can tolerate. The rest, like the video on top which he enjoys so much.. I can vomit blood.

It's weird.. me thinks. A 5 yr old who likes Metal.. (and Nobody Nobody But You).

Gooly and Science

My sis bought a Science workbook for gooly to shut him up . I have long given up on workshits cos we just get on each other's nerves when and where academia is concerned. And I keep using his vast improvement in Mandarin to 'cut him some slack'....

.. Back to Science work book.

It was fairly simple on the first page. Draw a happy face for stuff that smell good, and a frowny one for the opposite.

Between that two faces, he HAD TO choose...


... an indifferent, tidak apa face for one particular item for it neither smell good nor bad to him. Can you guess what item is that? :)

And then.. he didn't know how to spell some words and took the liberty to copy from the questions, which is alright to me..except that his letter 'i' was written exactly the same.

Here..let me enlarge it for you to see -i . Do you realise that letter 'i' is dotted with a square? Like who the heckaroo would notice that...??? Oh ya..my son.

So, he wasted some time squaring his dots... -_-*

And..

Yep.. I no eye see, and went to or-see.

Gooly and nai nai

Do you know Gooly now speaks Mandarin albeit with an accent and wrong grammar? So much so that he can converse with my ahbu in that language.

He calls ahbu -nai nai, which is clearly wrong cos that is to address a paternal gramma. I reckon the teacher thinks it will be too confusing to learn puo-puo and nai-nai at the same time. Thus, only nai-nai is introduced.

My ahbu didnt mind cos nai-nai sounds very endearing. So does yeh-yeh, which is, again wrongly termed for my ahpah.

Last week, Gooly accompanied nai-nai to the saloon which she had patroned for the last 30 odd years. It was situated at the oldest part of the city, in a shabby old shop lot. It would take nearly 2 hours to perm nai-nai's hair. I didn't know what he was gonna do there, and was worried that he would ask to go home at the sight of my ahbu's hair in rollers.

Why did he want to go in the first place? I mean, saloon isn't the most fun place for him. He hates getting his hair cut.

I knew nai nai said something about getting a toy. Is that bribery or what? Don't care-lah cos he kept my mom company. And when I went to pick them up, I saw that lil fella on a stool, sweating profusely in an Indian toy shop.

"Mom! Look!" he proudly showed of his ciplak Transformer.

A good outing for both of them, I reckon.

So.. Gooly has a chummy relationshio with his nai-nai. I was not close to both my deceased gramps, which is a pity really. I am really glad that Gooly has a nai nai to love and is loved, a thousand times more, by her.

Talking to strangers

So.... we always go out to eat, just the two of us. Most of the time is at self-serviced restaurants, meaning he has to go 'chup' seats for us while I go order.



Yesterday was the same. I was queueing up to pay when I realised a lady was talking to Gooly. He didn't answer and turned his face away. He was that good at feigning deafness and muteness. But the lady didn't give up - tried speaking in another language. Actually, she was wondering if the seats next to Gooly were occupied.



I made a dash over and Gooly quickly explained to me that he was not to speak to strangers. That actually would be the second time I saw him ignoring strangers. And I must say I am impressed.



He is a very friendly boy with mega-watt smiles that totally make you wanna smile back. And I love it when he chats a storm with people. But I have to caution him about the evil society. Thus, I tell him - you may talk to people you don't know only when I am standing right next to you.



You see, some of the most pleasant outings we had involved talking to total strangers. Like this one time we were seated opposite a lonely old lady, who was in a reminiscing mode. She told Gooly that her daughter went to the same school as he does.



"How old is your daughter now? Where is she?" Gooly asked.



The old lady was happy that Gooly was interested to know. They spoke for a while. As she was leaving, she complimented that Gooly speaks well for his age and is very polite. She even thanked us for keeping her company.



We talk to strangers all the time; to the cashiers, to the guards, to customers. So it would seem impractical and ironic to dish out the order of not talking to strangers to kids, eh? And if he got lost, he would have to muster up his courage to speak to strangers for help.



So, the general rule is, "Do not speak to strangers when Mom is not around."



I am so glad he gets it.



P.s: I apologised to the lady, explaining that he was not allowed to speak to strangers, and yes, the seat is taken :P.

Ponteng

Gooly woke up with some sniffles. So I suggested that he stayed home to rest. He was overjoyed, and started turning on the Tellie and pouring out his toys while announcing to nai-nai that he is sick, yehooo.. so there is no need to go to school.

Seeing his energetic disposition made me re-evaluate my decision so I quickly added, "But if you feel alright, you can go, ok?"

*cough cough* He immediately feigned a sore throat with a dramatic *ahem ahem* throat full of pleghm sound. My mom and I exchanged smiles, knowing that all kids would love a chance to ponteng school.

I checked on him a few times making sure he had no fever. By noon, his mucus were all discharged, and he looked like he was in pink health to fulfill his duty as a student.

"Do you wanna go?" I asked. I was all prepared for him to say no. Even my mom wanted to bet her last dollar that he would say "Choy nei dou sor! Stay at home watch Ultraman better". But lo and behold, he said, "Sure.."

Argh! I haven't ironed his uniform.. and have not eaten lunch yet. And he was still smelling like swamp (oooh..this I learned from him).

Faitit faitit...! Thank gawd he did everything in a jiffy - taking a super duper quick shower and gulping down his lunch while I ironed . (I had a suspicion that he had a date in school, that's why the gung-ho-ness.)

We reached school 5 minutes later than usual. At the traffic light, he donned on his shoes and grabbed his bag, all set to bounce out of the car to run into his class. :)

I saw him entering the school yard and gave him a flying smooch. He smiled and made a swishy motion of "Go.. go.. I'm ok" with his hands.

I have never seen such a grown up 5 year old. If yesterday I was proud, today I am prouder, if it's possible.

Gooly is sneaky and sarky

The good thing about driving him to and from school would be the chance to have a tete-a-tete session with him. It gets better when it rains cos we get to play together too (once we reach home but can't get off the car, that is.) Actually I could possibly run and open the un-automated gate and risk falling gracefully, but why take the chance? So sit in the car we shall.

And today was the same ole thing - mucking in the car in the rain. He suggested a fighting game with his figurines - Optimus and Ironhide. I got to choose first, apparently. Naturally I took the Red&Blue one, knowing that that is exactly his favourite.

"Hey hey hey...!!" he opposed. I didn't want to give in, especially after I won it fair and square thru a game of 1, 2, zoos.

He was a good sport. He even complimented me on winning. And then he said:

"Ok, in this fighting game.. if you lose, the second round, you have to give up your Optimus Prime. If I lose, I will have to give you my Ironhide and get Optimus Prime."

Err.. I had to stop a while to digest what he said. If my calculation is correct, he gets Optimus Prime back, whatever the outcome was. That was pretty sneaky, in a diplomatic way, eh?

And then he said I smelled like a pig.

...and also like a swamp.

I laughed like mad cos they were ridiculously original. Smelling like a swamp? Gosh..that's one remark I could recycle. And I don't remember bringing him to a swamp. Now how would he know it's stinky?

For the record, I am really NOT THAT smelly.

Gooly sleepyhead

While on the way to school today, Gooly's eyelids were very heavy for unknown reasons. He asked permission to 'rest for a while'. Based on past experience his 'rest for a while' will end with crankiness and unwillingness to get down the car to school.

So I was in a quandary.

But I relented when I saw that even the toothpick- in -the -eyelids trick cannot work. He dozed off in seconds, leaving me to decide to make a u-turn home or to drive straight to school, wake him when we are there or just let him sleep in the car under the tree (until the school bell rings - FONG HOCK LURR..!)

Right at the traffic light, hearing his soft snore, I chose the last option - camping in the car. And as though hearing and objecting my decision, he jolted up right there and then.

I smiled at him. He smiled back and oddly made a square shape using his thumbs and forefingers.

I asked if he dreamed of squares a while ago. He said no.. he was dreaming about his god-brother, in which they were deciding where to have a holiday.

"That's a nice dream," I said, stopping in front of the school.

He kissed me good bye and clambered down. His hair was very messy, his steps groggy. I suspect a stain of saliva was on his collar.

It may be a small feat for other kids but I was immensely proud of his attitude. Waking up NOT in a cranky state is a major thing for me.

(Yeah, I really cannot stand whiny kids. I don't care you are hungry, angry, sleepy, sick, hot or cold, don't whine in front of me.)

He turned around to give me a wave..and I vrrroooom-ed off to a few hours of solitude with the thought of, "There isn't a day that you don't make me proud of you, Gooly.."

Kisses

I would think that Gooly is a very generous kisser.

However sometime last year, he stopped kissing my friends and his god-moms. He'd rather offer hugs instead.

And yesterday he also refused to kiss my sister. And I went, "Oh, he doesnt anymore?" My sis was like, "Duh.. yeah.. it has been sometime since he was bold with his smooches."

Jeng jeng jeng..

So...

Today, while I was wiping his head dry, I asked for a kiss. He gave me one but on the forehead.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................

I don't know why but I started telling him, "You know.. as you get older, you will feel shy giving me kisses ..and I can't kiss you anymore also."

"...not in front your friends.. Maybe in public when you are sure no one is watching... " I droned on.

And I heaved a big sigh dramatically.

He tilted his head a bit and asked why.

I really don't know why because I am not exactly from Mars.

He proceeded to give me a hoochie smoochie on the lips and said, "I promise I won't be shy. Don't worry.."

Hehee.. Maybe I will be shy leh....!

So, when do boys stop kissing moms and start kissing girls?

Un-invisible

In the car, Gooly wondered if Santa is invisible.

I err-ed, uhm-ed and ehh-ed a bit that he thought I didn't understand his question.

So he rephrased, "Is Santa uninvisible or invisible?"

I took the opportunity to divert his attention by correcting his grammar - the opposite of invisible is visible.

He nodded. And looked out the car window. Traces of rain splattered across it.

"What about God?"

Uh-oh. What about God?

"Why can't we see God?"

Oh gee.. Let's revert back to Santa, eh? Or you want to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? I can sing that..

..even though it's a tad too early for that.

Gooly speaks Mandarin

1. Ni yau sermer, wo kei nie

Translate: Whatever you want, I will give you.

I don't know where he learned that. Have a sneaky suspicion it is from one of my papah's 1940s Shanghai songbird's songs. Yeah, he spends quite some time in the arvo with yehyeh. I know my dad listens to his collections in his room. Funnily Gooly enjoys the songs just as much as yehyeh. I find them depressing.

2. Wo ai nie liang!

Translate: I love you two too!

I don't know why he doesn't say wo ai nie err. Even when corrected with the proper wo yeh ai nie, he still prefers his own version.

Sometimes he lansi-ly wants to teach me that language. And knowing that I am not well-versed in it, he would cheekily teach me the wrong thing.

Teachers have been complimenting his improvement in that language. Kakakaka! Ok -lah, for someone with zero knowledge in that language in the past, his progress is somewhat impressive. The reasons for his success are that he is a keen learner and that he is not shy to speak it.. even when his pronunciation and grammar and tones and semantics are entirely jumbled up.


So Gooly, nie hau bang oo!

You didnt need to know that but..

Recently, I have done some major renovations. Unto myself.

I'm using a new facial bar.

I bought a kick-ass expensive hair conditioner.

I went for my first pedicure.

I am supplementing myself with some vitamins.

I am doing yoga.

Ah.. I do love myself, don't I?

Oh no.. I am not saying that I did all these because I love myself. It's more accurate to say that I love myself and these are the side effects.

*5 minutes later*

What a whole load of crap...

I admit.. I fatthiao lah! Very very hiao....

I am vain like that. But sometimes I get tired of being vain. Then I wear silly dresses which emphasize on my big butt and shorten my legs. But I wouldn't care.. until I bump into people I know and I'd cuss, "Stupid dress.."

Yep.. life is a vicious cycle. You care, you don't care.. you are beautiful, you turn ugly.. Yada yada yada..

So..

Say.. my birthday is just around the corner..

(Can somebody stop my bullet-train of thoughts? So tersangat random..)

Didn't win

So..Gooly didn't win the coloring contest.

While I expected him to be disappointed, I don't think he was.

What happened was -he came back, asked me to dish out the camera and take a picture for him.

He stood next to his cuz, handed him a packet of Jabobs, and said, "Look into the camera and smile!"

Ooh.. he was orchestrating his own prize-giving ceremony. Teehee! So cute.. and what a way to pick yourself up from disappointment.. but there wasn't even one to begin with.

Oh what the heck.. He is just one happy lark, making all occasions a joyous one.

Hmm.. If anything, I would think what he felt was awed and admiration for the winners..and maybe hopeful that one day he will be winning a prize too.

Go school

It's been some time since.. wait a minute... everything seems like it has been sometime..but in actual fact, Gooly has only gone to school for a term.

In a term, he has done loads - speaking and writing (broken) mandarin, riding solos in the van to come home, and walking into the school by himself. All in the name of independence.

Prior to this, there were a couple of unfortunate events which made us fight like two mad bulls when I walked him into his class room. So I am mighty pleased that I don't have to lull my gargantuan ass out of the car these days.

Also, it's just too hot to get in and out of the car, agree?

However, everyday, he would still ask, "Do we have time? Can you walk me in?"

For ages (exaggerate a bit) I have said no. And he would obliged - running into the school yard albeit not so enthusiastically.

Today, I just thought.. what the heck, it has been awhile. His face beamed up like a lightbulb when I turned off the engine and proceeded to walk hand in hand with him into the compound. His smile was affixed..his footsteps springy... his hand wrapped tightly around mine.

He gave me a big kiss, hugged me like a bear and waved bubye later on.

It must have meant so much to him. Sigh.. I should just walk him more.. (but my asset is so heavy..and it's so hot.. and I'm always in a hurry..)

On a related matter - The 'auntie van' charges rm150 for 3 days, and the same for 5 days. What the heckaroo? It's not very macro-economical at all to not fully utilise her service. Ergo I have been thinking on depending solely on the van to bring Gooly home.

But come the two days that I am not working, Gooly would say without fail, "YIPEEE! You are picking me up today, right?"

Aiseh..

The face is so jubilant that I don't have the heart to say, "No-lah.. you take the old junk dirty van with your 4 girlfriends."

4 chicks in the van and he picks me.

What the heckaroo...

So come rain or shine on that two days, I drag myself out there to brave the traffic to drive my son to and from school, just because it makes him happy (even though that allows auntie van to bluff our money.)

Somebody give me a prize already!

Hmmmm..

Everyday...there is something that Gooly says that makes me go, "Hmmm.."

He makes me think.

He makes me wonder how did he think of this or that.. How did he figure out certain things? And why does he know stuff that us adults don't..

Like he told me, "Sean goes for ballet."

Jeng jeng jeng...

I baited for more info cos I didn't know if he was comfortable with the idea that Sean goes for ballet.

And so he continued, "As long as he likes it. Ballet is not just for girls, you know.."

Oh.. I see. Would you like to join ballet?

He said nope.

I think he was telling me that it's ok to be different. I was gonna tell him that..but he already figured that out himself.

And then today he told me that Kieran asked him to carry his tumbler and bag but he didn't want to help.

Why?

Because Kieran wasn't holding anything. He had two free hands. And he went on telling me that he would help if Kieran was already holding 5 things.

I think he was saying that Kieran was looking for a sucker.

Haha! And Gooly sure wasn't one!

He also told me that Iris didn't know the answers for some questions. Some boys laughed at her, and it's not nice. And some girls told the answers out, and it's also not nice cos it made Iris feel bad.

So..hmmm.. I don't know how he figures out how NOT to gender stereotype or some street-smart skills or when to be quiet to be nice..

So yeah..hmmm..

Showing me the door

When we were about to leave the house for school, we realized that there was a piece of homework not done.

*gasp*

Quick quick! Bring the 346 colour pencils out!

The instruction says to design something out of a rectangle and circle. I read that a few times, I didn't know what we were supposed to do. So I hollered, "Quick! Quick! Bring the 346 colour pencils!!!"

I was thinking of conteng something inside the shapes.

Gooly calmly said that he just needed a pencil.

I looked at him incredulously and shouted," Quick! Quick Bring the 346 colour pencils out!!"

He ignored my ballistic order, and said, "I know what to do.."

In the circle, he drew two dots and a curve. Wokeh.. a smiley face.

In the rectangle, he drew a dot at the side.

v

v

v

v

It's a freaking door. I burst out laughing.

I also didn't ask him to re-do it because it's not wrong. In fact I thought it was a brilliant safe ass solution...

AND ORIGINAL! Lol.

He was so confident and cool about his 'design' that I am sure if someone brought a kick ass squarish robot, he wouldn't give two hoots.

Amidst the sea of competitive kids who attend Art, Creative, Drawing, Panting, Adobe classes, I admit I like Gooly's pure and simple mind.

Just like fashion, when you try too hard, you don't appear to be too cool. Gooly, meanwhile is unperturbed with the whole shebangs of fancy (and probably unoriginal) works.

Hmmm.. or it could be I am just looking for more reasons to love him even more. :)

Making decisions

Gooly seems to be making an awful lot of decisions these days.

He decides that we shouldn't go for any more 3D movies.

He decides not to wear any more undies. Because of this au-naturale approach, his jeans have been chucked aside.

He also decides to boycott my mom's cooking.

.. and not to buy the pink collar-ed t-shirt, which I tried so hard to find for years.

.. and not to take afternoon naps when we go out for movies at night.

Yep yep yep.. I am finally off the hook. He shall now be responsible for his own decisions.

I'm glad and amazed actually that he can decide on his own. Otherwise what is the brain for?

My job now is to tell him the consequences or the choices he has. The decision, ultimately belongs to him. He takes this task well. He likes it even because he feels he is in control. And I suppose, feeling respected also.

Could it be that most of the time he makes good choices and therefore I so readily give him the freedom to choose? Or liberty has provided him the art of making good decisions?

See? Even I can't decide. I am so fickle. Unlike my son.

Bah!

Would you believe it if I said he chose his own name?

I said, "Give mama a kick if you like the name I pick."

Andy, Ben, Carl, Don ..and so on..until Othello*.

And kicked he did. Are you sure you like Othello? *kick kick* You don't like Peter? *no kick* Othello? *kick kick*

Yep! Othello it is then...

That will be Gooly's first decision at 7th month gestation. In my tummy.

Cool, eh?

*Othello? What the heckaroo? I couldn't think of any other name that starts with O lah..

Meeting Woody

How could I forget to load this pic up? That's like the highlight of our visit there.

We were waiting for this dude to come out for so long. Gooly even asked the staff there if they knew when he would make his appearance. Nope, the ticket seller didn't know..the waitress neither.. nor the 'sampah' lady.

So we hung around for a while..sat on benches.. took a shufti at the souvenir shops..and still he didn't want to come out.

We were gonna leave and one of the girls ran to us, asking us to stay a while more. She looks like she was feeling more disappointed than us that we didn't get to see Woody. "Any minute now," she suddenly foretold the future. And true enough, we turned around and saw Woody waving at us.

Click! With that picture taken, we hereby proclaim that we have officially been to Universal Studio, Tutiland. :)

Giddy Up

The reason I chose this new layout is because it's called Giddyup.

Is that co-incidental or what?

Since our return to KL, I have been trying to 'giddy up' (thanks for the reminder, lovely angeles.)

It was hard to be back.. it was difficult to lose something in return for something I didn't want. But I allowed myself time.. to learn and unlearn little survival skills.

Today....

I think I found the horse in me to giddy up. I'm not sinking anymore. At least I don't feel I am.

Could be the new breathing technique, could be dear friends... could be time.

I'm rediscovering myself in this old new city.