I'm a full-time mummy

Oh How I Love Napping!

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:26:00 +0800

The first time I saw this picture, I chuckled to myself. So true! When our 2nd child came along, I was quite miserable. I had spent quite sometime adjusting myself and synching both my kiddos' daytime nap so that they both nap together and I get to rest a bit and just when they did managed to do that, my girl skipped her 2nd nap. There goes 1-2 hours of my rest time.

Now, I managed to sync their naptime again to around 2ish to 3ish pm and when they do both nap, it will be 2 hours of rest for me. That is if I don't have to help out hubby in his paperworks (not often nowadays). Sometimes just when I managed to close my eyes to rest, there comes the postman or delivery guy sending parcels and stuff to our house.

Or my 4 years old boy decided to skip his daytime nap - the good thing is when he does this, he knows not to disturb mummy resting and he can actually play his Lego or soldier toys by himself or watch iPad. Bad thing? He gets cranky by evening time because he skipped his nap and to be honest, when he skipped his nap, no matter how, I am not able to just sleep and let my boy play on his own. I just don't feel comfortable at all. So I normally just lie on the bed, surfed the Net on my iPad or catch up on my blogging or see if there's anything to help out on hubby's paperwork.

On average, if I'm lucky I get about half to 1 hour of sleep when BOTH my kiddos nap at the same time. Else, it will be me zombie-ing throughout the day until their bedtime. It's pretty tough especially now that I'm preggy with our 3rd child because I do really get tired easily and even a 5 minutes power nap does help here and there.

So mums, do you get to have your nap time?

Lady's Choice Pack Your Love Contest

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:25:00 +0800

Mother's Day has just passed not too long ago... but hey, do you know there is this cool contest going on organised by Lady's Choice? I'm sure at one point in your life you would definitely have eaten some food made with Lady's Choice. Be it their product range of jams, spreads and dressings, for sure you would've tasted them!

Anyway, this 'Pack Your Love' contest is an initiative to get parents to pack nutritious breakfasts for their children. I think we all are aware about the importance of breakfast, but do you know that only 34% of parents attempt to make breakfast for their children? Sad and alarming statistics right?

Most parents claimed that they do not have time to pack breakfasts for their children, but hey, making a sandwich doesn't take more than a few minutes right? Hence, the objective of this contest is so that parents will be inspired to create healthy breakfasts for their children and their loved ones! How to participate? Go to Lady's Choice Facebook page, like their page to find out more info on the contest and terms. By the way, the top 3 finalists will win AEON Shopping Vouchers and Lady's Choice hampers!

I received the following items for my review: A bottle of Lady's Choice Thick and Creamy Peanut Butter spread and a bottle of Lady's Choice Mayonnaise, both stored in a cute little sandwich container.

So I immediately got down to trying them out the next day, wanted to try the sample recipes shown in the leaflet found inside the sandwich container but my 4 years old boy insisted of having his bread with cheese. BREAD AND CHEESE. Nothing else. That's it. -____-

So we negotiated and finally reached a win-win situation. I get to use the peanut butter spread, he gets his cheese. So, what is needed is 2 slices of wheat germ bread, 1 slice of bread with peanut butter spread, the other slice of bread just top it off with a slice of Cheddar cheese.

I made peanut butter cheese sandwich for him and cut the sandwich out using a sandwich cutter I have. Ice cream shaped sandwich hahaha!

I made nuggets and fries for lunch after that and tried out the mayonnaise. Yums!!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

My Thoughts On Confinement...

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:38:00 +0800

I have previously blogged about my thoughts on confinement and its taboo in my old blog and totally forgotten about it until a recent comment submitted by a blog reader in that post prompted me to revise it and post it here in my new blog.

For your info, both my confinement were DIY, as in hubby is the one taking care of our babies in the first month while I recuperate from the labor and focus on breastfeeding our kiddos. You can read my post in my old blog if you want to know what made us decided to DIY our confinement.

Now whenever any friends or ex-colleagues of mine asked me about confinement, I had to go into a long story on how we DIY ours and why we wanted to DIY it. So here's the list on why we decided to DIY our confinement:

1. The opportunity to bond with our newborn (and older siblings to bond with their baby sibling too)

2. The opportunity to practise with trials and errors on babycare aspects, and what to expect and how to deal with crises or newborn incidents (crying, fussiness etc). Don't let other people handle your newborn child. You are the parent, do your job!

3. Economical - not needing to hire any confinement lady (CL) definitely saves a lot of money. (The confinement lady charges for 4 years ago is RM3300 ~ that is about USD1100 for 28 days of work).

4. No interference or different opinions on how you should parent your children. Some CL are very set and determined in certain aspects to make their job easier, such as formula feeding, bottle feeding, disposable diapers, baby sleeping with them etc, all these so that the new mum will get to rest. But if you allow these to happen, your decision to breastfeed your child will be affected. Baby sleeping in with other people such as the CL will only confuse them and make them attached to strangers than to you! Same goes with bottle feeding. Of course, there are a handful of CLs out there who are pro-breastfeeding and encourage the new mums to breastfeed as often and sleep with the baby. But it is not easy to find such CLs.

I have heard of various counts of CL stories horrors from friends and ex-colleagues, these are amongst the many that I can vividly remember...

A friend hired a CL only to fire the same CL in few weeks time as the CL only knows how to change baby's diapers and does nothing else.
A friend hired a CL and about a week before the CL leaving, started to panic as she has never been involved in caring of the baby and does not know what to do. Thank God she bucked up and start taking notes and taking over caring her baby before her CL leaves.
A friend complained that baby keeps crying at night and refused to be breastfed, only wants bottle feed. Because CL has been sleeping with baby for 1 month and bottle feeding baby all the while that baby is used to bottle feeding and to CL's body smell.

Now you will ask, then how to handle our own confinement? Well, in terms of babycare, you will need to learn and practise each and everyday. Nobody says parenting is an easy thing to do.

And I personally think if you bring the baby into the world, you should very well take care of the baby and not let others do your job. This is also why I quit my job to be a SAHM and decided to homeschools my children for now.

You might say I just give birth, I need my rest. Fine, rest when baby is sleeping. During the first few months, all baby does is eat, sleep, pee and poop. So rest when they are resting. If you are staying with other family members (such as in-laws), try to see whether they can help out. Probably cooking food for you or anything.

How about foodwise? You want to replenish your energy and strength and want to drink some herbal medicines/food? You can buy those at the traditional Chinese medicine shops. Some even sell the 28-30 days daily packets of herbal drinks/medicines with instructions for you on how to make it. I didn't get those, I just drink more water and take the occasional black beans with red dates drinks that my MIL boiled for me few times a week.

How about those confinement taboos? Now, here's what I need to explain. Firstly, we are not into following any of those taboos, so apologies as I can't advise you how to get around these superstitious rules and taboos. For me, I will think whether such rules are logical or not. Cover up fully and wear socks? Those rules originated from our ancenstors back in China... and they have winter time in China. Malaysia? Winter? Never... so, think whether such rule is logic or not before you apply it to yourself. Same goes for not bathing, not shampooing your hair etc. Trust me... you will reek by the first day itself after birth. If you can survive past day 2 without showering and washing your hair, well kudos to you for making yourself more unhygienic and smelly. I know I already smell or sweat and blood right after birth and the first thing I did when I went back to my hospital room is to shower and wash everything. A clean and refreshed body definitely brings confidence and happiness to yourself.

Well, you may ask, my hubby had to go work, we don't stay with in-laws and definitely nobody help us out. Fine, go get that CL to help you out but make sure the CL does not interfere with your babycare and if you are planning to breastfeed, make sure the CL knows that you must establish your breastfeeding schedules and it would be great if baby is feeding on demand, direct if possible. Try not to introduce bottles or even formula. No pumping in the first month. If you really must have baby sleeping with the CL, try to get CL to wake up and bring baby to you at night when it is time for feeding. Get CL to help out with other aspects like cooking, washing clothes, etc. But do make sure to slowly take over the CL's job before she leaves. Else, you may suffer as you do not know how to handle baby then if she has been handling baby more than you.

That's all I can think of for now. Do share and feel free to ask if you have any concerns!

What Should Your Child Know?

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:06:00 +0800

I came across this article shared by a fellow mum in my SAHM group and just like it so much! Coincidentally, the title of the article is 'What should a 4 year old know?' and hey, my Benjamin is 4 years old this year!

Excerpt from the article on what should a 4 years old know:

1. She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time.

2. He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn't feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up.

3. She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs.

4. He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he'll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud.

5. She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she's wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it's just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that-- way more worthy.

Now my point is, I do sometimes worry my 4 years old boy is slow in learning things (I'm homeschooling my kids by the way...) and although I keep reminding myself each child is different and unique, do not ever compare my child with others but you know, somehow you can't help it when you hear/see other parents sharing their kids' achievement in so and so (worse if their kids are younger than yours!)

There were times I was having doubts whether I'm taking it too slow and easy with my child's progress, or should I hurry him up or just maintain the pace, I mean, as a homeschooling mum, I am not referring to any syllabus yet (again, my children are just 4 years old and 1.5 years old) and hence the doubts and worries whether I'm too slow and etc. But if I'm following other preschools syllabus/guidelines, wouldn't I be forcing ourselves to stay competitive or on par with other children?

It doesn't help when you are staying in a country that is pretty competitive, where parents eagerly (or to put it in honest words, can't wait to) send xtheir kids to school so that they get an early head start on education. I once read an article (sorry, I can't seem to find that exact article anymore, the closest I got is this) that parents in our neighbour country send their children to kindergarten/pre-schools as early as 3 years old and their kids even have exams at that age! 3 years old!

Now that is definitely something I do not want to happen to my children. I want my children to play as much as they can while they are still young, not to be burdened by exams, syllabus, stress, competitions and so on. Not at that young age, no!

To be honest, I didn't even attend any preschools or classes or playgroups or music lessons etc... I started my kindergarten at age 6. Before that, I pretty much roamed around freely in my neighborhood area (back then it was really safe and we don't have any fears walking around alone or anything)

So what I would normally do is to on and off knock some sense into my head and keep telling myself to focus on what my kiddos are great with, well, in terms of other things other than academically wise. Be it manners, language skills, imagination, social skills and so on. And yes, I definitely need to increase more book readings to my kiddos!

Well, if you followed my Facebook page, you will sometimes see me posting videos (or Youtubes clips) I took of my kiddos showing me where is so and so countries on this world map of ours in our playroom. Don't get me wrong, I teach them the countries only because they are related to our relatives who stays in Sweden, Australia, Japan or went to Hong Kong for holidays, or Canada for further studies and to some of the shows my kiddos watched (Lilo & Stitch in Hawaii, Captain America in United States). You can watch some of the videos I took of my kiddos' learning using the world map here and here.

Now back to the question of the day... what should my child know? Well, like the excerpts from the article, I want my child to know that he/she still has loads of time to play and just enjoy being a kid for now! We'll take it one day at a time and learn through play and no pressure or stress in learning things!

(First time I jokingly asked Ben to draw a face on the balloon and he did it!)

So what do you think? What should your child know?

Homeschooling: Number 5...

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:59:00 +0800

Hello! Here's the next number writing worksheet I created for my 4 years old boy in our homeschooling lessons. I explained to my boy to draw a line towards right side, then another line downwards and half moon so that it looks like number 5 in the end. Here's a picture of my boy's worksheet (taken on 30th April 2013) on his first attempt at writing number 5.

This has got to be the EASIEST number ever that my boy was able to learn really FAST! I was pretty impressed to see how he did even for his first attempt! Stark contrast compared to practising number 4... which I ended up revising another design for him to practise on (he's doing well with the new design version now for number 4)

I don't have designing experience but if you would like a copy of the learning to write number 5 template that I created, feel free to download it here (Learning to Write Number 5.pdf (316.98 kb)) Please note that it is for personal use and I do not own any copyrights to the images used in the worksheet - all the images are from Microsoft Clip Arts.

That's all the updates I can share for now, feel free to ask and share if you have feedback!

How Often Do You Go For Your Antenatal Checkups?

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:31:00 +0800

I was just sharing with my mummy group in Facebook recently that my first pregnancy checkup for this baby is at 10 weeks and the next one will be when I'm about 28 weeks into pregnancy and some asked me why am I doing so.

And that leads me to writing this post today...

Well, firstly, do note that for my first 2 pregnancies, from 1st to about 7th month pregnancy, I went for monthly checkups and then fortnightly and then gave birth.

But for this round, the reason why I reduced the number of checkups are:

My 2 previous pregnancies and labors are normal and without any complications so my gynae is OK with this arrangement.
I'm tired. I cannot afford to lug my 2 kiddos along EVERY MONTH now.
The distance between my house to my hospital is 40 minutes EACH WAY. I really appreciate less travelling time now especially if 2 kiddos are tagging along everywhere I go (different story if we are going on holiday okay?)
My gynae is very busy (and so am I)

Don't get me wrong... I will definitely monitor my progress even though I'm not seeing my gynae every month. Just that, I feel this round, I am more relaxed and not too pressured to be going for my checkups every month. Of course, because of the lack of checkups, I do sometimes forgot how many weeks pregnant I was and had to keep checking on Babycenter website :P

As for antenatal pills, oh well, I buy my own vitamins and pills from the local pharmacy near my housing area. Just folic acid, Obimin and vitamin C daily for now. I've been taking the same thing for the previous 2 pregnancies anyway.

I also read one of my blog followers commenting that she is not going for so many checkups during pregnancy as too much ultrasound will affect the baby's foetal development. I googled around for more information as I'm not aware of this and yes, of course I am curious to know whether there are risks to having too many ultrasounds or not!

You can read up the articles I found here on why it is best to avoid ultrasound scanning during pregnancy and why nobody has ever found them to be harmful and another science-based article here. Of course there are a whole lot more articles out there for you to research and read up on and decide for yourself.

My personal opinion? I think ultrasounds are good where by it helps to alert us if there's any complications or risks to the baby or mum but if your pregnancy is normal and no risks foreseen (or no historical healthy risks on yourself or your parents' side) then it should be fine not to do so many ultrasounds.

So, how often do you go for your antenatal checkups when you are/were pregnant and do you think ultrasounds are risky?

Product Review & Giveaway - Boys Winter Tie Dye Pyjamas

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:00:00 +0800

I had previously reviewed the breastfeeding cover and nappy wallet by BabyButton. Continuing on from there, I am now reviewing another product which is sold on their website, the Boys Winter Tie Dye Pyjamas by Whatever Wear.

"We take great pride in sourcing the highest quality materials at an affordable price. We see the BabyButton collection as no ordinary baby product, this collection has been inspired by a Mum made for Mums. These products are not mass produced that adds no real purpose to the baby or the mum. We offer practical solutions to real problems that Mothers face. Baby products that have a purpose, we make a difference to the whole Motherhood experience. We offer real products, real solutions to common baby and Motherhood problems."

I requested to review the Tie Dye Pyjamas design because it looks kinda like a soldier clothing, except in blue color dye. I think my 4 years old boy will go crazy if the pyjamas is in green hahaha... Anyway, I did the initial tests on machine washing, drying, etc and it all works out fine, no discolouration, no fading, no shrinking. Good quality!

The first time my boy saw the pyjamas, he was excited because it looks like soldier clothing (even though it's blue) and he can't wait to put it on. Please note that the pyjamas is a tad too big because the smallest size on hand is for 6 years old and I don't really mind getting larger clothes for my kiddos as that means I can let them wear longer. All I need to do is just fold up the extra bits and it's good already!

The pyjamas kept my boy warm throughout the night and because it is 100% cotton knit, it is also comfortable for my boy's skin as well. To sum up my review, this is a great product!

You can find a lot of designs and products from BabyButton website.

Now, those who followed my blog and Facebook page regularly will know that I am already cutting down on a lot of product reviews and giveaways to focus on homeschooling my 2 kiddos and also caring for myself and our 3rd baby who is due in this September. But BabyButton has generously offered 2 more sets of pyjamas for me to host as a giveaway to 2 lucky winners for Australia only! Remember, as long as you have a valid mailing address in Australia, you can enter this giveaway already! So woohooo to you guys!

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

You can enter either via login through your Facebook account OR just key in your name and your valid email address.
Please also leave your valid email address so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

Homeschooling: On-Site Learning

Thu, 09 May 2013 07:20:00 +0800

I used to read how homeschooling parents love to go on field trips and sightseeing trips and holidays as that would mean opportunities for their homeschoolers to learn things. I can't imagine how that is going to happen until we had our family day trip at the bird park recently... the last time we went there were early this year to bring our Swedish cousins to visit some of the hot spots in Kuala Lumpur.

Well, this week, I'm sharing how a simple family trip can be a source of learning for our homeschooling children as well! So anyway, we had our brunch on Saturday 4th May 2013 and we thought, oh well, let's just go to Bird Park again since there's nothing to do at home. So we headed there. And I tried snapping as much pictures as I possibly can...

My 4 years old boy was particularly mesmerised with the peacocks this round. Previously? Not much interest. This time, one of the peacocks opened up its tails and showed everyone nearby its feathers (not much left actually) and my boy stood and watched with much interest.

I also took the chance to explain to him that male animals are particularly more colorful than the female ones because they need to attract the female's attention. And this time, we also get to see a peahen and its baby! Cute! I also explained to my boy why the pea chick keeps tagging along to its mummy (for protection and food)

I thought things will get back to normal once we went back home. That's when I realised my boy's memory is still fresh and strong. Because I started seeing things like this from my 4 years old boy...

** Disclaimer: FYI, I have not even started teaching my boy how to draw because uhmmm... I am not a good artist at all, in fact I shudder everytime we have Arts class during school days especially when it comes to drawing activities... crafts no problem... but drawing... I am very weak in this... so anyway, the drawings by my boy is solely his own creation and imagination...

Amazing right?!

That's all the updates I can share for now, feel free to ask and share if you have feedback!

Life Goes On!

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:29:00 +0800

Life goes on dear Malaysians...

Sure, I woke up at 1am+ on 6th May 2013, and upon reading the barrage of comments and posts on Facebook about how the opposition parties lost in the 13th General Election of Malaysia, I felt like a big chunk of my heart has just been ripped out.

I can almost equate the emptiness and hollow feeling of my heart to the time when I realised back in early 2007, for the first time as I stood alone in my government flat I called house for 2 decades of my life, I have no more father and mother. I am like an orphan.

And I'm feeling almost the same as I read through how ballot boxes magically appeared after an eletricity blackout at some ballot counting centers, how vehicles bearing ballot boxes can still drive in and said they lost their way and are delivering the remaining ballot boxes to be counted (when the results has been counted for and unofficially announced) and more.

I felt like my beloved country has just died.

I'm sad throughout the whole half day of 6th May 2013. Sad not because democracy in Malaysia is dead. I'm not sad because the opposition parties have lost.

I'm just sad at the way we lost.

And sad how the racism card is still being used to stir up Malaysians.

Anyway, life really does go on.

Whether we like it or not, the results have been announced.

I just want to say we as citizens of Malaysia should be proud of what we did.

Even a miniscule of contribution in each and every one of us really did make a difference.

I'm actually happy to know some of my Muslim friends are sharing the same sentiments like myself.

I'm happy to know they too don't agree that religion is used to scare other races.

I'm happy to know many of the people in my Facebook network are frustrated and desire for change in the country.

Don't ever doubt that and don't ever lose hope.

Stop getting angry and move on with your life. Really... When you are calm and at peace, you are able to think more logically.

Of course, change does not come so fast.

Trust in God's timing.

And His will for our beloved country to be done according to His time and His ways.

Stay strong and stay united.

Push on dear Malaysians...

Praying for a Fair and Just Election!

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:15:00 +0800

On this coming 5th of May, all Malaysians who have registered as voters will fulfill their responsibilities in the 13th General Election of Malaysia. I have personally voted once many many years ago and to be honest, being in my early 20s then, I do not care much of the impact of my vote then and simply just crossed out the political party that was serving my area that time.

But this round, every single vote count. I am definitely in no position to say out or even influence anybody which political party to vote for and what is right and wrong with so and so political parties in Malaysia.

All I know as a stay-at-home mum now is, I'm voting for the future of my children.

I want them to have a fair chance to further their studies in the land where they were born.

I want them to have a fair chance to apply for scholarships, universities, jobs and so on.

I don't want to raise my children here only to have them being forced to look for greener pastures in other countries which provides equal opportunities to everyone.

I love Malaysia and I would love to see this country flourish.

I would love to see everyone work hand in hand to make this country better.

Just fairness in all matters if possible.

Well, that's one mighty big wish you might say.

So again I repeat, I am definitely in no position to say out or even influence anybody which political party to vote for and what is right and wrong with so and so political parties in Malaysia.

I am just praying for a fair and just election this time.

I am praying for God's hands to be upon every step of the election process!

* Proverbs 20:10 (NIV) ~ Differing weights and differing measures — the Lord detests them both.

* Proverbs 22:22-23 (NIV) ~ Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life.

* Deuteronomy 16:20 (NIV) ~ Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.