I'm a full-time mummy

I received an email from Pavel Mamaev the creator of Elfishki Series of Interactive iPad Books asking whether I would be interested in reviewing their app and after checking out the video preview (the app was due to be released few days after that) I decided I have to review the app! The exciting colors and illustrations on this app is just so inviting and alluring! And the game that comes with the app where you get to create and decorate your own cake, wow, I just had to let my boy try it out! Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Elfishki and the Giant Cake
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: 21 December 2011
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 278 MB
* Language: English, German
* Seller: Pavel Mamaev
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later

Description from the product page:

"Elfizz was an owner of a gloomy restaurant named Chest of Ghosts where the staff was eager to please ghosts. On the opposite side of the square was a bakery, Gingerbread Nook, run by a pretty plump Elfishki lady called Maggie. The two were at odds with each other until one day they had to work side by side... 

Here's what you find in the app:
1. Original, not found anywhere else captivating texts, designed to develop your child’s conscious reading skills - according to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
2. Stunning interactive art, classic animation and videos.
3. THREE(3) Questions on every page of the book specifically designed to help your child analyze the text, boost their imagination and make predictions about the story.
4. A bonus game specifically designed to boost your child’s imagination - Decorate the Cake - where you can save and share your child’s fantastic creation. "

What's good?

* The illustrations of this app are amazing! Love the vibrant colors and the interactive play.

* I like the storyline where it tells how 2 bakers were at odds with each other and then ended up working together, each with their own strengths and capabilities and make a successful cake together!

* There is 1 particular page which got Ben's attention and he played it over and over and over again! It's where the bat hanging upside down accidentally dropped a strawberry when you touch it. My boy just loves the hilarity of it!

* I like the game that came with this app where you can create and decorate your own cake, cute and naughty wise  and even choose to add some default text on the cake picture - great for sending over as an e-card to someone!! Anyway, Ben enjoys decorating his own cake, check out his cake below: 

Room for Improvement?

* I am not sure whether it is my iPad or the app which is slow but when I tried emailing the picture of the cake we created, it took a few seconds to load the picture onto the email draft.

You can purchase the " Elfishki and the Giant Cake " app from the iTunes App Store.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! THREE of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this awesome and fun app to play on your iPad! You will absolutely love it! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

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 in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store 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. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

Since last year, whenever Christmas time is approaching, my brother in law's best friend will send over his maid to our place for a few days. This is because his mum is going for her year-end holiday and hence, they decided to let the maid stays with us temporarily (rather than leaving the maid alone in the house)

For 2010's Christmas, my MIL cooked extra portion of food for the maid (her name is Adriana) during her temporary stay at our place and Adriana helps out with cleaning our place, mopping the floor and hanging our laundry. She was around when we celebrated Christmas that year and we gave her a Christmas present too!

For 2011 Christmas, Adriana is back for 5 days and during these few days, she tagged along to a few of our family outings. I'm writing this post to share of my experience of having a maid:

Household Chores

Like what she did in 2010, this time, she helps out with mopping our floors, hanging our laundry and I found her cleaning our fridge door's too one early morning!

Taking Care of Children

Personally, I do not like other people than my family members hold or touches my child. At one point during a family dinner, someone passed Alyson to Adriana (I was feeding Ben that time) and when I realised she was carrying Alyson, I panicked and was upset too at the person who passed my daughter to Adriana. I am not being judgemental or anything, my own mothering instincts just tells me to not let other people touches my child. I immediately got my husband to feed Ben and carried back Alyson.

Companion for the Old Folks

I can hear Adriana chatting and listening to my MIL's talking during her short stay at our place. I think she can make a good companion for old folks.

No More Privacy

Seriously, I feel very awkward having another person around the house, and even during my family outing. It's just plain weird and uneasy. At times I pitied her for not understanding what is happening around the family or what we are planning to do, but at times I also have to worry about her getting lost or couldn't find us and so on while we were out shopping (last minute Christmas shopping)

In summary, as much as I am truly grateful for her help around the house during her short stay here, in terms of our own family privacy, I would prefer not to have a maid around us. Maybe if we really do have a maid, I'll prefer if she just stays and accompanies my MIL and doing the household chores.

Any matters related to child care or my children, I will be responsible for that and not the maid. I personally cannot imagine how I can pass my children to a maid to take care. I feel very weird and uneasy having another person tagging along with us during our family outing.

I have seen at church service for example, how parents leave their children while they attend the service. I've seen maids chasing the children around, trying to feed them, or trying to clean up the children's mess. 

I've been horrified at not once, but twice, experiencing and seeing with my own eyes how a young child (maybe less than 2 years old) terrorising the baby room while the maid just sit at the corner, texting and fidgeting with her mobile phone. The young boy puts his food in the dustbin, takes out garbage and plays with it, takes people's shoes from the shoe rack and tries them on and leave the shoes (even mine!) all around, pulls down the shoe racks, goes after other kids' foods etc etc.

I feel a parent should be caring for their child, not the maid.

Anyway, this is just my own opinions about my experience of having a maid during her short stay with us. As of now, although at most times it is hectic to care and pay attention to a hyperactive boy and a cheeky and fussy baby girl, I think I can make it without relying on a maid still.

Although I am not pregnant and already given birth to Alyson 4 months ago, it is still interesting to read a book which comes packed with advices and tips from lots and lots of doctors who are also mothers! So here goes my review for the "The MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth" book:

Title: The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
Authors: Rallie McAllister MD MPH & Jennifer Bright Reich
Publisher: Momosa Publishing LLC; Original edition (June 12, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0984480401 / 0984480404
Paperback:  512 pages
Dimension:  8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches

Description from the product page:
"Dr. Spock is dead. Familiar pregnancy books are outdated. Neither of them speak to the mom who needs advice when her child cries in the night. To whom do women turn for the latest information and advice about conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood? The Mommy MD Guides

The first book in our Mommy MD Guides book series, The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is filled with tips that doctors who are also mothers use for their own families during their own pregnancies and births. To create it, we spoke with 60 doctors who are also mothers; we call them Mommy MD Guides. We spoke with many Mommy MD Guides who are still in the trenches with their babies. Some of them were even pregnant when we talked. We also spoke with Mommy MD Guides whose babies are grown up with babies of their own. They are Grammy MD Guides!

Combined, these physicians have centuries of experience as doctors, and among them they have 146 children. The 900+ reassuring, trusted, and often even humorous tips in this book are presented in the Mommy MD Guides own words, and each tip is clearly attributed to the doctor who lived it. Because doctors so often see the things that can go wrong, they try to do everything as right as they can for their own health and for that of their families. Physicians are a healthier group than the whole. Even though women physicians sometimes will just suffer with things that take time and that affect them alone, pregnancy is different. Most doctors go the extra mile to take care of their own bodies while they are carrying their babies.

The Mommy MD Guide to Pregnancy and Birth offers tips on both the challenges and also the celebrations of pregnancy. You will discover how Mommy MD Guides made it through pesky pregnancy challenges such as morning sickness, back pain, and heartburn, and you will also learn how they enjoyed wonderful celebrations of pregnancy such as telling their partners the good news, baby showers, and meeting their babies for the first time. This book is a reassuring look at pregnancy that is filled with practical, actionable tips that work. After all, if a physician juggling a busy practice and a hectic home or a resident working 110 hours a week used a tip, no doubt it worked. And if it worked for her, it will likely work for you too.

The book is divided into 43 chapters, one for each week of pregnancy plus chapters about the birth. Each chapter opens with a Your Baby This Week section and is filled with tips about the topics particular to that week. In addition to more than 900 tips in the book, it features the following three types of sidebars. When to Call Your Doctor or Midwife sidebars offer critical information of when to seek medical help. Mommy MD Guide Recommended Product sidebars feature products that Mommy MD Guides found invaluable during their pregnancies, including cost and availability information. MomMy Time sidebars suggest ways for moms-to-be to relax, de-stress, and enjoy this amazing, wonderful time in their lives. Welcome to the Mommy MD Guides!"

My feedback:

• On page 7 under the topic of "Taking Prenatal Vitamin", I think there should be a mention on the over-the-counter multivitamins. I am lucky to know about this through my 1st gynae when we mentioned about me still taking my normal multivitamins. From our 1st gynae, we found out about this and realised for example, certain over-the-counter multivitamins contain higher dosage of vitamin A which could cause blindness in the foetus.
  
• On page 16, I learned something new, which is about taking green teas and herbal teas during pregnancy. I didn't know about green tea which should be avoided.
  
• On page 140, I also reviewed the Bella Band as well during my 2nd pregnancy and am happy to read about this product being mentioned in the book as well.
  
• On page 451 under the topic of "Inducing Labor", it will be good to mention that inducing will also caused unnecessary stress for the baby.

Room for Improvement?

• As a mother who breastfeeds her child throughout her pregnancy, I would prefer if the authors write about this topic as well. It is not easy to find resources and information about breastfeeding during pregnancy so I think this would be a plus point to include this information in the future.

In summary, this is a very good book to have, whether for yourself or as a gift to someone who is expecting a child as the information and tips provided are different from other books of this genre! I mean, to read a book packed with tips from other mummy doctors? Why not?

You can get this book from Amazon and Mommy MD Marketplace.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author 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. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"