I'm a full-time mummy

I have the privilege of reviewing my subsequent books under Free Spirit Publishing, one of the set of 8 Toddler Tools™ Board Books by Elizabeth Verdick (illustrated by Marieka Heinlen) called:

Title: Bedtime
Author: Elizabeth Verdick
Illustrated by: Marieka Heinlen
Publisher:  Free Spirit Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-57542-315-9
Board book, full-color: 24 pages
Dimension: 7" x 7"

Description from the product page:
"Ease the transition time from evening activities to bedtime with this warm and cozy get-ready-for-bed book. Aided by Mom and Dad, a sister and brother enjoy a little snack, relaxing baths, time for brushing teeth, stories, lullabies, back rubs, and hugs. Cheerful, soft illustrations and reassuring text set a tone that helps toddlers feel good about the daily routine of settling down to sleep. (As the narrator explains, “I do my best growing when I’m sleeping.”) In the morning, the children will yawn, stretch, and be a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, and a little bit smarter—all because of a good night’s sleep.

An award-winning author/illustrator team offers a fresh look at a transition time all toddlers face daily, giving young children the tools and social skills to handle bedtime with confidence and cooperation. Part of the Toddler Tools series, Bedtime can be shared before (or during) the desired “time,” or whenever toddlers need encouragement with daily routines and transitions."

I love the cute cover with the little boy peeking out of the blanket on his bed! Each of the pages are solid and has a glossy feel, plus the illustrations are just too awesome and creative! The size of the book is just nice, not too big, not too small.

If you look closely, the characters and objects illustrated are not only hand drawn, they are also actual textures used to replace the clothings, toys, even the wallpapers in the book are from the actual thing! It's very cute and has that added touch!

With this book, I'm trying to teach Ben about the transition time from evening activities to bedtime. Check out the pictures below of Ben going through the book...

In my opinion, the Toddler Tools series are a good choice for parents to use with their children because of the positive message they brings!

You can get this book from Free Spirit Publishing, Amazon and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book by Free Spirit Publishing 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"

After two attempts at making chocolate chip butter cookies using premix in which the 2nd was a success, I have decided to take the plunge in baking cookies WITHOUT relying on premix. This recipe was adapted from Allrecipes.com. I didn't managed to take pictures of the ingredients and the process as it was a spur of the moment thing to bake it since my brother in law and his friend came by to have dinner at our house and I thought it'd be nice to have new guinea pigs to test on to bake them these cookies. So without further ado, here goes:

SHORTBREAD CHOCHOLATE CHIP BUTTER COOKIES

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 5 minutes to mix & prepare the dough
* 17 minutes for baking process 

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 220 g all-purpose flour (I used wheat flour)
* 2 g baking powder
* 2 g salt
* 225 g unsalted butter (melted and I used salted butter instead)
* 100 g white sugar
* 125 g semisweet chocolate chips
* A bowl to mix ingredients in
* Kitchen scale
* Metal cup to store melted butter
* Spatula
* Baking sheet & paper

What to Do?

* Preheat oven to 150℃.
* Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
* In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
* Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, then stir in the chocolate chips.
* Roll the dough into small balls and place on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.
* Flatten each balls slightly.

BAKING PROCESS

* Set oven to 150℃ and bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown.
* Remove from sheets to cool on racks.

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

ME	"Yummy! Considering this is my 1st attempt at baking cookies without premix, this is really really good! Even taste better than the premix! Crisp, taste all are just nice!" (giving myself a pat on the back.. hehehe)
BEN	"Ammm! Ammm!"
HUBBY	"You mean this is from scratch? Not using premix?! Wow, taste good! In fact, it tastes better than the premix!"
BIL	"Mmmm... taste very delicious! The sweetness and all are just nice! What's the recipe?"
FRIEND	"Very good, if you add in pistachio nuts in the next attempt will be delicious!"

So there you go.... my SHORTBREAD CHOCHOLATE CHIP BUTTER COOKIES 1st attempt without using premix! Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt! To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I leave you with a snapshot of my cheeky little man taking a bite of the cookie in our room just now...

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

I admit my tempers can easily flared up.. especially when I haven't eaten anything (happens quite a number of times) or when I'm trying to rush up things like paying online bills, rushing quotations/invoices/POs for hubby's business (I don't like to delay or leave things till last minute)...

And with a toddler now, I do find that one of the things I learned from Ben is: PATIENCE...

Hmm... or like this quote says:

"You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones"

Yup... take this picture below for example...

See my handsome and playful little man there happily riding his ride-on car, maneuvering amidst the trails of Mega Bloks destruction all around our bedroom floor. Maybe to you it's just a couple of block toys all over the floor, but being kind of the everything-must-be-in-its-place person, it looks like a disaster site to me.

Given normal circumstances, I would have happily just play along, pushing the blocks away from his path and cheering him on... but when situations are critical which makes my anger flares up, I would be either screaming to myself (inside my head of course!) and/or scolding Ben.

After reading a few awesome parenting books (Zig Ziglar's "Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World" and Dr. Jenn Berman's "SuperBaby"), I realised that children learns by observing their parents. What we do is what they will do.

So yes, as much as I hate to admit I have this weakness of tempers being easily flared up at particular situations, I do realised that I have to and am in the process of learning to be more patience... for the sake of my child.

So nowadays, when I see my little man with all his toys everywhere, I'll take a deep breath, tell myself this is nothing, don't get angry, just relax and join in the fun... and then when we're done, I'll teach him to clean up his toys and make sure the room is neat and tidy again. Read this quote below:

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762"

I mean, why fuss so much with the mess when you see your child enjoying so much while playing? Right? And to that, I leave you with a Chinese proverb  and an inspirational quote to ponder about:

"One moment of patience may ward off great disaster.  One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.  ~Chinese Proverb"

(*Image taken from Google search)