I'm a full-time mummy

I stumbled upon one of those parenting blogs recently and one of the activities done by the kiddos was playing with crystal soil water beads. It looks pretty fascinating to me, although I've seen them being used in plants before, I never thought it can be used in water play, what more for educational and entertaining aspects!

I immediately googled for more info on how these beads work and where to get them for cheap price.

With the crystal soil water beads activity, I got our kiddos to be patient in waiting for the water beads to grow bigger, letting them scoop out the water beads colors that they like using a spoon (motor skills?) and taught our 5 years old boy what is transparent (one of the beads color)

I'm just thrilled to see our kiddos' faces in amazement as they observed the water beads getting bigger and bigger as time goes by. Fun activities I would say!

**** Warning: Parents / caretakers please take note to pay full attention to your kiddos when playing with the water beads in case they put them into their mouth etc. Must always exercised precautions as these colorful beads are cute to play with and the bouncy jelly-like feel might attract kiddos to put them into their mouth (our kiddos squashed some of the water beads causing quite a wee bit of mess) Do also take note that the longer the beads are soaked in water, the bigger they get and the easier they crushed and break easily.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

For this post, I am sharing my next food recipe, another cherished dish that I used to love eating! I remember back when my mum was still alive, she used to fried fish for us very often, and I can still remember the yummylicious sauce that drizzled off the fried fish... mmmmm... I remember scooping spoonfuls of the soy sauce all over my plate of rice and enjoying the fish so much! No one I know that so far can replicate my mum's fried fish. Sad but true!

Anyway, hubby taught me how to fry fish to almost perfection, yes, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I have to get guidance from him for cooking, oh well, he's an awesome cook anyway. So, as a disclaimer, I take full responsibilities of the recipe here which I definitely can't give you exact measurements and proper steps to cook as well. I pretty much just go by the live and let live motto and cook away!!!! (and hopefully nobody in the family had food poisoning after having this dish hehehehe) Without further ado, here goes my post on Pan Fried Siakap (Asian Seabass):

Ingredients:

Methods:
* Make sure fish is as dry as possible (use paper towel to absorb)
* Marinate fish with salt and pepper before coating fish with corn flour (to prevent fish from sticking to the pan)
* Heat oil in frying pan, fry the ginger slices for a minute or two.
* Fry the garlic next until you smell nice garlic-ky smell from the frying pan. Be careful not to overfry them as it will give bitter taste then.
* Fry the fish for about 4-5 minutes before frying the other side for about 3-4 minutes.
* If fish flakes upon poking with chopstick or fork, then fish is done. Take out fish and set aside in a plate.
* Pour in the vegetable broth and soy sauce mixture.
* Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes.
* Pour the sauce over the fish. 

Outcome:

I get "This is very delicious!" comment from hubby for this dish! Woweeeee!! To be honest, I've had some failed attempts in frying some fishes the few times prior to this and was starting to lose faith in cooking fish... even commented to hubby that I do not want to cook fish anymore... and got a long lecture from him for giving up easily... so yeah, with new type of fish and more patience and added faith in ownself in cooking, I'm happy to hear the compliments from hubby for this dish! The awesome thing is the sauce I made for this dish really taste like the one my late mum used to make. What a nice memory!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Early this month, I received an email from Edward of Baby Toys MY on the possibility to review some of the products sold in his company and after checking out the website, I asked whether I could review 2 of the products, a teether and a rattle which I thought is right on time to be tried out by our 5 months old Carolyn.

The sponsor not only hand deliver the products to me, they also generously gave another toy for her! And they actually brought 2 designs for me to choose! Nice touch! Anyway, let's continue with my review below...

About the company:
"We understand the excitement of being parent and you wish to have the best for your precious baby. We at babytoys with much joy bring to you baby toys which are safe for your baby, baby toys that are made from organic and biodegradable materials. Our Vision is to see babies in the Asia Pacific region excited about growing up with their toys. Our Mission is to provide toys that are safe for babies from 0+ "

I received a total of 3 products for our review which I will break it down for easier reading:

# 1 : BabyBuds Ring Rattle Buddy - Owl

There are currently 2 designs for the rattle product and I chose the owl design due to the striking big owl eyes. It is the first thing that caught my attention and I would think being 5 months old and starting to see things around clearly now, something this striking and so contrast would be eye catching for our baby.

The rattle size is not too big that our baby can't be able to hold onto, in fact, it is just a nice and she had a good time chomping on the plastic ring actually.

One thing that kinda annoys me is the label. It is kinda big, not to my liking and half the time I was very tempted to cut it off actually. I would appreciate if the labelling size is smaller like probably an inch long or lesser.

I had initially worried that the plastic ring would be too hard and that it might be dangerous to our 5 months old girl. You see, with 2 kiddos who like to fight make-up fight make-up in seconds, it is kinda freaky if the rattle ends up being a tool to whack or throw towards (and ends up thrown to) our innocent bystander but I have tried whacking the plastic ring to my forehead (yes, I have weird ways to test the products I review!), not hard and worries of danger is no longer there. Phewww...

In summary, a nice cute looking comfy rattles that also doubles up as a soft toy and teether as well!

# 2 : BabyBuds Teether Buddy - Owl

Similar to the rattle, there are currently 2 designs for the teether product and I chose the owl design due to the striking big owl eyes. The soft plush portion is same design as per the owl rattle.

You can see the small rounded dots on the ring surface which is meant to be chew/gummed by a child. The teether size is about 6 inches long, just nice that our baby can hold onto but she still needs a bit practise to hold onto the ring part to chew on - not the product problem, our girl's finger grasp is not strong yet hence I still guide her to hold onto the ring.

I have tried to bend the plastic teether ring portion. Very flexible and easy to bend, not a concern that it would be too hard to be chewed/gummed on.

In summary, again, a nice cute looking comfy teether that also doubles up as a soft toy!

# 3 : BabyBuds Plush Buddy - Zebra

This is a surprise product that was added in when I met the sponsor who was passing me the 2 products I requested for. The sponsor brought along the 2 available designs (monkey and zebra) for me to choose on the spot and I chose the zebra design as I think it looks cuter with its stripes and mane.

The soft toy is about 25 by 25cm in size, just nice, not too small that it goes unnoticed and not too big that it ends up a hassle to hold around. I like that the legs and tail were tied in knots as I saw our 5 months old girl trying to grasp and holding onto the knots tightly. (But the OCD part of me really wants to untangle the knots!!) Again, I feel that the labelling is a tad too big.

I had to earlier gently repeat a couple of times to our 2.5 years old Alyson that the zebra soft toy belongs to her baby sister. But just to satisfy her curiosity, I let Alyson have a go at the soft toy first. Once she got the idea that the toy is meant for Carolyn, she gently passed the soft toy to her baby sister who immediately investigates the new soft plush object hovering around her.

It looks so cute to see Carolyn holding onto the zebra soft toy! It's like she's riding the zebra, right?

Heart-warming sights.... Mmmmmm... In summary, a cute soft toy that could just become your kiddo's best friend for a long time!

You can browse for more products at http://www.babytoys.com.my/

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products by Baby Toys MY 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.