I'm a full-time mummy

It was about half year ago since I posted about my paranoia of going out. There were some crime cases happening then (and even now still is) which added on to my paranoia!

A few weeks back, a fellow SAHM friend shared a status update in her Facebook that she is stepping out of her comfort zone by taking a public transportation (a train) to go check out a book fair and I was touched at her words.

Stepping out of her comfort zone.

I've been couped up in my house most of the time. With my 2 kiddos. Unless it is weekend or hubby has no business appointments on weekdays, it's pretty much stuck at home for me and my 2 kiddos.

Ever since I read that few words, I too planned to gather up my courage again to go out.

To drive my car (it's an almost 15 years old second hand car which used to be hubby's) out somewhere so I can experienced something new instead of the walls in my house.

So I have been slowly planning grocery trips with my 2 kiddos. And in order to bring my 2 kiddos out, I had to lure my MIL along so that she can help look after my kiddos while I drive.

So far, it has been 2 times since I managed to do that. It has so far became a fortnightly grocery trips and the first time we went out, my MIL dumped me and my 2 kiddos the moment we stepped into the supermarket. I think she went bonkers when she saw the newly decorated supermarket (which we have not frequented for almost a year). I told myself 'Nevermind. Even though I'm stuck with my 2 kiddos again, at least, it's not home and it's outside. Something new.' And in the first trip, I managed to handle my 2 kiddos all by myself for 3.5 hours while my MIL shops happily.

The second time we went to the supermarket again (last week), I decided to let my boy tires himself out by pushing his baby sister in the trolley. Don't worry I stood behind my boy watching and monitoring closely both my kiddos.

Then I was hungry as I have not taken my breakfast yet. So we parked our trolley outside the cafe and I had my breakfast before we continued on with our shopping.

And then my girl got restless and I thought it is better to tire her out now by letting her push her big brother in the trolley. The second trip lasted near 2 hours before I surrendered and rushed my MIL to finish up her shopping and go back home.

I told my hubby just the other day of my plan to bring the kiddos and his mum out maybe every fortnight so I can gather up my courage to drive out more often instead of being stuck at home all the time. He agreed with my plans and offered to give me allowance for the grocery shopping as well. Woohooo! I hope I'll be able to venture further next time!

If you are a SAHM, do you go out to have some 'me' time?

What do you do to pass time?

I received an email from Applecrumby & Fish asking whether I would be interested to review one of the products range in their store and oh boy, who am I to say no to trying out awesome products for my family and I right?! So here goes my review for the "Putto Secret Powder Cream":

Description from the product page:
"Putto Secret Powder Cream is made from pure corn starch and is free from talc. It is enriched with Vitamin E which is perfect for scar relief. Forget the usual irritants from conventional baby powder but instead, apply Putto Secret Powder Cream which is in a cream base form, and allow it to absorb naturally in leaving a silky soft smooth feeling!"

This bottle is almost 6 inches tall and it has a protective seal to cover it the first time I tried to open it. Once the seal is taken off, I squeezed a pea size amount of the powder cream onto my palm and started rubbing it all over my hand.

There is a subtle tinge of lemony/citrusy smell on the cream which has a peach-like color and it does not leave any oily feel on your skin after it dries up.

I like that this cream is made from pure corn starch and is free from talc. The cool thing is it is unlike the conventional powder as it is cream based, I like that there is no worries of any powder flying off or spilling on to floor.

I decided to try out the Putto Secret Powder Cream on my girl's tummy rash. It takes about 3-4 days for her rash to clear up. I would like to highlight that this product did not clear the rash but it does help the healing process as I noticed my girl normally has scars or scabs after her rash clears but when I used this cream on her rash, there is no scabs/scars around. If you are looking for products to help combat rash, you can try the Putto Secret Lotion.

Also, I keep the bottle near me at all times as I love the convenience of applying baby powder in cream form leaving my kiddos' skin smooth and silky clean. Good product!

You can get this at Applecrumby & Fish website.

Yes, yes, we are all waiting for this glorious moment!

1 lucky winner will get to win a Putto Secret Powder Cream!

* Special notes from sponsor on selection of winners for this giveaway: Winners should be those with the most genuine stories.

Giveaway opens for Malaysians only! Just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, 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.
• To enter the giveaway, you need to answer the mandatory question which is shown in the giveaway widget below.
• Please take a minute to read the Terms & Conditions listed in the Rafflecopter widget!

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.

A year ago, I get to review "Koto Go Silence" and the developer has recently emailed me to request for my review on their latest Koto series. You know, my almost 4 years old boy still occasionally watch the Koto Go Silence app before his bedtime, so of course I am all for reviewing the latest story on Koto the awesome dog!

* Title: Koto Go West
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Dec 19, 2012
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 96.4 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Daniel Shneor
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Description from the product page:

""Koto Go West" is a new beautifully animated storybook app that throws users into the adventurous world of Koto, as a tenacious sheriff dog in a Wild West town. Following the chases he embarks on, through tracking down mysterious noises, Koto encourages the reader's cognition between sound imagination and real life objects."

* Like the previous Koto book, my boy's eyes lit up when he sees Koto the dog again but this time in a different scene, the West! My boy sometimes like to pretend play with cowboy and guns and stuff, so to see Koto the dog as a cowboy dog is quite cute!

* The illustrations in this book is top notch and I love the vivid colors used, very attractive and eye catching.

* I like the storyline where it tells how Koto imagine weird things happening around whenever he hears some weird sounds around him.

* I also used the opportunity to teach Ben some new words, such as cowboy shoes, rattle snake, aborigines and so on.

* It was such a nice coincidence that I just went through a Youtube video with my boy on rattlesnakes and we saw a rattlesnake in the Koto book. My boy immediately called out rattlesnake when he saw it!

* The app comes automatically with the Read Out Loud feature but requires us to tap each pages to move through the story, so I used this opportunity to teach Ben to tap the text himself, so that he can learn that tapping the text will enable us to know what is going to happen next and I also want him to be more in-charge when we are going through this app.

You can purchase the "Koto Go West" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code 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"