I'm a full-time mummy

I came across a Tweet on the opportunity to review a kids related iPad app, of course being the usual busybody mummy blogger, I immediately checked out the company and the app and find out that it is an app to track a child's growth, vaccination schedules and more! What a cool app that I must simply review! Hahaha... Anyway, long story short, my review as below...

* Title: My Kid's Health
* Price: $8.99
* Category: Health & Fitness
* Released: Jan 18, 2012
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 6.3 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Pomelo Limited
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Vaccination schedule, doctor/dentist appointments, growth & illness history, and more. Reminders sync with the iPad calendar. All through a beautiful, user-friendly interface. Developed by parents, for parents, to create the perfect tool for keeping track of your kid's health and development. No more looking for papers, it's all there on your iPad! "

Here in Malaysia, when a child is born, parents will be given a medical book which will list down the vaccinations taken, required and so on. Picture below is how my daughter's medical booklet looks like.

What's good?

I started off with this app by selecting my country (Malaysia) followed by entering my children's details.

* I am impressed with the objective of selecting the country (there are 194 countries in the list), which is to personalise the vaccination schedules for my child, and this data are provided by the World Health Organisation and national health organisations.

* I like that I am able to personalised each of my child's records by selecting their photos from my albums on the iPad

* I also like that I can enter details such as blood type, weight, height & head circumference by different dates and then view those data in graphs (growth charts)! Look at the picture below of Alyson's record on the app. And I can also see her growth rates indicated by the blue line are above the normal range in green line hahaha... (This was also mentioned by our paed few months ago)

* I am also impressed that the app can prompt the next vaccinations which are due to be taken (even the date!)

* I think this is a very handy and useful app to help a parent to track the health and development of their child as all the information is available right at our finger tips! No more flipping through pages of records and books!

Room for Improvement?

* I would love to see notes of what to look out for or to be alert for (such as growth spurts at which months and what symptoms or clues to look out for) as these would be an added special touch for the app user.

* I would like to have the option to email the details out as well.

You can purchase the "My Kid's Health" app from the iTunes App Store.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! TWO of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this awesome and useful app! 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

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"

I came across a Tweet on the opportunity to review breastfeeding cover and after a couple of tweeting and emails to and fro, I was contacted by Janell with the green light to not only review one of her breastfeeding covers, I also get to offer another breastfeeding cover to one lucky follower of my blog! (Yes, yes, that means, another worldwide giveaway!)

For those of you who are staying out of Malaysia, we don't nurse in public and what we do is either cover up or we nurse in nursing/baby rooms if they are available, else, we have to make do with hiding somewhere to nurse I guess...

Without further delay, here's my review on the awesome life & time saving BabyButton Breastfeeding Cover, and yes, you get to see my face which is rarely shown on my blog! (* blushing *)

"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 Big Blue Jacks Breastfeeding Cover design because it looks oh-so gorgeous, I'm into blue colors now and I really like the pattern (kinda like molecules or DNA right?).

FYI I tested the breastfeeding cover on the following areas:

* Washing - Colors stayed and did not stain other clothing

* Drying - Dries up really fast due to the cotton material and size remains the same

* Features - With approximately 74cm in width, it is able to cover up both my sides, front and top.  I like the Easy On/Off Buckle which can be easily manoeuvred and the strap on the neck is also easy to adjust by one hand. In addition, I like the plastic covering for the neck support which is softer, and not as stiff as my other breastfeeding cover. It also allows me to peep in to see my girl while I'm breastfeeding her.

* Storage - Due to its cotton material, I'm able to fold up the breastfeeding cover into my small diaper bag. It takes up very minimal space in my often cramp diaper bag.

* Other Usage - I also used the breastfeeding cover as a blanket when my girl is in her stroller.

* Functionality - It covers all the sides and areas that are supposed to be covered, front, both sides and top. I feel at ease to be able to breastfeed wherever I am.

* Ventilation - Very good ventilation and breathable material and I don't feel myself or my girl being hot while she was tucked inside the cover during her nursing time.

* Places I use the breastfeeding cover so far - Church and shopping malls that we frequently go to.

You can find a lot of designs and products from BabyButton's website at: http://babybutton.com.au/shop

As mentioned earlier, BabyButton has generously offered a Breastfeeding Cover for me to host as a giveaway to 1 lucky WORLDWIDE winner! Say it loud and clear now, BabyButton and I'm a full-time mummy are totally awesome! Woohooo!

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

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the Big Blue Jacks Breastfeeding Cover by BabyButton 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.

I last updated about Ben's potty training progress in my post about settling down with 2 kids where I mentioned "I tried starting Ben back into his potty training exercise but it's still tedious for me at this moment - for example, I can't drop everything at an instant and run to the bathroom with Ben when he wants to pee. So this activity needs to be slowly introduced over time."

Now you need to know all the while that:

* Ben potty trains in peeing by standing instead of the usual route I understand from other parents where their child started off by sitting on the potty. So don't ask me how to train your child to pee from sitting in the potty to standing...

* Ben does not like to sit on the potty at all, hence we have not been able to potty train him in pooping into the potty until recently (which means Ben poops in his diaper while standing)

* Ben also does not like anyone touching or being near him while he poops

So anyway, we have started back his potty training this month where we really stick to our guns (as in no giving in when he insists on diapers) and here's the update and some milestones so far:

Updates:

* No diapers during daytime (unless we go out somewhere)

* Training Ben to pull down his own pants and hold his potty while he pees and then put back the potty on the floor properly (I also use this opportunities to remind him to focus his peeing into the potty)

* Diapers worn daily = 2 (one for afternoon nap, one for bedtime)

Milestones:

* Out in public for 2 hours without diapers! For the time in his 35 months of life, Ben went out in public without wearing diaper for 2 hours! We were going to hubby's 1st sister's house so we brought along his potty. Ben excitedly show off his potty to his cousins and he was so proud when he peed into the potty as we all stood around watching and cheering him on!

* Pooping for the first time in potty! We actually achieved this accidentally due to timing. Ben was playing in his water pool when he suddenly needed to poop. I rushed him to our bathroom, stripped off his swimsuit and told him he need to sit on the potty. Prior to this, he always insist to poop in his diaper even to the extent of crying when I refused to let him wear a diaper for him to poop in. But like I said, time is critical, I told him mummy cannot get diaper on time, he has to use potty so off he goes, sat on the potty and poop. Golly! I was a proud mummy that day!

Next Goals:

* Short Term: To move on to peeing into the toilet seat

* Short Term: To continue training him to poop in the potty until he feels safe to sit on the toilet seat

* Short Term: To train him to poop in the potty by himself without me sitting behind & cuddling him for assurance

* Medium Term: To train him to hold his pee for a longer period

* Medium Term: To go diaper-free during his afternoon naptime after the above goal is met

* Long Term: To poop in the toilet seat

* Long Term: To go out in public without diaper and potty

* Long Term: To go diaper-free during his bedtime

So there you go, I hope we will be able to achieve the goals above and Ben to be diaper-free soon!