I'm a full-time mummy

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: The Adventures of Squirky the Alien #1: Why Am I Blue?
Author: Melanie Lee    Illustrated by David Liew
Publisher: MPH Group Publishing Sdn Bhd (15-Aug-2014)
ISBN: 9789674152062
Paperback: 40 pages

Description from the product page:

"On his fifth birthday, Squirky realises that he's different from his sister Emily. For one, Squirky is blue in colour. His parents reveal that he's an alien from Planet Q, who was sent to Earth when his homeworld was endangered. They also show him the UFO he’d arrived in, which they had been keeping. Though he is assured of his adoptive family's love and acceptance, Squirky still has questions about his origins. His quest for answers begins when the UFO activates...

Currently, many children's books on the subject of adoption are from Western countries. However none of them deal with issues of adoptees' identity, such as questions over their origins and why they were adopted. Also, adoption is still a relatively taboo subject in Singapore and
Malaysia.

The Adventures of Squirky the Alien is actually a series of six (6) storybooks altogether. Currently, three (3) books are already released and available for purchase now at bookstores while the fourth (4th) book is in progress. If you wish to know more about the series, you can find out more at the FB page started by the author, Melanie Lee. The author, Melanie Lee, a writer based in Singapore, is also an adoptive parent herself. She adopted her son, Christian, who is now a healthy and happy 2-year-old boy living with her and her husband, Darren. Inspired by her son, Melanie then began working together with her friend, David Liew, who is the illustrator of these books, to produce the series."

Firstly, I am very glad to be able to review this book as I have never talked about the topic of adoption with our kiddos. We don't have any family members who are adopted or adopting so there have been no reasons to approach on this topic until this book came along.

The illustrations in this book are very nice. I love the details drawn and reading this book together with our 6 years old boy, 3.5 years old girl and 1.5 years old girl is just a wonderful delight! The pictures are on the left hand side while the text is on the right side. I tried to encourage our boy to read the book but there are some letters that he finds it difficult to read, for example, the letter 'i' and 't' as it sort of looks similar. The words used in this book are easy to understand for young children, no complicated words so I do appreciate that.

This book captured the attention of our kiddos especially our boy as he is into things like aliens, spaceships so he was asking for continuation when we reached the end of the book. I can see he also gained a new understanding on what adoption means after going through this book.

I like that there are notes at the back of the book that guides you on how to discuss about the topic of adoption with children like why should it be discussed and how to comfort the child, at what age is it appropriate to do so, how to respond if a child wants to search for their  birth parents, what to do if a child  disregard their adoptive parents as their 'real' parents after finding out about their birth parents and how to reassure a child that they are still loved no matter what.

In summary, it is an eye-opening book with good parenting points to take note and applied to if you want to approach or be approached on the topic of adoption in a family. 

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia. You could also buy it online from mphonline bookstore.

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

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: Have a Happy Family by Friday
Author: Dr. Kevin Leman
Publisher: Revell (September 2, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0800719135
Paperback: 304 pages 

Description from the product page:
"Every member of a family plays a vital role in the health and happiness of the household. Everyone is important, deserves to be treated with love and respect, and needs to know that when they make mistakes they will still be loved unconditionally. And when every member of the family is pulling for each other and on the same team, everybody wins. But is this kind of family life even possible?

Parenting expert Dr. Kevin Leman says it is, and he's ready to show moms and dads exactly how they can make it happen in their family--in just five days. He shows families how to
· communicate honestly and kindly
· prioritize the right things
· maintain great attitudes and behaviors
· determine the role they play in the family structure
· make family time count

As always, Dr. Leman's outstanding advice is laced with humor, great stories, and the wisdom that comes only from a lifetime of experience. For parents who've had it up to here with bickering, hurt feelings, and emotional exhaustion, Have a Happy Family by Friday is just what the doctor ordered."

Firstly, I am very glad to be able to review this book as I fell in love with the writing style of this author. I ended up buying 4 more books from this author! Okay, back to the review of this book.. when I saw this page in the book, I immediately snapped a picture of it and posted one of the statements on my Facebook page, the one where it says 'Everybody wants a piece of you, and there's nothing left to give'. Wow! I often find myself thinking these exact same thoughts!

This book comes with a few categories:

• Introduction
• Monday - Choose Your Words, Change Your Family
• Tuesday - The Big 5: Time, Priorities, Activities, Work and Finances
• Wednesday - Navigating the Perfect Storm
• Thursday - Why Dad Can't Be Mom and Mom Can't Be Dad
• Friday - Mission: Possible
• Ask Dr. Leman - Some Q&As from parents
  
• Bonus Feature from The Secrets of Birth Order

The picture below was taken from the "Wednesday" chapter (page 88). I even shared this on my Facebook page and it received a number of likes and shares. I am guilty of some of the things listed here, especially speaking on behalf. Oh boy, countless times I just can't wait to answer questions directed to our kiddos. Sometimes I was worried that they might answer wrongly or answered with silly responses but after reading this book, I am going to try my best to withhold the urge to answer for our kiddos.

In the "Thursday" chapter, it talks about marriage, factors to a great marriage, critical needs of women and men, top stressors for women, what our children needs from mum and dad and what are the benefits and differences noted when mum and dad is present in their life.

Another chapter worth to read from this book is the "Bonus Feature" which has some brief info from "The Secrets of Birth Order" book from the same author. In this chapter, it highlights how the birth order of each child reveals their characteristics and personalities uniqueness and how we as parents can use that to our advantages. I find myself nodding and agreeing to almost everything listed in this chapter, so much so that I even bought the complete book which I plan to read next.

In summary, it is a very inspiring book with good parenting points to take note and applied to in a family. Highly recommended!!

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

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

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since last year and only accepted those that I feel will definitely fit into our family dynamics (books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, those genre) Early in January this year, I received a PM from a fan of my page asking whether I would be willing to review her product and when I found out it is a breastfeeding cover, I say YES right away. I didn't even see how it looks like in actual size or usage, just said YES right away as I'm still breastfeeding our kiddos and I feel it is good to be able to try out more range of breastfeeding covers! Anyway, let's continue with my review below...

About the sponsor:
"By Cik Gebu was established in Jan 2014 selling knotted headband, kids' hijab and great baby skin tropical product. In October 2014, we wanted to have our own label of products by selling nursing cover which can be folded into a bag.

And hence, Breastfeeding Cover By Cik Gebu was born! Not only the nursing cover can be used for breastfeeding, it can also be use in other ways such as stroller cover from the sun, baby blanket, baby pillow when the nursing cover is in the form of a bag and can also be use as changing pad."

The owner sent me about 5 designs of the breastfeeding covers for me to choose and I ended up choosing this design below. Again, at the time of choosing this design, I have no expectations whatsoever on this breastfeeding cover other than I feel choosing darker striking colors suits my mood at that point. Personally, I was attracted to the color contrasts with the cute floral-like patterns on the cover.

FYI I tested the breastfeeding cover on the following areas:

* Features - I totally love the fact that the breastfeeding cover folded back easily into its own pouch. As a person who loves to do origami, folding this breastfeeding cover is as easy as folding origami crafts. But don't worry, even if you have no origami skills, you can easily fold the breastfeeding cover by gently following the zipped areas of the pouch.

 As the breastfeeding cover can be easily folded back into its own pouch, it takes up very minimal space in my diaper bag. In fact, the pouch came with a small strap that our eldest girl immediately strapped it onto her shoulder and pretended she's out for an outing.

* Functionality - The breastfeeding cover is huge, it is 44 inches by 33 inches and covers all the sides and areas that are supposed to be covered, front, both sides and top with excess cloth. I feel at ease to be able to breastfeed wherever I am. The strap is also adjustable but I didn't adjust anything and just use it as it is. The sewing quality is good and secure.

* Ventilation - Due to its cotton material, it has very good ventilation and breathable material and I don't feel myself or our girl being hot while she was tucked inside the cover during her nursing time. The breastfeeding cover has a solid peek a boo window that is big enough that our 16 months old girl stretched out her hand to wave while I snapped a quick picture of her nursing underneath the cover.

* Other Usage - I also used the breastfeeding cover as a blanket when our girl is in the stroller and as a blanket when any of our 3 kiddos are feeling cold during our family outing.

In summary, I'm very happy to be given the opportunity to review this breastfeeding cover! It is now in my diaper bag everywhere I go and I am eager to use it and show it off at any given opportunity!

You can browse for more products at https://www.facebook.com/bycikgebupage

Do note that 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.

** 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.