I'm a full-time mummy

It has been a long time since I get to preview an upcoming movie! Few days ago, I received a pitch to participate in a special “sneak peek” screening of "Return to Zero", which premiers 20 May 2014 8.00pm on Lifetime (Chanel 709 on Astro). So below is my review for the  movie:

Title:  Return to Zero
Director: Sean Hanish
Cast: Minnie Driver, Paul Adelstein, Alfred Molina, Connie Nielsen, Kathy Baker, Andrea Anders, Sarah Jones
Release Date: 20 May 2014 8.00pm on Lifetime (Chanel 709 on Astro)
Repeats on 25 May, Sunday at 9pm and 31 May, Saturday at 4pm
Running Time: 107 Minutes

Synopsis of the movie:

"Based on a true story, Return to Zero tells the story of a successful couple, Maggie (Minnie Driver) and Aaron (Paul Adelstein), who are preparing for the arrival of their first child. Just weeks before their due date they are devastated to discover that their baby son has died in the womb and will be stillborn. The two attempt to go on with their lives but cannot escape their postpartum grief and their relationship has been forever altered by this loss. They try to cope in a myriad of ways-- through denial, escape, and alcohol-- but when Maggie discovers that Aaron is having an affair with a co-worker, she decides to end the marriage. Just when Maggie believes she has started a new life, she discovers that she is pregnant. With the help of an empathetic doctor who once experienced a similar loss, Maggie finally learns to grieve for her son and must reunite with Aaron to prepare for their second pregnancy."

Other Notes:

* Return to Zero has been selected as one of the official selection of RIFF Awards 2014, and CINEQUEST Film Festival. 

* Return to Zero is based on the real-life experience of Sean Hanish and his wife. Sean and his wife Kiley had a stillborn child. In 2005, in week 37 of the pregnancy, after a healthy check just the previous month, there was no heartbeat from their unborn child. Their son, Norbert, was born still.

*  Sean Hanish used the actual diagnosis of his son in the film as well as some of the beautiful words that were said at his memorial service.

As a mother of 3 kiddos, I've been blessed through and through again with wonderful pregnancies and deliveries, I can't imagine how heartbreaking it would be to find out the child you have been carrying in your womb passed away.

I have heard of experiences from friends of friends about their stillborn, how despite finding out their child is no longer alive that they still have to go through the delivery process. We may never know the heartaches of going through the experience of the loss of a child and the impact towards the relationship and family.

How often do you come across a film that touches on the aspect of stillbirth and the effects of it? The scene where Minnie Driver delivered her baby boy and hugged him before he was passed on to the nurse - just heartbreaking. Sad when the child you have been carrying in your womb for so long passed away, never get to see the world...

Unless the person have gone through a similar situation, I don't think we can ever understand what the parents go through when they lose an unborn child, the trauma, guilt, anger and all. I think this movie gives us hope that things will turn out better one day and that you are not alone in this and for us to cherish our loved ones every day we can. A must see film!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the movie in a CD 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.

Almost 2 months ago, I received an email on the possibility to review some baby products. I was excited of course, who would turn down baby products?! I got even more excited after browsing through the websites and seeing tons of gorgeous baby clothing and accessories! Without further ado, check out my review below...

About the company:

"We are a Malaysia online baby clothing store launched on 16 September 2012 (Malaysia Day!). We carry hand-picked products from reliable manufacturers and distributors for newborn baby and up to 2 years old toddler. We work hard to provide you the best of the products or brands at the most affordable prices with great online shopping experience and efficient customer service."

Before I begin with my feedback on the products, I would like to share my thoughts on the experience of 'buying' products from the website. What I like about the website:

- Adequate product information and clear pictures

- More options for payment gateway (PayPal - good for international customers, MOLPay (for local credit/debit card and online bank transfer))

- Ease of use and friendly user-interface

- Ability to track order history, detailed order status with prompt emails on the status updates on the order tracking updates

Anyway, I browsed through the website and finally decided on the following items:

Augelute Damask Print Tutu Bodysuit Dress, Pink

I ran some tests on this dress which was pre-washing it, drying and letting our kiddo wears it. The colors and size remain as it is after washing and drying which is great as I have some not so good experience with other clothing which bleeds after soaking. There are some snap buttons at the bottom of the dress for easy diaper changing (similar to rompers or onesies) and also a button at the back for easy over-the-head dressing.

I like this dress as it looks glam and girly at the same time with the black and pink theme. I love the comfortable cotton material and the layers of yarn at the bottom of the dress are soft and do not irritate the skin at the touch. You may notice the dress is a wee bit too big for my girl as I requested for a bigger size for her so that we can prolong the use of this dress.

Augelute Elegant Chiffon Flower Pre-Walker Shoe, Pink

Our 7 months old girl is not in the walking stage yet but that doesn't mean we should not get ready a pair of pre-walker shoes for her right?

I chose the smallest size available, which is the 11.5cm in length and I love the vibrant pink color of the shoes. The shoes has a Velcro stick on straps, anti-slips material at the base and the material of the shoes are soft and comfy, I also like the cute little chiffon flower at the end of the shoe straps.

Augelute Hooded Polka Dots 2-Piece Set, Plum Red

I totally love this hooded 2 piece set! You know why? The colors are adorable and I love to mix and match clothing (better versatility and prolong usage) and to find out that you can wear BOTH sides of this 2 piece set is just awesome-tastic! To be honest, I was not paying attention to the product description when I chose this set and hence did not realised that this 2-piece set is a stylish double-side wear, one side in plum red color and the other side with black polka dots in pink. You can go crazy mix and matching just this 2 piece set by itself! Love love love it!

The long pant comes with an elastic waistband and snap buttons (deco only), material wise this 2 piece set is made of 25% cotton and 75% Polyester, it feels soft and yet keeps you warm. This set passed my prewash and drying test, colors remain vivid and no shrinking at all.

The moment I took out the 2 piece set, our 2.5 years old Alyson set her eyes on it and she insisted to try it on. I let her try out both sides. I would say the polka dot side gives a cheeky adventurous feel while the plum red side retains the girlish feel on the wearer.

This 2 piece set is originally intended for our 7 months old girl to wear but since our 2.5 years old girl can still fit into the hooded top, I let our baby wears the pants. Definitely worth to buy this set and due to its versatility which allows both sides to be worn, I totally think this is value for money!

MomsCare Triangular Rose Floral Series Teething Bibs  

Our final product for this review, this 3-in-1 set cotton teething bibs, it comes with a white floral bib, a lovely rose floral bib, and a pink love heart bib. The bibs come with double snaps adjustable neckline specifically designed for drooling and teething as well as baby who having a messy day. When you put the bib on, it makes our kiddo looks like as if she is a cowgirl. Cute cute!

I like the bibs as they are easy to wear on our girl, small and very light, doesn't take up much space at all. I like that it is small but yet does its job perfectly well and looks different from normal bibs in the market. Definitely worth buying!

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

** Do note that the product quantity is very limited, so some sizes will be out of stock very quick.

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

One of the reasons I love being a blogger is getting to do food review with my family. A few weeks ago, I received an invitation for a food preview session to try out IPPUDO's Parent's Day package. I have been to IPPUDO once in March this year to celebrate my birthday so it was nice to be given the opportunity to try out their food with my family. Without further ado, check out my review below...

About the company:

"IPPUDO was founded in 1985 in Japan’s ramen capital of Hakata by Shigemi Kawahara, the internationally renowned Ramen King and CEO of Chikaranomoto Company, which encompasses some of Japan’s finest restaurants. There are over 65 stores in Japan, and globally in places such as New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Shanghai. IPPUDO has become the most popular ramen restaurant over the years."

We were greeted with an enthusiastic welcome by the restaurant's staff and then directed to our table. The supervisor in-charge, Mr. Alfred promptly introduced the Parent's Day package set to us and helped us along as we ordered our fruit juices (kiwi, orange and tropical) and ramens. I'm happy to know that we can actually request for the ramen's texture (soft, normal, hard to very hard) so we settled on 2 harder texture of ramen for hubby and myself while our kiddos' ramen (Benjamin and Alyson shared a bowl) will be the softer texture. 

The first appetizer arrived shortly - Buta Karaage, which is a set of deep fried juicy pork loin with special homemade sauce was immediately devoured by our kiddos. I am pissed as hubby and I only get to eat 1 of the crispy pork loins each! Our kiddos whacked the rest of them all! The deep fried pork loins are crunchy on the outside and yet remain tender and chewy inside, yummmms... it is delicious to be eaten as it is also!

You can see the pictures below of our 2.5 years old Alyson, she is a really picky eater. I can say she is a food critic hahahaha... if the food is not good, no matter how you bribe or scold her, she will not touch it. At first you can see her apprehensive face as she holds one of the deep fried pork loins with her training chopsticks (I always brought them along for our kiddos to use), then when she took her first bite, she goes on her silent mode... and then she drops her chopsticks and uses her fingers to shove the deep fried pork loins for faster consumption hahahahah...

The Nikumiso tofu salad arrived after that and hubby and I immediately tried it out. It is good! At first hubby's impression was 'Heh... white tofu, what is so special?!' and then he took his first bite and went 'OOoooooooo... this is goooodddddd!!!!!!' The miso paste brings up a nice flavor when blended in with the veggie salad and as a person who does not eat much vegetables (ehem, that's me! Whooopss!) I can honestly say I am happily eating all the veggie salad in the plate! 

Our 3 ramens arrived after that - I am so sorry for not able to show you the pictures of our ramen - I did take them but the pictures does not do justice to the yummy ramens, so I am using the picture from the website instead.

The 3 ramens that came with the package are:

1. Shiromaru Motoaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth served with ultra-thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, kikurage & spring onions. Classic Hakata-style ramen.

2. Akamaru Shinaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, kikurage and spring onions. A refined, modern-style ramen.

3. Karaka-men - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso, cashew nuts & ground pork.

Also I need to share that from this point onwards, our 7 months old girl started her fussy stage (her sleep time) and despite continuous attempts to divert her attention by letting her play with tons of stuff in my diaper bag, she still fuss and make noises, so much that I had to take her out for a brief walk for change of atmosphere. So I missed out on taking pictures of us enjoying the ramens.

Our 5 years old boy said the soup is delicious and even drinks the soup of the ramen! He only says that when he drinks MY homecooked soup so as jealous I was at hearing that, I feel at ease when I know that only rigorously selected ingredients go through the innovative processes of creating the Tonkotsu broth, which is refined over the years. It takes more than 15 hours to extract the essence and to achieve the perfect emulsion. We were also told by Lucas, the Head of Operations that most of the ingredients are imported from Japan if it cannot be sourced locally.

I would like to thank the numerous staff who helped changed the cutleries (spoons and chopsticks) that our 7 months old girl keep dropping to the floor - boy, the staff are so quick that I have not even started sighing at the drop of the cutleries and the staff just swooped right in and changed a new one for me. Embarrassed but totally impressive!

Our honest opinion of IPPUDO's Parent's Day package? The menu selection was good and from the family point of view, the package is value for money instead of ordering separately. I mean, 3 ramen, 3 drinks and 2 big portion appetizers, definitely value! And the best part is the food is delicious, I'm sure anyone would be happy to pay for something as long as the food is delicious and made of the good quality ingredients, so the awesome point of getting to eat delicious food and knowing it is well worth the money spent for is just fantastic!

Hubby's comment aside from the meals being delicious is it would definitely be the icing of the cake if the package comes with a scoop of ice cream or some desserts for the family with young kiddos. As for me, I would say this package is even worth to go as a couple, I know if given the opportunity, hubby and I would be happy to order this same package for ourselves and share the 3rd bowl of ramen together... of course, hopefully minus our 3 kiddos being babysit elsewhere hahahaha...

Thank you Ippudo Malaysia for inviting us to try out your Parent's Day special promotion set.

We enjoy it very very much! Thumbs up from our family!

IPPUDO Parent's Day promotion starts from 9th May and ends on 22nd June and valid in Pavilion KL and The Gardens Mall KL outlets only.

You can find out more at http://www.ippudo.com.my/

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