I'm a full-time mummy

I have never been a fan of crayons. Ever since I was young, I try my best to steer clear of using crayons whenever possible. I can't stand the icky waxy feelings of the crayons on the paper, more so the icky greasy remains of the crayons which is messy to wash off.

When I received a request to review the Amos Colorix Crayons, I think hard. I read over and over again the product details and finally decided to go ahead since I vowed to do more reviews on products which could help and benefit in our learning objectives. I told myself just because I feel icky with crayons, I should not deprive our kiddos on the experience of using them. So here it goes, our review after trying out the product:

About the product:

"Amos is from Korea. Amos Crayons have a wonderful smooth gliding touch and incredible vivid color! It is shaped thin and sharp for a better comfort grip and detailed description. Silky crayons come in twist-up tubes and are as easy to use as a crayon but go on like an oil pastel. Silky Crayons are watersoluble and with a q-tip or a paint brush you can create nice watercolor effects. Watersoluble also means these crayons stains will wash off easily with water. Non-toxic and odor free these are the next generation of crayons! Silky crayons are blendable and you'll be amazed at how beautiful the colors are. It also could be a smooth marking crayon for wide range of users in office and school."

About the sponsor:

"We're a friendly online store which mainly providing educational toys, cloth books, family tee and other mother baby items. Owning a cute and active toddler of our own, we understand what a parent would need. We love to bring convenience for all busy parents to just browse online, place order and all items would be delivered to you by door step. niceVin, your family store."

My feedback on the product's packaging: As a stay-at-home mum who is most of the time stuck at home with 3 kiddos, I truly appreciate children products with clear and organised containers. So the moment I see the Amos Colorix Crayons nicely arranged in a transparent briefcase-like packaging, I feel happy of course. No stress of the crayons being chuck everywhere. 

There is a clear label at the back of the packaging indicating the features of the product and storage and handling instructions as well. To open up the Amos Colorix Crayons packaging, you just need to flip open the 2 small tabs on one of the sides like how you do for briefcases. The crayons are securely placed and arranged according to the color tones.

My feedback on the product: The crayon's length is just nice and its size is also just right for childrens' fingers to grasp on to. I am not a big fan of letting our kiddos (especially below 3 years old) use the common small size color pencils or pens as they still need time to perfect their finger grasping skills. You just need to gently turn the bottom cap anti-clockwise to extend the crayons and continue using it. I totally love that the crayons are covered in plastic holders so you have less exposure to the crayons - not that these crayons are icky at all.

I took two of the crayons' to compare. The crayons does not feel icky at all! And I am totally mesmerised with the colors and the ones in gold and silver color tones are just gorgeous!

One of the things that annoys me when using the Amos Colorix Crayons are our kiddos' being rough when coloring - I guess it could be their excitement of using crayons for the first time. You can see the tip is blunt and chapped as well. Maybe it's just the OCD in me - can't stand it! In fact, I felt a tad sympathy seeing that poor crayong losing it's perfect cone-shaped tip.

Picture below on the right side is just to show you how the crayon works when you turned the bottom cap clockwise or anti-clockwise to extend or shortened the crayons.

My feedback on kiddos using the product: The moment I opened the packaging, our 2 years old girl is already hogging the packaging and our 4.5 years old boy was excitedly looking for blank papers to color on. Our girl then proceeded to take out her favorite color which is pink and then handed me the purple one (clever girl knows mummy's favorite color!) while our boy immediately got down to asking me what I wanted him to draw.

Our girl happily doodles away while our boy concentrated on drawing the things I asked him to. The three little piggies' brick house with a chimney, snowman, robot, Doraemon and even Ironman!

At one point, some of the crayons got smeared on our girl's onesies and I told myself, gotta wash it off later and after our kiddos were done with the crayons activities, I let them play in their water pool at the balcony and when they were done, I noticed the crayon stains are gone! Then I remembered that this crayons can easily be removed with water! Ahhhhh... nice, nice! And I also noticed there are no icky waxy smells with the crayons at all!

Summary: The Amos Colorix Crayons is a wonderful product for children, it has certainly helped me regain back my faith in using crayons and I'm happy to be given the opportunity to try out this product. I'm glad our kiddos enjoyed using the crayons. Pictures below are some of the colorings and drawings by our 4.5 years old Benjamin ;)

You can get this crayons from niceVIN Facebook page.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by niceVIN 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.

Reflections on 2013:

2013 was a year of good memories and wonderful milestones!

• I colored my hair for the first time in my life! And ended up not seeing any difference since my hair was originally so black that the hair dye color was not showing at all!

• I learned to make a couple of Chinese soups for the family using slow cooker! ABC soup, Lotus Root soup and Szechuan Vegetable Soup.
  

• Being pregnant for the 3rd time and giving birth to our 3rd child and hence completing our number of family members as 5 (for now hahaha)

• Our 1st child is officially potty trained before he turned 4 years old!
  

• I get to review more products which benefited our family.

• I joined an awesome SAHM group on FB, attended my first playgroup with the mummies and kiddos, made a number of mummy friends on FB, was even promoted to be one of the admins in the group, but sadly after lots of consideration, decided to leave the admin post and the group after that to focus on my family and after realising that I am getting too addicted to the group (that is another story to tell in future perhaps)
  

• We joined a playgroup where I bring our 2 kiddos to their kiddy playgroup sessions every Tuesday and Friday which I think greatly helps in their social skills, especially after seeing how our 4.5 years old boy slowly shed off his shyness and tantrums in public.

• I encapsulated my own placenta and CONSUME it.

• Hubby and I attended a marriage seminar in Melaka and it helped strengthened our relationship and brought us much closer (we brought our kiddos along btw)
  

• We managed to register our 1st child into his pre-school for 2014! He's going to start his K3 classes on the 6th Jan 2014.
  

Moving on to 2014:

I am not big on making new year resolutions - probably because I don't think I am able to fulfill them hahaha... but, oh well... 2014, today is a new day, a new year, I should resolve to be a new person, well at least with new changes and hopefully new positive attitudes.

• I hope that with Benjamin starting his K3 classes this year, I will still be able to bring our girls to the kiddy playgroup sessions.

• I hope that Alyson will be independent.

• I hope that Carolyn will be an easy to care for child just like her brother and sister.
  

• I hope that I will have the opportunity to learn to cook more for the family.

• I hope that our family will remain united and strong.
  

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful 2014 and thank you for your support!

** 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.

I started my breastfeeding journey since March 2009, when our 1st child was born and I never stopped breastfeeding since then. I breastfed our 1st child past 1, 2, 3 years old, throughout my 2nd pregnancy, then went on to tandem nursed our first 2 kiddos for 1.5 years until our 1st child self-weaned at 45 months old. As for 2nd child, she is still nursing right now at 2 years old, I nursed through my 3rd pregnancy and currently tandem nursing our 2nd and 3rd child since 1st October 2013.

With all these experiences gained in my breastfeeding journey, I decided to pen down the critical phases which I think contributed to a successful breastfeeding journey.

• To read my 1st post, you can click the link on this post: Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Hour.

• To read my 2nd post, you can click the link on this post: Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Day.
  

For my 3rd post today, I will start off with: the 1st week after giving birth to your baby. By now, most likely you would have been discharged from the hospital and already in the midst to establish your breastfeeding routine with your newborn.

I believe the first week is critical because this is when something foreign happens to your baby and will likely to throw you off-guard and being a new parent, of course your first reaction is to do whatever it takes to heal your baby.

By something foreign, I am talking about jaundice. According to Wikipedia, "Neonatal jaundice is usually harmless: this condition is often seen in infants around the second day after birth, lasting until day 8 in normal births, or to around day 14 in premature births."  You can read this article to understand more on Breastfeeding and Jaundice.

For our 3 kiddos, their jaundice started on day 5. You can read about our experience with jaundice in all 3 of our kiddos, but in summary:

• First child's jaundice lasted for about 2 days as we admitted him to the neonatal ICU under bili lights treatments.

• Second child's jaundice lasted for 2 months, no hospital admission though we caved in to antibiotics on week 6, something which I still regret as we couldn't get hold of our paed to consult his opinion.

• Third child's jaundice lasted for almost 2 months, no hospital admission, no antibiotics, nothing. We just let the jaundice run its course and clear by itself. Exclusively breastfed baby can have prolonged jaundice up to 3 months.
  

By letting the jaundice run its course and clear by itself, I actually meant just continue exclusively breastfeed on demand. The more you can nurse your baby, the better. The more pee and poop that your baby can make, the better as bilirubin is flushed out through their pee and poop.

Look at the picture below, this is our 3rd child, Carolyn on day 6. You can see her yellow face and if you look closely to the whites of her eyes, there is obvious tinge of yellow as well in her eyes.

Now why I said 1st week is critical? You see, as a new parent, you get worried when you see your newborn baby turning yellow. And when you get worried, you quickly seek advice from others. From others most likely mean, your paed or doctor.

• If you are lucky, you will get a doctor who will look out for any unusual jaundice symptoms (blood incompatibility, liver problems, etc).

• If you are not lucky, the doctor will advice you to stop breastfeeding for 3 days and to solely give your baby formula milk.
  

I came across this post by Dr. Jack Newman on Facebook about the scoop on jaundice. Excerpt from the article: "So doctors often tell the mother to stop breastfeeding and put the baby on formula for 2 days (some for even a week, which is the same essentially, for many mothers, stopping altogether). Naturally, the bilirubin comes down, proving that breastmilk is the problem. Except that there was no problem in the first place. Bilirubin is known to be an anti-oxidant and may actually protect babies' cells from damage. If the baby has liver disease, except for some very rare causes such as galactosemia, there is no reason to stop breastfeeding either."

I've had friends being told by their paed to stop breastfeeding for 10 days and substitute with formula milk when their baby has jaundice. I was disappointed hearing that despite advising them to continue breastfeeding no matter what.

So, yes, the 1st week after giving birth is a critical phase in ensuring a smooth path to your successful breastfeeding journey. To sum this post up:

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : the 1st week after giving birth to your baby.

• Check whether baby is nursing well, peeing and pooping normally, active and alert as usual.
  

• If your child is active, alert, peeing, pooping, feeding, gaining weight like normal, just continue on breastfeeding and don't cave in to substitutes, don't stop breastfeeding and don't give antibiotics.
  

• If your baby does not exhibit the above signs and you are worry still, by all means, bring baby to doctor to check!
  

• Among the things to watch out for and when to see doctor: poop is black in color (means internal bleeding), bloated tummy (means inflamed liver)

• If your baby has to be admitted to the hospital for jaundice treatment, try to see whether you can stay with baby. If possible, room-in with baby so you can still nurse baby. If no, immediately start expressing (by hand preferably) and storing your breastmilk so that you can bring to hospital to feed baby.

• If there is no need for your child to remain at the hospital, just continue exclusively breastfeed on demand. The more you can nurse your baby, the better. The more pee and poop that your baby can make, the better as bilirubin is flushed out through their pee and poop.
  

Have faith in your breastmilk and your baby. Just keep on nursing and don't cave in to other factors which might jeopardise your breastfeeding journey.

That's all for my 3rd post in the critical phase for a successful breastfeeding journey!

** 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.