I'm a full-time mummy

Boy, was I glad to be writing this post today! You see, last year my then 3 years old boy started these few annoying habits...

1) Biting his finger nails

2) Picking his nose

3) Playing with his privates

I've never mentioned them in my blog because, yes, I'm ashamed. I googled around to find out why kids do this, what should I do or get to stop my boy from biting his nails, and so on.

Anyway, for his finger nails biting habit, my SIL told me to find in pharmacies whether there are any solutions or medications that we can apply on the child's nails (which has bitter taste or something after applied) that can deter a child from biting their nails. I googled and find what other mums used and found this solution called 'Thum' (it was sold on Amazon website but had some negative reviews) I went around and asked like 4-5 pharmacies and the pharmacists all gave me a weird look as they have never heard of such brands nor such things that can be applied to a child's finger nails.

I gave up on finding the solution after that but from time to time will gently remind my boy not to bite his fingernails and regularly trimmed his nails because his biting made his nails uneven and chipped. Since last month, I noticed that his nail biting habits diminishing and he even from time to time tell me 'Look mummy, I don't bite fingers, I'm big boy already!' and when I checked his finger nails, yes, they are getting long. Yipee!!

I did the same for his nose picking habits, not to overly highlight or mentioned to him so that he doesn't find it too obvious that I'm observing and watching him all the times. I finally figured out a way to deal with his nose picking habit. And today, I can happily say he has definitely cut down on his nose picking habit tremendously (or at least hide them from obvious sight).

As for his last annoying habit which is playing with his privates, my SIL told me one of her boys also had the same habit and told me to wait it out, don't highlight it or tell him to stop or that it is shameful etc etc as they are figuring out their body parts and curious and as long as I keep monitoring him, it will go away and yes, today, I can gladly say that this habit is diminishing too.

I guess it also helped that we keep reminding our boy that he is growing up and becoming a big boy now and continuously show examples (of other older cousins for example) to him that other boys do not bite fingers, pick nose or play with their penis.

I also think that not obviously stopping or forbidding him to continue his habits helped as I believe the more we tell our child not to do something, the more they will want to do it. So, gentle and once in a while reminder of not doing this and that does help.

So there you go! I am so happy to see my boy outgrowing his annoying habits!

Does your child have any annoying habits? What do you do?

When I first saw the review pitch for this book, I thought to myself 'What? No more Sunday schools? Is this for real?'. I checked out the book further and decided I must review it! So here goes my review:

Title: No More Sunday School Volume 1: Old Testament Favorites (Kindle edition)
Author: Bekki Lindner
Publisher: Lindner Creative; 1 edition (December 31, 2012)
ASIN:  B00AVE113U
File Size:  455 KB

Description from the product page:
"No More Sunday School is an application-driven family Bible study, designed to help families integrate faith into family time.

No More Sunday School is a weekly Bible lesson (and more!) for families. It’s a chance to connect once a week as a family, diving into God’s Word while gaining practical application for today’s world. Kid-friendly and easy to understand, each of the stories are also jam-packed with ways to apply the biblical truths and principles. Each week features an application-rich Bible story, family memory verse, family project, and craft. Every component of the lesson is designed to highlight the truths and principles found within the pages of the Bible. Intentional and application-driven, No More Sunday School will provide your children with a rich Biblical foundation, allowing them to connect personally with God and His Word.

This volume features stories taken from the Old Testament. Full of rules, genealogies, and some fairly fantastical events, finding practical application can prove challenging for anyone. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in the church, or if you’re just now beginning to dive into God’s Word – application is your key to unlocking how the Bible relates to YOU. How many times have you flipped through the Bible and wondered how the story of a boy who killed a giant, or someone thrown into a den of lions could possibly relate to your life? This study is designed to help you and your children understand how these stories translate to modern culture. Within each of these stories are timeless truths, principles, and practical life application.

If we desire our children to truly learn and embrace all of the truths found in the Bible, we need to stop relying on Sunday school, singing vegetables, and other people and influences, and make the choice to intentionally integrate faith into family time."

Why I wanted to review this book? Like the author, I too sometimes felt the lessons and activities taught in Sunday schools are not well absorbed by my child.  I feel that the activities in Sunday school are not exciting enough and maybe there is quite a number of children in the class everytime so there is no real one to one (or smaller scale) attention given in order to ensure our child knows and remembers what they learned in Sunday school.

Just a brief info on this book: It contains 5 stories from the Old Testament:
~ David and Goliath: Confidence and Courage
~ Hannah: Faithfulness and Strength
~ Daniel: A Shining Example
~ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: Ready and Willing
~ Joshua and the Battle of Jericho: Trust God All The Time

And each of the story contains 3 parts: family bible verse, family project and family craft. Meaning, each story begins with a parent preparation part, where parent can read up to prepare themselves before starting the lesson/activity with their children followed by a family bible verse related to the chapter and a family project and craft which you can do with your child and family to further reinforce what have been learned in the story.

I like that there is picture accompanying the family craft section, as it gives a better understanding and easier for us to refer to how the crafts will look like.

Some suggestions which I can think of to further improvise this book:
~ To have a summary page that can be printed out for easy reference / teaching to child
~ Bible verse to be formatted in a text box which we can print out and glue on wall or in book for reference.

You can get this book from Amazon, the author's website and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF 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"

Fearless four? Yes, he tells me often 'Mummy, I'm not scared! God protect me!'

Funny four? Yes, he tells me jokes and laughed at his own jokes too.

Fickle four? Oh yes, one second he tells me 'No!' and then he said 'I want, I want!'

Furious four? When he is in his tantrum phase, oh boy... he gets angry and stomps his feet huffing and puffing and sometimes jut out his tongue and tried to spit...

Whatever it is, my baby boy is FOUR YEARS OLD today!!!

Time flies so so so freakingly fast now that I see him turning 4 years old. No longer the sweet chubby cuddly baby that I remembered him as.

So many beautiful journey I have with my boy, breastfeeding him since day 1 until he weaned himself at 45 months old.

Co-sleeping with him still (for now) and watching him progress slowly and successfully potty trained him before he turned 4 years old.

Yes, my baby boy is potty trained now! Pee, poo, whatever it is... he is off diapers the whole day in the house and out in public and he slept through without any accidents. (OK, we do sometimes woke him up around 3am to get him to pee mid sleep if we know he had some water before he sleeps)

He is pretty much independent nowadays, choosing to bath himself, even wiping himself dry with his towel, wearing his own clothes and pants.

I am so freakingly proud of my baby boy.

Happy birthday sweety!

Mummy, daddy & Alyson love you awfully so so so much!

Read: Psalm 112:1-2 (NIV), Psalm 127:3 (NIV), Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)