I'm a full-time mummy

Children get through a great many pairs of shoes and trainers - jumping, climbing, running and general playing means that footwear for most active kids takes quite a pounding. The only way to keep a control of shoe spending is ensuring that you know how to select comfortable shoes for your kids every time, so here are a few handy tips to keep you shoe savvy...
 
What can their old shoes tell you?
 
Finding out why an old shoe is no longer suitable can be difficult; 'they hurt' is often the best explanation you can get for why a shoe has become uncomfortable, so it can be beneficial to examine the existing shoes to look for tell-tale signs. Children's feet can grow in odd and unpredictable ways, but signs of bulging on the shoe upper or stress at the seams where the upper meets the sole can give you an indication of where the problem may be. Bulging on the top indicates the shoe may be too shallow, stress at the sides suggests it is too narrow.
 
Get the measure
 
Having your children's feet measured is recommended on every shoe-shopping trip - again, children are typically not great at vocalising whether shoes fit correctly or not. And don't assume that because your son or daughter was once found to have wide or narrow feet that this will still be the case a year later.
 
Choose specialists
 
Choosing a children's shoe specialist means you get the best possible advice on what footwear is best for your child, reducing the chances of them experiencing discomfort soon after purchase. Not only that, children's shoe specialists also have plenty of experience dealing with kids - which can be a big help if your little one has a tendency to get impatient and difficult when out shopping!
 
Knowing what 'fit' means
 
If shopping with the kids is something you rarely have time for, and you want to take advantage of the great deals you can find online with retailers such as Debenhams, you'll need to know what to look for when your child tries those new shoes on for the first time.
 
It can be tempting to buy shoes that are too big for a child with growing feet, in the hope that they will last longer, but you should not buy anything more than one size too big. Any more than this and the extra space will cause tripping and can lead to foot problems. Besides, that extra bit of shoe is likely to be worn and misshapen before your child's foot grows into it. Heel cups should rest snugly on the back of the foot, but not grip it, and if your child has one foot larger than the other, be sure to buy something which accommodates the larger one properly.

Last year, I had the opportunity to review "Kids 1st Shape Puzzle" and "Trucks and Things That Go", a both are fun and educational apps for my boy to play with and this time, the same developer approached me again asking whether I would be interested in reviewing their latest app. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: Animals Babies and Homes
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Games
* Released: Dec 14, 2012
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 101 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Gil Weiss
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"Children delight in spotting familiar animal friends and learning about their different homes; a doghouse, a birdhouse, a mouse hole or a goldfish bowl and babies; bird chicks, cow calf’s, owlet, baby giraffe. These colorful puzzles of Animals Babies and Homes is a challenging and enjoyable game that will develop your child’s ability to visual recall and build up his/ her English and Hebrew vocabulary.

Kids match the pieces correctly on the puzzle to hear the word of an animal and it’s match (home \ mother) duck – pond, owlet – owl, horse – stable, tadpole – frog, cub – lion, camel – desert and much more! Animals Babies and Homes is an eye and ear catching puzzle enhances matching and listening skills. Let your toddler play with it, while enriching their language skills, developing their fine motor skills, and learning names of numerous objects."

* As part of our learning activities, I am always looking for more activities and stuff that I can let my boy try and work on, whether from books or iPad apps, so I am very happy to be able to review this puzzle app as I hope he will learn where animals stay and also the names of the animals when they are babies and grown up.

* I like this app in the sense that I myself get to learn new things too! So yes, learning with my boy at the same time is kinda awesome as well!

Room for Improvement?

* I would prefer to have some buzzer sound if the puzzle is placed incorrectly so that we can know that it is wrong. Maybe that's just my weird preferance.

* There are few occassions where I noticed the puzzle pieces are a bit not sensitive, meaning we need to put it really, really close to the puzzle shapes (shadows) to solve it. Unlike other puzzle apps we reviewed before, I find that these few occassions make us quite frustrated as we have to keep trying and moving the puzzle very slowly to ensure that it is almost fill up the shadow of the animal puzzle in order to solve it.

You can purchase the "Animals Babies and Homes " app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code 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"

It was about half year ago since I posted about my paranoia of going out. There were some crime cases happening then (and even now still is) which added on to my paranoia!

A few weeks back, a fellow SAHM friend shared a status update in her Facebook that she is stepping out of her comfort zone by taking a public transportation (a train) to go check out a book fair and I was touched at her words.

Stepping out of her comfort zone.

I've been couped up in my house most of the time. With my 2 kiddos. Unless it is weekend or hubby has no business appointments on weekdays, it's pretty much stuck at home for me and my 2 kiddos.

Ever since I read that few words, I too planned to gather up my courage again to go out.

To drive my car (it's an almost 15 years old second hand car which used to be hubby's) out somewhere so I can experienced something new instead of the walls in my house.

So I have been slowly planning grocery trips with my 2 kiddos. And in order to bring my 2 kiddos out, I had to lure my MIL along so that she can help look after my kiddos while I drive.

So far, it has been 2 times since I managed to do that. It has so far became a fortnightly grocery trips and the first time we went out, my MIL dumped me and my 2 kiddos the moment we stepped into the supermarket. I think she went bonkers when she saw the newly decorated supermarket (which we have not frequented for almost a year). I told myself 'Nevermind. Even though I'm stuck with my 2 kiddos again, at least, it's not home and it's outside. Something new.' And in the first trip, I managed to handle my 2 kiddos all by myself for 3.5 hours while my MIL shops happily.

The second time we went to the supermarket again (last week), I decided to let my boy tires himself out by pushing his baby sister in the trolley. Don't worry I stood behind my boy watching and monitoring closely both my kiddos.

Then I was hungry as I have not taken my breakfast yet. So we parked our trolley outside the cafe and I had my breakfast before we continued on with our shopping.

And then my girl got restless and I thought it is better to tire her out now by letting her push her big brother in the trolley. The second trip lasted near 2 hours before I surrendered and rushed my MIL to finish up her shopping and go back home.

I told my hubby just the other day of my plan to bring the kiddos and his mum out maybe every fortnight so I can gather up my courage to drive out more often instead of being stuck at home all the time. He agreed with my plans and offered to give me allowance for the grocery shopping as well. Woohooo! I hope I'll be able to venture further next time!

If you are a SAHM, do you go out to have some 'me' time?

What do you do to pass time?