I'm a full-time mummy

Ever since we became a parent in March 2009, a lot of things have to be thought carefully to include the consideration and safety of our children. One such aspect is when we travel in our car. We make it a habit to place our children in a car seat since they are young so that they are used to the idea of being strapped safely in their car seat

Before my hubby bought his current second hand Nissan Sentra car in March last year, we had to rely on our trusty 11 year old Proton Iswara car and our rear facing car seat can only be placed at the front passenger seat... which is VERY DANGEROUS! Firstly, putting a child's car seat at the front is dangerous enough, and then placing it at the passenger side added to the danger risk as well. Of course we are definitely aware of this risks hence hubby worked hard to save and at the same time, we scout for another car with better safety features and one that can accommodate our growing family.

In March 2011, we finally bought our second car (a 5 year old second-hand) Nissan Sentra and yes, this time we are able to place our infant child seat at the back seat. You have no idea how relieved hubby and I were to be able to do this now!

Pictures above of Alyson then at 4 months old taken in January 2012 as we went to Genting Highlands for our short family getaway. As for our first child who outgrew the infant car seat, we got a bigger car seat for him which can be a rear facing or front facing car seat.

Just few days ago, hubby was telling me we should ensure that our children's car seats be rear facing as long as possible. He shared with me a video he watched about the impact to a child during accident for rear-facing and front-facing car seats and based on the research and facts presented, it is worrying to know the risks of not placing our children in rear-facing car seats.

To sum up some of the facts I read online,

In summary, with all these looming risks and dangers of not putting our children in rear-facing car seats, the more we are determined to make sure they stay as long as they can in it! And what does my 10 months old girl got to say about rear-facing car seats?

 All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research, as your opinions may differ from mine.

** Disclosure: This post is in association with Motors.co.uk. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.

Came across a post by a mummy in the breastfeeding group I joined in asking our opinions on letting our little ones cry it out. My immediate answer was:

"I don't agree with letting kids crying out. Your kids can't talk, so how else can they express out other than crying? And to add to that stress if you as the parents, the one closest to him/her plans to let them CIO, that's worse. Just think, us as adults when frustrated / angry / sick / etc also we can voice out or want ppl to hear us out, so what more can our LO feel? No friends but parents around, and to be left there to cry it out, tsk tsk... please don't be cruel."

Another mummy also pointed out "The person who wrote abt "Cry it out method"... Is not even a mother herself !! I prefer Dr. Sears method the non-crying method. At least I dun traumatise my kids plus I know when they are having growth spur during BF period."

So yeah, please parents (especially going-to-be and new ones) do not even think about letting your child cry it out for whatever reasons. Find some compassion in your heart to listen to what your child is trying to tell you instead of numbing your senses (sight, hearing etc) and ignoring your child's cries.

When I saw this app being available for review, I thought it would be nice for my 3 years old boy to have a feel of camping since the closest he gets to camping feel is watching the 'Up' movie hahaha... So here goes our review after trying out this app:

* Title: Happy Campfire
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Entertainment
* Released: July 12, 2012
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 14.5 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: David Carson
* Rated: Rated 9+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later

Description from the product page:

"Happy Campfire allows you and your family to experience the great outdoors when the elements get in your way or when a camping trip just isn't in the cards. Bring the great outdoors with you wherever you go! Think you have to cancel the family camping trip or campfire because of rain? Not if you have the interactive experience of Happy Campfire!

 Perfect for kids, Happy Campfire brings an interactive camping experience to the car, the hotel room,  or inside the tent during a rainy night on a camping trip with these features:
~Roast the perfect marshmallow
~Jam on classic campfire instruments
~Listen to campfire songs and sounds of the great outdoors
~Create your own constellations
~Switch into Ghost Story Mode and tell a spooky story...BOO!
~Learn fire safety (Don't touch the fire!)
~Retina Display graphics for the new iPad."

What's good?

* I like the "Learn fire safety (Don't touch the fire!)" feature where it goes 'Ouch!' whenever we touch the fire and I use this opportunity to teach my boy not to play with fire and that it is dangerous to do so!

* I also noticed my boy enjoying and happily tapping along on our iPad screen to create stars and pictures (he said he's making Spiderman!) in the "Create your own constellations" game.

* The "Roast the perfect marshmallow" is a cute game where we have to make sure the marshmallows are roasted perfectly! (teaches us to be patience!)

Other Things to Note...

* I didn't try the "Ghost Story Mode" with my boy, maybe it's just me but I do not want to introduce the concept of ghost to him at such a young age.

* In summary, this is a fun app to play and pass time with!

You can purchase the "Happy Campfire" 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"