I'm a full-time mummy

Sorry for being so quiet on my blog lately, have been busy rushing to compile and submit my hubby's business taxes (in Malaysia, individual with business income need to submit their taxes by 30th June), and hubby's aunt came down from Sydney for 1 week holiday (she's going back later tonight) and you know, SAHM life with 2 hyper active kids...

Oh well, just want to share a recent event where I was gobsmacked at what my 3 year old boy did during his Sunday school classes. As usual, the routines in the class would be, singing songs, storytime, offerings and prayers, wash hands, snacks and crafts time and free play after everything is done (most of the kids will be gone after crafts time actually).

So anyway, last Sunday, we did everything and Ben wanted to play with some of the dinosaur toys in the class. So I thought, OK, it's not often Ben behave so well and I should not stop him from playing these toys when he asked so politely. I told him to pick just a couple of the dinosaurs and play for a while.

Out of curiosity, I asked him whether he could draw one of the dinosaur (T-rex actually) for mummy so we can show it to daddy later (daddy is in the main church hall listening to the sermon).

To my surprise, Ben took one of the color pencils and started drawing. Okay, doodling more like it, but while he was drawing it, he told me 'This is the head, the eyes, the 2 hands, and the body, and the long long tail and the 2 legs'.

Oh my... and when I looked at his drawings, I was really surprised and yep...

Gobsmacked at what my 3 year old boy did!

It may not look like a dinosaur but to me, it is the most beautiful thing ever!

It's just amazing that I almost cried with joy!

I think I can understand why parents put up their childrens drawings on the fridge and wall!

I am always on the lookout for products that my family and I can use around the house or when we go for our outings, so when I stumbled upon this product, I emailed to ask whether they are OK with international bloggers reviewing their products, and my oh my, they are happy to provide me their products for my review! So here goes my review for the "The Mommy Hook":

Description from the product page:
"You’ll be totally hooked on our indispensable mommy accessory. Built to last, lightweight and versatile, The Mommy Hook fits virtually all stroller handles. Use The Mommy Hook on your stroller or shopping cart to hold diaper bags, shopping bags, camera bags, groceries, toys, purses, and much more. You can also use The Mommy Hook to carry items from your car to your home. "

As mentioned earlier, the reason why I requested to review The Mommy Hook is because I feel it can really help when I have lots of things to carry around when we are out and about!

When I first received the item, my first impression of it is: "Strong stuff!" It is quite heavy to be honest and after checking out every nook and corner of The Mommy Hook, I can assure you it is made of good and sturdy materials which WILL be able to hold loads of stuff at one go!

I managed to use this product on several occasions but sadly the pictures taken are not clear or close-up enough as I was busy carrying my baby girl and not able to snap the pictures fast enough!

Pictures below taken in a hurry showing how I hook The Mommy Hook onto my baby's stroller (ready to use anytime!) and how my brother in law used it to carry ours and his stuff around.

This is a good product to be considered if you always have a lot of heavy things to carry around when you are out (like grocery shopping and so on) and you can just hook it onto your stroller so that it is ready to use at any time!

You can get check out this product at: http://www.themommyhook.com/

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! ONE of you lucky people are going to win this awesome product! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

Everyday without fail, I will read on mothers (new or going to be) posting questions or problems on which breast pumps to buy, what is wrong with their pumps as they are not able to pump a lot of their breastmilk (aka BM) or not enough volume or having engorgement so on and so forth.

And after reading all these, I will always think and said out loud in my mind "Why can't they consider or learn to express by hand?!"

Yes, I have my fair share of experience using the electric breast pumps back before I quit my job to be a SAHM. I was using the Medela mini electric breast pump which was a hand-me-down from 2 SILs few weeks before my maternity leave ended in preparation to stock up my BM so that Benjamin can have my EBM (aka expressed breastmilk) when I am at work.

When I went back to work, I used the Medela pump for about 1 week. It was noisy and cumbersome - everytime, I need to sterilise the pump all over and ensure that the battery is full and ready to be use at any time.

After a week, I learned to express my BM by hands. It is not easy of course but with practise, it can be done.

You don't need to attend courses to do it, just google "how to express breastmilk by hand" and you will get tons and tons of search results! Can't visualise it? YouTube it!

Back when I learned this, I only searched through websites and practise based on the diagrams on the website (I can't remember why I was not using YouTube!)

With a few practise and trials and errors (need to take note of the let-down!), it just simply eases up a lot of work! You don't need to lug around your breastpump when you express, you don't need to worry about no electric outlet to use, no worries about no batteries and sterilisation? What is there to sterilise except the containers to store your BM maybe?

I have psychoed and nagged a few mummy bloggers about the benefits of learning this and most of them just brushed me off saying they can rely on their electric pumps just fine. Sure, few weeks later, one of them told me they had to travel overseas by plane and her electric pump jammed in the flight due to air pressure and she had to resort to pumping with her own 2 hands. Another mummy had to go on-site and realised there's no electrical outlet and she ran out of batteries on her pump. So, what else? Hand express!

Personally I do feel happy knowing these new mums or mums-to-be plan to breastfeed their child, but before they go on and purchase a breast pump (or more as they realised some pumps are not right for them!), I do wish they could give hand expressing a try!

After all, other than the convenience, it helps a lot to express by hands as with your own fingers, you can actually feel which part of your breasts that are blocked or engorged and massaged it away.

As for efficiency of the output, my personal experience, when I use the Medela pump, I took about 20 minutes to pump 6oz of BM while it is 15 minutes for me to get the same amount using my own 2 hands. Much much more quieter, definitely convenient as no sterilisation, same output, faster, cheap (no need to buy pumps!) and even helps with engorgement and blocked ducts, why not?

So please new mums and/or mums-to-be, I hope you will at least go Google up how to express your BM by hand.

You might end up needing to fall back on your own bare hands one day!