I'm a full-time mummy

I've been doing iPad app reviews for a year now! And this is the first time my hubby MSN-ed me a link to this website saying 'Check out this website! It's so CUTE!' So, yeah, if my man said some website is cute, I have to check it out! And boy oh boy, it is cute! And they have loads of cute apps too! So yes, I told my hubby I'm so going to pitch this company and see whether I can review their apps or not! Few days later I got the reply and yes! This is the result! Below is the first review (I requested for 2 apps to review):

* Title: ABC 123 Blocks = Learning Tool For Toddlers
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Education
* Updated: May 10, 2011
* Version: 4.0.1
* Size: 28.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Playtend Apps LLP © 2009 The Guys In The Booth
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Help your toddlers and preschoolers learn and grow with ABC 123 Blocks, Learning Tool for Toddlers. It's full of educational activities optimized for early learning on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

 * ABCs - kids can flip through the letters of the alphabet and match them with images of animals below. A is for Alligator, B is for Bear, etc. Features sounds for both letters and the animals.
* 123s - kids can tap numbers, hear them pronounced and see animations illustrating the numbers.
* Shapes - kids can match triangles, rectangles, and circles and practice learning their colors.
* Music - kids can play a mini piano and experiment with composing their own songs.
* Letters - kids can trace the letters of the alphabet using the color of their choice. Also features full sound for the alphabet.
* Matching - kids can practice matching skills with an animal shapes puzzle that features hundreds of different configurations
* Coloring Book featuring dozens of drawings, as well as a full selection of colors and brush sizes
* Connect the Dots counting game featuring dozens of animal drawings"

What's good?

* The illustrations are really cute and pleasing to the eyes!

* There are a total of 8 mini games in this app which I find some are suitable to what I've been exposing Ben to lately. Games such as Matching (where you match the animals to its shadows), Shapes (where you find and match the same shapes by its shape and colors), Coloring and Connect the Dots.

* I let Alyson (9 months old) played on the Music game and she just happily taps along hahah...

* I am impressed with Ben's performance in the Shapes game where I noticed him easily finding and matching the same shapes by its shape and colors. I have previously just let him try out 1 similar activities and those are on paper (from our activity book) and I'm happy to see him applying his knowledge in this app without much coaxing and teaching too! He matched the shapes so fast that I can't get a proper picture of him solving it! Arghhh!!

Room for Improvement?

* I would love it if the game selection is easier to choose. Instead of dragging and dropping the game icon to the center play area on the screen, it would be better if I just tap on the icon and the game loads into the play area.

* Other than the above, nothing to complain about!

You can purchase the " ABC 123 Blocks = Learning Tool For Toddlers" app from the iTunes App Store.

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

One of my Facebook follower asked me to blog about how I prepare the solids for my girl when I posted pictures of my kids' meals on my Facebook page. So here it goes the tutorial for Pumpkin Puree:

** Personal Note:

I normally cut the pumpkin to half and steam it on different batches (and each batch lasts about 2-3 days). With my 1st child, I actually use the entire pumpkin and steam it and store everything but it takes a long time to finish up so nowadays with my 2nd child, I prefer to use half instead and steam enough storage for 2-3 days so I could switched to other veggies after that and then switched back to pumpkin.

To prepare this, what I normally do is cut the pumpkin into half, then by slices about 1 inch thick and remove the seeds and skins. Then I will cubed them into 1 inch cubes and wash it with boiled room temperature water and steam them for about 20 minutes or until they are soft (I poked one of the pumpkin cubes using fork or chopstick. If they go through and soft to the touch, it's ready).

With pumpkin, I don't blend it further as I normally steam until they are soft. Serve or store the rest in freezer/fridge (for lesser quantity). If you noticed my picture, I also steamed the pumpkin together with the carrots, peas and corns, to save time! :)

Hope the above tutorial helps! Feel free to ask questions or share your feedback/experiences!

I saw this question posted by one mummy in a breastfeeding group I joined in Facebook "Hi mummies, I will back to work 2nd week in July. By the time my baby will be 2 months old. Any suggestion how much of expressed breastmilk I should store and provide to nanny in a day?"

My immediate reply was:

"I'm a SAHM now but I did worked for 1 month before I quit my job, so what I did 2 weeks before my maternity leave ended:

1. Start storing by direct latching one side and pumping on the other side

2. Also pump at regular hours which will be the same hours when I go back to work (meaning I pump 8am, 12.30pm and 4.30pm)

3. Get baby used to bottle by giving other people (such as husband, MIL, etc) to feed instead of me feeding baby as he will not want mummy to feed because they can smell our breastmilk and who wants bottle when the real thing is right next to them?

4. To gauge on how much baby should take, I try out by giving 1 oz, finish, I add 1 oz more, continue until baby stops. By the end of 2nd month, my baby takes about 3-4 oz per feed.

5. Please make sure you have backup to store your expressed breastmilk if you are staying in an area prone of electricity blackout. You really don't want to cry over the breastmilk melting and spoiling.

6. To maintain your breastmilk production, direct latch baby before you leave work and try to get nanny to hold off giving your expressed breastmilk if she can or if baby can still wait so baby can direct latch when you finish work. (direct latch more frequently will keep up the breastmilk production)"

How about you? Any tips to add on that you can share?