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?

I mentioned before that we are big fans of "Little Critter" apps and the latest app we reviewed is the "Just Me and My Puppy". To be honest, I have been very interested to find out whether children dream and remembered what they dreamed of, so I have been asking my almost 4 years old boy whether he had any dream and whether he remembered them once in a while. Just curious you know... Anyway, the moment I saw the words "Little Critter" and "Dream" in the latest Oceanhouse Media's press release in my email inbox, I immediately requested for a review copy. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: What a Bad Dream
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Feb 20, 2013
* Version: 2.1
* Size: 38.6 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Little Critter dreams that a magic potion turns him into a scary, disagreeable monster that no one wants to be around. In his dream, he does whatever he wants. He has cookies and ice cream for breakfast, doesn't brush his fur or fangs, never changes his clothes or takes a bath, skips school and stays up late watching TV. When Little Critter is sleepy and ready for bed, there's no one there to tuck him in and read him a story. Luckily for Little Critter, it's all just a bad dream. Young children will relate to the sweet and funny ending!"

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* I like the storyline where it tells how Little Critter dreamed he turned into a monster and he gets to do whatever he wanted and without caring for other's feelings and how it turned out in the end when he woke up from his dream.

* I used the opportunity in this app to gently explained to my almost 4 years old boy that although he may dream of nasty scary things, he must always remember that it is not real and daddy and mummy will always be there to protect and watch out for him.

You can purchase the "What a Bad Dream" 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's been over a month since I last blogged about my 2 kiddos' potty training progress!

Just a brief history for all of you who are new to my blog, I blogged about starting Ben back on his potty training in February 2012 after months of delaying it (Alyson came along in September 2011 and I had to pause Ben's potty training since then) and even listed down some short, medium and long terms goals that I looked forward to accomplishing with Ben. Then I also blogged about the precious sight I get to see - Ben finally pooping in his potty! (instead of diapers which he always insisted on), and revisiting those goals I set in February 2012 against the progress in early May 2012 and checking off the ones we achieved 3 weeks later, and now...

My major achievement for my boy's potty training is getting him to poo in the toilet seat. I felt so proud and it's like a big burden lifted the first time he sat on the toilet seat and poop. He was scared (said he scared to fall into the toilet seat) but the moment he sat on the toilet seat, he told me 'Mummy, I'm not scared. God protect me like how He protects David when he fights with Goliath!'.

As for bedtime, if I sleep late or I woke up halfway or I woke up early, I will get my boy (still asleep) to pee in his potty. There are 2 occasions where he wet the bed and we don't make a big fuss out of it because my boy had quite a lot of water before his sleep during the 2 occasions and I forgot to wake up halfway to get him to pee.

As for my 17 months old girl, oh wow, having your older child reaching his milestones and the younger one quietly observing everything helps make potty training so much easier and faster! My girl sat on the toilet seat to poop few days back for the first time and does not look scared at all, following the footsteps of her brother I guess!

So there you go, looks like we are getting almost all of the goals soon for Benjamin and Alyson is progressing well (at her own pace too)! Thank God for this and for my dear boy to be so good in following through his potty training!

We are all so proud of you both, Benjamin & Alyson!