I'm a full-time mummy

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since 2014 and what more with baby #4 on the way this end of year, all the more I need to be particularly picky and selective with the products that I'm reviewing. Not that I'm trying to be hard sell, no, definitely not! But with 3 kiddos + 1 on the way, being a housewife at home with kiddos all the time and helping out with hubby's business, I just feel it is not fair to make companies and PR reps wait for my reviews while I slowly review and look for time to spare to draft out my feedback you know? But of course, like I said, I have to be selective, so products that we can definitely fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre) will be accepted!

When I was contacted to review products from Merries and Kao, I immediately remembered the pleasant experience I had 3 years back when I reviewed Merries diapers for our 2nd kiddo! So needless to say, of course I say yes!  

KAO, Japan’s Home Care Expert, has recently launched "Welcome to My Modern Parenthood" (WTMMP) to help new and anxious parents with minimal to zero know-how in transitioning into effortless, enjoyable parenthood through insights and education.

We received the following products for our review, they are basically the 3 ideal home care solutions:

• Japan’s No.1* Baby Diaper, MERRIES;
  

• Japan’s No.1* Home Care Range, MAGICLEAN; 
  

• Malaysia’s No.1* Laundry Concentrated Powder, ATTACK
  

After all these years, I am still impressed with Merries diapers. Just love their pants diapers and this time, I get to review the tape version as well (previous review 3 years ago was on their pants diaper version) Below snapshots on the tape and pants version - front and back view so that you can have a look at how they differ.

Personally, I feel both tape and pants version has their own pros and cons. I love the convenience of using the pants version and generally prefer to bring the pants version for our family outing. It is easy to take out, just tear the sides, roll up the diaper and stick the blue tape at the back to hold it together. For the tape version, if your child is still young and need to lie down to change their tape diaper, I guess this would be a better option but, yours truly here is a seasoned parent for 3 kiddos (4th on the way) and have over the years mastered the skills of changing kiddos' diapers while they are standing LOL so for us, tape or pants, no problemo!! So at the end of the day, it really depends on your skills as I see both tape and pants version are of equal quality and comfortable material (not to mention high absorbency!)

We received several Magiclean products for review and I have initially wanted my hubby to try out as well as he cleans the house more than I do hahahaha but in the end, I decided that being pregnant at 5th months now, it would be particularly handy if these products are able to help me out as I really do not want to just depend on other people to clean up my house unless my pregnancy really requires me to rest a lot, otherwise, I think I'm good and I also wanted to use the opportunity to get our kiddos to do the house chores as well heheheh...

Okay back to the Magiclean products... the one that I'm particularly very satisfied and thrilled to use is the Magiclean Wiper Handy Duster Extendable! It looks like a normal peachy colored woolly duster but then you realised you can actually adjust the handle to extend from 46cm to 95cm and then bend it to few angles which gives you the additional reach and convenience to clean high and hard to reach places... whoaaaa... I love it!

I'm also impressed with its high absorption fibres that effectively pick up, trap and hold even the finest dust! Cleaning is so so easy now!

The next item worth mentioning in the Magiclean range of products is the Magiclean Wiper Mop. It can handle wet and dry mopping where you apply on either wet or dry sheets onto the mop. I love the ultra-slim head which allows me to reach deep and narrow spaces and its 360° dust catching pattern improves overall dust trapping ability, you can easily flip left, right, front, back and I think because of this feature, our 4.5 year old girl enjoys mopping our rooms very much! She started out mopping our bedroom (despite my hubby mopping the room just the night before!) and you can already see how dirty it is after the mopping (our house is near the highway so the dust is horrendous at times)

Our girl was so enjoying her mopping that she happily volunteered to mop our staircase as well. This time, I changed the sheet to dry ones to try out. Ahhh.... so easy, even a little child can do it!

I'm also particularly impressed with the Magiclean Kitchen Cleaner Refreshing Lime Trigger. Very impressed with the instant stain-dissolving foam that easily removes the greasy stains in just 1 wipe. I demonstrated it to my mother-in-law and she went 'Whoaaaa... I always have to put some other cleaner liquid and scrub the cooking area real hard and this one is so easy?! Look at how shiny it is also!' Parents, get this mother-in-law approved product!

Some items worth mentioning in the ATTACK range of products are the Attack Ultra Power and Attack Detergent plus Softener liquid detergent. We've always been the powder detergent users (front-loading washing machine) and I feel that the liquid detergent is not bad as well. Smells good and cleans our clothes wonderfully. The softener also made our clothes smooth and soft.

To sum up our experience, I'm grateful for the opportunity to try out the wonderful range of products from Kao & Merries and believe that they will truly transform your parenting life and makes it way more convenient for you to do your house chores, even our young kiddos can do it easily!

Do check out Kao's website to find out more!

Btw, Kao is holding a "Parenthood Home Makeover " contest. You can stand to win a home makeover & KAO products worth up to RM30,000! To join the contest, you need to purchase RM38 worth of Magiclean or Attack products and a minimum of 1 pack of Merries diapers. Do note that the contest runs from 2 May to 31 July 2016. So hurry up!

Also, do note that there is an event happening from 13th July to 17th July at the Ground Floor Centre Court (Old Wing) in 1 Utama Shopping Centre. Do join the event for more great deals and promotions!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews since 2014 and what more with baby #4 on the way this end of year, all the more I need to be particularly picky and selective with the products that I'm reviewing. Not that I'm trying to be hard sell, no, definitely not! But with 3 kiddos + 1 on the way, being a housewife at home with kiddos all the time and helping out with hubby's business, I just feel it is not fair to make companies and PR reps wait for my reviews while I slowly review and look for time to spare to draft out my feedback you know? But of course, like I said, I have to be selective, so products that we can definitely fit into our family dynamics (especially books on parenting or homeschooling stuff, family products, something along those genre) will be accepted!

Recently, I received an email asking whether I would be interested to review the latest products from BROS (yeah, the famous water bottle brand) I was like 'Hey, let's do it!' I mean, hey, who am I to say no to BROS? They are famous for their BPA-free, eco-friendly, reusable and recyclable bottles!

About the company:

"Proudly developed and manufactured since 2004, BROS reusable water bottles set the trend through superior quality, innovation and better design. Committed to better health and the environment BROS encourages more people to get hydrated. BROS is distributed nationally and regionally by Living Wing Sdn Bhd.

Every bottle in the BROS series is made to be durable with safe and eco-friendly materials, providing a compelling alternative to single-use, disposable plastic beverage containers. A fun and stylish way to keep hydrated while reducing plastic waste!."

I received the BROS Mother’s Day Gift Set (which is a bundle of the Mother and Child bottles) for my review. Here is how it looks like in its packaging (box a bit crumpled due to transit):

So kawaiiii!!! I mean, so beautiful!!! What more with purple being my favorite color and pink being our girl's favorite color! Awesome possum!!!

Here's a closer look of how the water bottles look like. A brief info on this Mother's Day gift set - both BPA-free water bottles are from the Crystal series, 350ml in size and were inspired by simple yet precious memories made with someone we love.

In this scenario, it’s the walk home from a little girl's childhood memory of grocery shopping with her mother. That was her fondest memories. Although it might seem insignificant to others but the warm presence of her mother lingers in the mind of the daughter till today.

Even though I am a mother myself now, I still cherished my childhood memories when I followed my late mum to the morning market to have our breakfast whenever we were back in her hometown during school holidays. After all, don't you agree that the most treasured memories are the ones made with someone you love? Our 4.5 years old girl is so happy with her special pink water bottle with a picture of a little girl (she said 'Awwww the little girl looks just like me!!!') and she feels special to have her own special set of water bottle alongside with mummy!

Thank you BROS for this wonderful and precious memories you created for my little princess and myself!

I'm also very grateful for the additional water bottles that we get, especially for our 7 years old boy and our 2.5 years old girl.

What a nice touch and extra thoughts! Wonderful company that cares about the extra little things!

Do check out http://www.bros-store.com/ for more choices and details.

As a token of appreciation to my awesome readers, BROS generously extended an additional 10% discount for the Mother's Day gift set. All you have to do is simply enter the code FTMUMMY10 at the checkout to enjoy the offer. Please note that this offer is valid from April 15 to 8 May only so do hurry up!!! Also, I don't get any commission or referral fees from doing this. I'm just sharing this in case you plan to get any Mother's Day pressies for the awesome mums in your life :D

Take note that the discount code is applicable per person per checkout. If you purchase 2 Mother’s Gift Set in a single checkout (one Order ID No., one invoice), both gift set will be entitled to additional 10% off. BUT if you purchase 2 Mother’s Day Gift Set separately in 2 different checkouts (two Order ID No., two invoice), only one gift set will be entitled to additional 10% off. You will not be able to utilize the discount code on your second purchase (2nd invoice).

Also, from 15th April to 8th May, the first 50 online orders of this lovely water bottle set will come with a personalized message.

This is the awesome sketch by BROS in-house artist of my humble little family!

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for today's angpow story, it comes from this piece of lovely angpow:

The moment I see the motorcycle on the ap, it reminded me of my late dad's motorcycle. It was not the same Suzuki brand (my dad owned a Yamaha bike) but it looks very similar.

Ever since I was born, the bike has been in the family. I can't remember how many times dad repaired the bike but he had to, we are not rich to get a car etc. I remembered in late 90s, dad used his savings to pay for a second hand Iswara when my older brother got his license - that was the 1st car in our family. Yet, dad maintained his faithful old bike.

I remembered the stories dad told me about his bike. How it saved his life back in the 60s during the riot times. Dad told me how as he was riding his bike away from his office, he saw people chasing around with parangs trying to attack and hurt others, whoever within reach. Thanks to his bike, it saved his life. He made it back home safely.

I remembered sitting at the front part of the bike where the petrol tank was located at. I was 7 years old and insisted to tag along with my parents to the morning market.

I remembered how dad got into an accident when I was in my early teens and it hurt him that his bike was damaged as well but he managed to save up his money to repair it bit by bit.

I remembered as I got older and looking at my parents riding away after I got on my school bus to school in the wee hours of morning.

I remembered when I started doing part-time sales promoter job at 16 years old during school holidays, dad would fetch me back home with his bike from the back lane of Metrojaya Bukit Bintang Plaza.

I remembered when I was working part-time at the souvenir shop during my college year and dad fetched me back home everyday at 6pm with his bike.

I remembered the times we had to squeeze through the traffic jams and was amazed at how dad managed to sverve left and right to avoid hitting the cars and busses around us.

I remembered the times when I got stranded with my dad at some shoplots when it rained suddenly and we had to take shelter from the heavy rain.

I remembered the few times we braved through the rain on the way home (in highway, no chance to stop for any shelters) and how his raincoat will flap over my legs and I tried to cover his back as well with my windcoat.

I remembered to look of 'we made it home!' during these occasions.

I remembered the looks of admiration from other bikers as we all waited for green light and people were asking my dad about his bike.

I remembered the bike was unique from others, dad's bike has 2 long exhaust pipes while the newer modern bikes has 1 exhaust pipe only.

I remembered seeing how proud dad was with his bike. It was old, antique and in running condition. How can one not be proud of it?

I remembered dad telling us how people offered his lots of money for his bike and he rejected the offers.

I remembered watching dad wiping, drying and cleaning his beloved bike.

I remembered even as my dad started getting too weak to ride on his bike and he asked my hubby (then boyfriend) to start and warm up his bike every now and then to make sure it is still in running condition.

I remembered how sad I was when my dad passed away, the bike was left downstairs at our government flat motorcyle parking bays where it has always faithfully been parked at.

I remembered the sadness and regret that we never bothered to take up motorcycle lessons and exams.

I remembered the anger and fury as I see the tires and some main parts of the bike got stollen days after dad was cremated.

I will never forget how I cursed the thief and hope they rot in hell for doing this despicable acts.

I remembered regretting my cursing as I realised as a Christian, revenge is not ours to take and we should never ever curse at anybody no matter how.

I remembered praying that the person(s) who stole my dad's bike parts will make good use of the parts and the money will be able to support their family in need. That is the only thought I can think of to console my broken heart.

So many memories of that bike... Of my dad... Of my childhood... Of alot of things...

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.