I'm a full-time mummy

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!

I mentioned before that we are big fans of "Little Critter" apps and the last app we reviewed are the "Little Critter Collection #1", "Just a Mess", "Just Go to Bed" and "Just Going to the Dentist". So the moment I saw the words "Little Critter" in the latest Oceanhouse Media's press release in my email inbox, I remembered blogging about stepping out of my comfort zone early this year. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Just Shopping with Mom
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Jan 30, 2013
* Version: 2.1
* Size: 33.5 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 goes shopping with his family which turns into an eventful day. While at the grocery store, his little sister becomes upset when she can't buy candy, makes a big mess by pulling items off of the shelf and then gets lost in the store. The next stop is the mall to find a dress for his little sister. Finally, Little Critter's patience pays off when mom finds a fun way to end the day!"

* 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 go for a shopping trip with his mummy and little sister and the events that unfolded during the trip.

* I used the opportunity in this story app to teach my almost 4 years old boy that we need to be patient if we want something, to always behave, to stay close to mummy when he is out and to help look after and protect his little sister as well.

You can purchase the "Just Shopping with Mom" 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"

I had earlier confessed that one of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family. For this post, I am sharing my first ever pork dish, recommended by hubby for me to try out.

Please note that I have no idea where my hubby got the list of ingredients from and the amount of sauces for marinade are also not given to me as well, so I practically blind guess the amount :P

Ingredients:

1. Pork ribs (I use about 250g)
2. Plum sauce (I use about 1.5 tbsp)
3. A small shallot (chopped until small pieces)
4. Soy sauce
5. Caramel sauce
6. Sugar
7. Sesame oil
8. Tomato sauce
9. Oyster sauce
10. Corn flour (I used about 1.5 tbsp)
(*Note: Item 4 to 9 about 1 tbsp each)

Methods:
* Blanch pork ribs in boiling water for 10 seconds. Mix item 2 to 10 together.
* Marinade pork ribs with the mixed item 2 to 10 for about 1 hour.
* Place pork ribs onto a metal plate, pour some marinade sauce on top of pork ribs.
* Wrapped metal plate with aluminium tin foil.
* Steam for about 45-60 minutes.

Outcome:

Hubby likes the dish and my almost 4 years old boy said he loved it! Oh boy, makes me float when I hear an innocent child proclaiming that hahahah! I personally feel the pork should be more tender but since hubby and my kiddos are OK with it, oh well, dish is a success!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!