I'm a full-time mummy

If you are a parent, you will surely have or need to use this: Baby Changing Station.

Now, what is a baby changing station? It is a table on which you lay your baby down to change his or her diaper. So, regardless your child is on disposable or cloth diapers, like I said earlier, we as a parent will surely own one.... or at least need to use one when we are out and about.

To be honest, we don't own one but we do McGyver-ise one of our office tables to be a baby changing station. Now of course, we don't just simply take a table and use it as a baby changing station! We have to consider whether the table is sturdy enough to support the weight of our child, whether the surface of the table is comfortable to place our child on, and whether the size is wide and long enough for our child to be placed on the table. And as our child grows up, we have to consider the functionalities as well, whether it can be used for other purposes later on.

When we go out, I like to check out the baby rooms facility provided by the place we go to. Some of the places (like malls) have wall mounted baby changing station which is space saving and strong while some places make use of changing pads and placed them on some table or racks.

Do you have a baby changing station?

What features do you think is important in a baby changing station?

** Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.

I love getting to read parenting books. When I received a pitch to review this book, I checked out on Amazon website to find out more on what the book is all about and decided, I have to read this book! What sets this book apart and made me decide to review it is that it deals with the emotional aspects of parenting and it also mentions that our childhood does affect how we parent our children. Here goes my review for the "ParentWise: The Emotional Challenges of Family Life And How To Deal With Them" book:

Title:   ParentWise: The Emotional Challenges of Family Life And How To Deal With Them
Authors: Loren Buckner LCSW
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc. (March 10, 2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-1609101114 / 1609101111
Paperback:  200 pages
Dimension:  9 x 6 x 0.4 inches

Description from the product page:
"Parents often lament that kids don't come through the birth canal with instructions securely fastened to their big toes. In the quiet solitude of night they wonder, why didn’t anybody tell me what this was going to be like? With the knowledge of a seasoned psychotherapist, the wisdom that comes with thirty years of marriage,and raising two kids to adulthood,Loren Buckner adds a uniquely qualified voice to the parenting discussion.

ParentWise: The Emotional Challenges Of Family Life And How To Deal With Them is an intimate conversation about the emotional turmoil of parenting. Parents learn why their own life histories are important. Chapters on guilt, worry, sadness, disappointment, and anger help parents accept their darker emotions, ones they haven’t known how to talk about. Parents will not only find comfort in what Loren has to say, they’ll discover a better parent within themselves..."

This book is not about how wonderful parenthood is. Of course, as a parent, well agree having a child is one of the most wonderful thing in life and how blessed we are to have the opportunity to raise a child. This book is telling us that parenting is not that easy and it's just not us feeling that too. This book is about OUR childhood and OUR emotions.

* I like the way the author stressing out repeatedly on how our childhood and emotions will affect the way we understand and care for our children.

* I like the statement on page 12 where it says "Children learn about how to fight fairly by watching their parents safely and respectfully argue with each other." I agree that if we are afraid to confront our partner about his/her anger, it is much more harder for our child to handle this anger when directed at them.

* I think it is important that we are aware of the possibility that feelings from our past affects and shapes our feelings in the present.

Highly recommended, do get a copy of this book for yourself too!!

You can get this book from Amazon.

Yes! I have been given an extra copy to give away to 1 lucky follower / visitor on my blog! Yeap, if you are the winner, you get to own a copy of this book!

** Note: This giveaway is for anyone with a mailing address in Malaysia as I'm forking out my own money to send out the book to the winner.

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, 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.
• You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book 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 book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

I received an email from Melissa on behalf of Mitchlehan Media asking whether I would be interested in reviewing this app. As usual, I will normally check out the app to see whether it is the right fit for my boy. It took me sometime to understand how this app work but boy oh boy, it is worth the trouble of preparing the materials required to test and review this app! Long story short, just check out my review below...

* Title: AR Flashcards-Animal Alphabet
* Price: $1.99
* Category: Education
* Updated: Mar 02, 2012
* Version: 1.1
* Size: 39.6 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Mitchlehan Media LLC
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Description from the product page:

"AR Flashcards are a new way to interact and make Flashcards more entertaining for toddlers and preschoolers. With AR Flashcards, learning the Alphabet will be fun! When you point your device at the printed flashcard a beautifully rendered 3D animal will pop up on the screen. Tap the animal to hear the letter and animal name.

Features:
- 26 beautifully rendered Animals to help your toddler or preschooler learn!
- Tap on each Animal to hear the Letter and name of the Animal!
- You can print out the flashcards or if you own two iOS devices you can access the flashcards from within the app in a beautiful swipeable gallery! "

Some preparations are required before we can start using the app:

What you need to do is to place the printed Flashcard Markers on a flat surface under bright light, start the app and hover your iPad on the printed Flashcard Markers. You will be able to see the 3D animals respective to the alphabets popping out from the letters.

What's good?

* It is a very unique app! Different from all the other apps I reviewed so far!

* A different way to learn alphabets and you can hear the letter and animal name when you tap on it!

* I like seeing Ben's amazed look as he looks on the iPad screen - seeing the 3D animals and then he looks at the printed Flashcard Markers and not seeing the animals.

What's not so good?

* You have to print the Flashcard Markers in color as the app will not work in black and white. 

* This app is quite sensitive in the sense that it doesn't recognise the printed Flashcard Markers when the paper is slightly crumpled (thanks to my excited boy who tries to grab the paper and do it himself) and our bedroom uses yellow light bulb so it is not able to work in this condition too.

Room for Improvement?

* It would be great to have the Flashcard Markers designed on as little space as possible in order to save paper and ink.

You can purchase the "AR Flashcards-Animal Alphabet" app from the iTunes App Store.

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! TWO of you lucky people are going to win a copy of this awesome and fun app to play on your iPad! Your child will absolutely love it! 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 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"