I'm a full-time mummy

Ever since I created an album on my Facebook fan page to share the pictures of Lego creations made by our kiddos, I have received some questions from fans and friends asking which Lego products that they should get for their kiddos as they were showing interests in the Lego bricks. Just in case you want to have a look at some of the creations by our 4.5 years old boy, feel free to hop over and check them out in my FB album.

Anyway, I think it is high time I blogged about this - also kinda tiring to keep on googling for the product models we got for our kiddos (we don't keep the boxes and I don't remember unless I googled it) Before I begin, do note that majority decision-making in buying the Lego sets came from hubby. He is the one with the brains and all in Lego-sy stuff. Me? I only started TOUCHING a Lego brick the same time our 1st child got his first Lego set just before he turned 3 years old. True story!

So here it goes, according to the order we bought it:

5932 My First LEGO® Set

Some info on this set: "Includes 1 minifigure, 4 wheels, 1 propeller, 2 windows, 1 door, decorated bricks and 1 building plate"

Why we got it?  This is a basic starter set, suitable for your child if you are just venturing into the world of Lego bricks. You may ask what's the difference with the gazillions other Lego sets and why single this out? Well, there are other basic starter sets as well but this particular model 5932 got our attention as it also came with a building plate. You see the picture above? The green color cover for the Lego packaging box? That is the building plate I'm talking about. It doubles up as the packaging box cover as well as to be used as a platform to build on.

This 1st model set lasted for quite a long while before our 1st child gets more and more interested in Lego and started building and keeping his creations. Soon, we ran out of bricks to use as our boy refused to dismantle his creations... gaaaa... and so, we went and bought the following model:

5623 LEGO ® Basic Bricks – Large

Some info on this set: "The perfect supplement to any LEGO collection features 450 basic bricks in eight different colours – providing even more creative building possibilities."

Why we got it? This model set perfectly is just plain Lego bricks in more quantity and different colors. We get this because our boy needed more bricks to build on. And when more things are being built and we needed platforms to place the creations on, we got the following:

628 LEGO® X-Large Grey Baseplate

Some info on this set: "This grey baseplate measures 15" x 15", so it's a great place to start building castles, skyscrapers, or what ever your imagination comes up with."

Why we got it? This is basically just a plain grey colored baseplate (a bit flimsy though I feel) that you can use to continue building your Lego creations on. If I'm not mistaken, we bought it for RM50

And when our boy gets more creative and independent, hubby suggested getting Benjamin his very first Lego themed set for his 4th birthday, which is this case would be from the Lego City sets. Hubby took the time to search for the right set which we both decided on (over the phone since I can't go out along as that would mean bringing the kiddos as well) And the model we got for our boy's 4th birthday is:

60004 Lego City Fire Station

Some info on this set: "Includes 5 minifigures: fire chief, pilot, and 3 firefighters with assorted accessories, you can build fire van, fire truck, helicopter, fire stations and has all the related firefighting accessories."

Why we got it? Our boy is crazy with fire engine stuff at that point of his life. He goes on and on and on with his fire engine creations, etc etc which is why we decided on this model. Hubby said compared to the other Lego City Fire range, this is the nicest one which you can build fire van, fire truck, helicopter, fire stations and etc. Being a perfectionist (our boy noticed even the slightest difference on the alignment or colors of the bricks!) and one who refused to dismantle his Lego creations, it took almost 4 months when our boy finally decided to dismantle this Lego set and since then, we went on to build more awesome stuff with all the Lego bricks!

The above Lego models we got are just guidelines to show you what we have and our reasons for getting them. General advise from me to you if you are planning to get Lego for your child:

• Get the age appropriate Lego sets for your child. If you want to get one which is not within their age range, you must be really really sure and confident that they can handle and take care of the Lego bricks.

• Start with the basic easy no-theme Lego sets. (Just like what we did)

• Try to get the starter set that has the baseplate so you can put your creations on it.
  

• Do not go for those fancy-smancy Lego themed sets for starters as that will limit your child's imagination and creativity, not to mention frustrates you as well as you will need to build the Lego bricks according to the pictures shown on the packaging (imagine how dead I would be if we get the Lego City set as the first starter set?!!!)

• Again, age appropriate, I would advise you to keep the smaller parts until your child is old enough to know not to put it into their mouth and not to simply misplaced them. By small parts I meant those bricks as small as few milimeters in sizes and those smaller accessories like cups, walkie-talkies, etc

  

• If your child is too young to be handling Lego bricks, you might want to consider getting them Duplo which can be integrated with Lego bricks or Mega Bloks instead.
  

** 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.

Last week, hubby received the free passes to the 2013 Big Bad Wolf Books Preview Sale and so this post is to document down our 1st experience in attending the preview sales. I have attended the BBW sales in 2012 but that was like in the middle of the sale period and I was there for 2 hours with my SIL who babysat Benjamin (they went to the indoor playground there) while her pre-teen daughter went to the sale with me babywearing Alyson then.

This round, hubby accompanied me to the preview sale. We left Benjamin and Alyson at our SIL's house and only brought Carolyn along (she's in her stroller the whole time) I told hubby to take charge of the luggage bag while I just took the Toysr'us bag with me while I pushed Carolyn in her stroller. Here are some pictures taken that I can share with you:

Basically for this round, I am going for children books (mostly Scholastic ones) as well, price ranging from RM3 to RM15 for the ones I got. I think this year selections are not as interesting as last year's though I am VERY happy I get to buy a couple of Scholastic books which definitely are expensive (as I googled on Amazon before hesitating to buy due to the price)

There are quite a lot of encyclopedia/picture dictionaries for childrens as well though I was not interested in them at all. I was more interested in getting activities and learning books for our 4.5 years old boy who is going to start his pre-school in Jan 2014. I would like to get him something to nurture on what he learned in his pre-K later - something he can do when he got home from his pre-K classes (half day). I also managed to grab a couple of toddler books for our 2 years old Alyson (learning ABC, 123)

Pictures of some of the children books I managed to snap to show my buddy over WhatsApp:

Pictures of the view inside the building:

I gotta stop to breastfeed our 2 months old girl somewhere facing zone E, which is very nice and cosy though I had to sit on the floor. I don't mind really... :)

Pictures taken as we went to one of the aisle to pay for our books. The staff are courteous, helpful and quick to act. Good job! Too bad the credit cards machines jammed up and took VERY long to respond, we ended up paying with cash as we couldn't wait any longer.

We were there from 5pm to 8pm and total damage RM412. Pictures of our loot (kiddos, mine and hubby's - some of the books are for our friends and clients):

From what I can remember on the floor plan,the moment you enter the entrance door, all the way straight in is the children section, right side has young adults section, the toilets are located on the right side as well, cashier lanes on the furthest left side. Books on the left section are religions, self-help, travel (lots of them), cookery (lots of them too!)

That's all I can think of to share for now! Feel free to ask and share on my Facebook page if you have questions or feedback!

(** Apologies for making you hopping to my FB page as I have disabled the commenting features on my blog due to the excessive annoying spams that keeps attacking my blog the moment I enabled the commenting feature.)

I started my breastfeeding journey since March 2009, when our 1st child was born and I never stopped breastfeeding since then. I breastfed our 1st child past 1, 2, 3 years old, throughout my 2nd pregnancy, then went on to tandem nursed our first 2 kiddos for 1.5 years until our 1st child self-weaned at 45 months old. As for 2nd child, she is still nursing right now at 2 years old, I nursed through my 3rd pregnancy and currently tandem nursing our 2nd and 3rd child since 1st October 2013.

With all these experiences gained in my breastfeeding journey, I decided to pen down the critical phases which I think contributed to a successful breastfeeding journey.

To read my 1st post, you can click the link on this post: Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Hour.

For my 2nd post, I will start off with: the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

This post is pretty much similar to the critical first hour after giving birth to your baby. I am just going to repeat the advice given which is to keep on latching and inform the hospital staff that you want your baby to be on breastmilk only.

What differs in this post with the previous post is, in the critical 1st day, you get to experience a day and night spent with your baby.

For my case, my birth hospital is pro-breastfeeding and baby has to be room-in with mum at all times (unless baby is premature or require constant monitoring under neonatal ICU unit due to some health complications) So with baby rooming-in with you, you get to experience for yourself how to handle your newborn, to get used to bay's cues for hunger, stress, etc.

On my first night with baby and being in a pro-breastfeeding hospital, there is no other options to comfort and soothe baby other than breastfeed (after you have checked diaper, swaddled and ensure environment is comfortable) You just gotta latch, latch, latch. With frequent latching, your brain will get signals you really need breastmilk fast!

Picture below showing Carolyn breastfeeding at 3.51am in the morning (I did not have any sleep at all until about 5am on the first day)

I also believe the first day is critical as you'll finally realised this is important and there is no other person but you and baby who can make this work.

Some new mums will be discharged from hospital on day 2 onwards and once you leave the hospital, there will be other factors affecting and influencing you. Husband, in-laws, older children, and in our culture confinement ladies (if you did not hire the breastfeeding friendly ones, they will affect your breastfeeding plan!)

So, yes, the 1st day after giving birth is a critical phase in ensuring a smooth path to your successful breastfeeding journey.

To sum this post up:

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

• Latching early will also help baby to practise his latching technique
  

• Latching early will help YOU in your breastfeeding techniques too

• Please make sure you inform the hospital staff beforehand that you want your baby to be breastfeed and no formula feeding whatsoever

• If possible, room-in with baby after birth.

• Only YOU and BABY can make breastfeeding works. Do not let other factors influence your plan!
  

That's all for my 2nd post in the critical phase for a successful breastfeeding journey!

Feel free to ask and share if you have questions or feedback!