Review of HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One Printer

I like the how this HP printer is seated in my house…. Can you spot a printer?

Don’t you think it blends into the interior design of my living room? Perfect fit!

Now, here’s some interesting features of the printer:

1. iPRINTER?

In the tech age that we live in, THE phone is now the iPHONE (or blackberry… that’s for me!), THE computer is now the Mac book (even Apple says it’s the laptop for EVERYONE), THE walkman is now the iTOUCH, THE book is now the Kindle and THE new must-have- the iPAD.

And the one thing they have in common? Ability to access the internet.

And did you know that printers have this ability now too? The HP Envy 100 is one of such amazing printers.

This multi-tasker doesn’t just print, copy and scan, it is also able to connect to the internet!

Hey! I can print Sudoko puzzles, Crayola pictures for Julien to color next time, calendar, photos from Facebook….

I even printed a Sesame Street Alphabet book for Julien!

I LOVE Sesame Street!

2. WIRELESS

I can seriously leave it in my living room. This is because it is able to print stuffs from anywhere in the house. And do you know, I can also print documents wirelessly from the iTouch, iPhone and iPad by sending the document to a pre-determined email address so that the printer prints it automatically!

Note: It was as easy as ABC setting up the wireless connection. I just had to key in my password when prompted and it’s connected!

3. HEY GOOD-LOOKING

The cover on the top panel of the HP Envy 100 printer is made of of shiny mirror glass with classy black dots.

You can see the reflection of my camera and ceiling on the printer! This means you can arrange your hair while printing, HAHA!

And the paper tray is retractable and is hidden away in the base of the printer when not printing.

It is really made for the modern home… like mine!

4. SHUSH….

I can seriously seriously leave it here in my living room, near the TV because it’s so quiet while printing! It’s not like my current printer that shouts “P-R-I-N-T-I-N-G-G-G!”.

5. GO GREEN

If you are a green person (which we all should aim to be more of), all the more you should support HP products.

Check out their website where they share about their environmental goals…

So what so green about this printer?

Well, it is the world’s 1st PVC-free printer and it even comes with a reusable tote bag to reduce waste!

It also prints 2-sided documents automatically to save paper.

Save the earth! :)

HP Envy 100 indeed has so much to offer! I had been dropping hints to my hubby to get our current printer UPGRADED. Plus for me who loves doing scrapbooking projects and cards, and with a kid now (and more to come in future), I can really use this printer to print my own photos and materials for the children! 

Thanks HP for this wonderful experience!

HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One Printer

THIS…

is an ordinary, simple printer.

It’s my current home printer – HP F2120.

THAT….

is one cool sleek WIRELESS printer – HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One.

One set was delivered to my house and I can’t wait to try all its amazing functions. Will bring you the review of this printer very soooon!

Stay Tuned!

Nap Time

My brother took a picture of my son taking a nap on our sofa the other day.

I feel 2 things when I see this picture.

i. I feel like giving my son a BIG fat hug and kiss NOW.

ii. I feel like napping too….

Day out with THREE kids

It was my off day on Monday. And my in-laws were feeling just a little more adventurous that day and decided to bring the kids – Ryan (8 yo), Rae-anne (3 yo) and Julien (9 mo) out to the Bedok Jetty at East Coast Park.

The preparation took TWO hours. Feed, shower, change, pooh, pee, pack… Ask me if I would consider having 3 kids now and I would shout “No!”.

By the time we were out of the house, it was nearly noon…

Here’s the most well-behaved kid.

He was 100% well-behaved and sitting in his stroller while we strolled along under the hot sun. I think he looked almost bored honestly… HAHA, too young for outings I guess!

And here are the other two hyper active kids… One kept asking if we could rent a bike, the other kept walking onto the wrong path and both were pestering us to buy drinks and ice-cream right from the start… –.-

As I walked behind them… I thought I really do not have the physical stamina to have THREEEEE kids… For now.

Hats off to those who have three or more kids!

When we reached the jetty, a cool breeze was blowing. All seemed peaceful and surreal all of a sudden….

We walked along and I was surprised to find many enthusiastic individuals fishing at this hour of the day!

The older kids were curious when they saw the little fishes being caught and left jumping and wriggling on the ground….

They began asking me many questions, showing me many things….

I would say, they were almost very adorable actually…

We saw fishes in many shapes and sizes!

We then took a seat under the shade, enjoyed the scenery and breeze, drank our oh-so-cold fizzy drinks, fed Julien, and I continued to entertain more questions from the two older kids…. I even felt like a mother of THREE there and then!

I am beginning to enjoy myself… surprisingly. :)

Anyway, here’s a new type of bicycle I sighted at the bicycle rental shop…

I sent a picture of it to my hubby via my blackberry and excitedly told him we can rent it when Julien grows older! 2 adults riding the double bike and there’s space for 2 toddlers in front!

The hubby’s reply was a very uninterested, “We’ll look like clowns dear…”

Lol!

Anyway, any good ideas where to bring kids of different ages?

The Gift of Life

It is Father’s Day tomorrow and I am writing this post as a tribute to my wonderful husband.

About 6 years ago, hubby who donated blood 1-2 times a year decided to sign up to be a bone marrow donor as well.

Hubby received a call from the Bone Marrow Donor Programme at the end of 2009 informing him of a potential match, he was told the chances of a positive match was 1 in 22,000! It took him 2-3 days to ponder about whether to proceed. His mum heard about the call and dissuaded him to go ahead due to the uncertainties involved. Furthermore at that point of time, I was pregnant with Julien and he was going to be a father soon!

I told hubby that I would support him in whichever decision he made eventually.

Well, he finally said “Yes!” and the crucial factor was that he recalled the painful experience of losing a friend to leukemia at a tender age of 20 years old. Jared found out later that his friend did actually manage to get a match with a donor in Japan in the end but he was unfortunately too sick by then to go through a transplant operation and he eventually passed on…….

Here’s what Jared had to go through after he agreed to donate his stem cells.

Pre-donation

He had to first undergo a series of three tests.

i. Round 1 - three vials of blood to be drawn for a high resolution test.

ii. Round 2 - 12 vials of blood to be drawn for further tests.

iii. Round 3 - A series of X-rays, ECGs and physical examinations, and another drawing of four vials of blood.

Actual donation

The hubby opted for the less invasive but more prolonged procedure, a method known as the PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell) harvest. This involves several injections to encourage blood stem cells to move into the circulating blood stream. The stem cells are then collected as an outpatient procedure and drawn from the blood via a blood separator machine.

The entire procedure lasted over five days. The hubby had to rush to the Singapore General Hospital every morning (and then rush back to his office to work) for three days to receive injections to boost his stem cell production. The stem cell harvest procedure itself lasted 2 days. Both of Jared’s arms were hooked to a machine from 10am to about 430pm for the first day. The last day involved only one arm for the same amount of time. The long hours hooked to the machine were tiring and after a few hours, his veins got sore and painful.

Post-donation

Hubby was given a few days MC and he did suffer some minor side-effects of the donation – backaches and flu-like symptoms. But hubby always says the pain suffered by the patients are much worse.

My hero... :)

Today hubby is strong and healthy as ever! Thank God!

Due to the anonymous nature of the donation, details of the donor and beneficiary of the stem cells are kept confidential. But Jared kinda figured out the donation was meant for a young girl, possibly in her teenage years and he always wonder did the beneficiary get better after the transplant?

One year later….

We received a card in the mail…..

The card had a picture of sunflowers… symbols of sunshine, life and joy…

And we opened the card…

Tears welled up in our eyes as we read the message in the card.

Hubby’s selfless decision resulted in a gift of life, a second chance to someone out there. It was ALL worth it and I am SOOOOOOO proud of my wonderful hubby. I hope Julien grows up to be as courageous and selfless as his daddy too!

HAPPY FATHERS’ DAY HUBBY!

                                                Love, Me & Julien

You can do your part by joining the Bone Marrow Programme too. Find out right here.

Ikea Restaurant, Tampines

It was one of those Saturdays where we had an inspiration for our lunch. IKEA @ Tampines!

And so off we went…

Here’s Julien with his new Friso bear. It was given to him by some aunties selling Friso at the Motherhood Exhibition and who found him absolutely adorable. Julien has the ability to mesmerize you with his BIG, round eyes and dazzling smile… that is if he is in dee right mood.

This was the first time we brought Julien to Ikea and now that we have a kid, we realized how baby & kid-friendly Ikea is!

You can warm up milk bottles with the two microwave ovens available. High chairs are provided for smaller children. There is even meal entertainment with a children's corner where your kids can play or watch TV while you eat!

And did you know that at the Tampines Ikea, diners with babies receive a free bottle of baby food with any purchase!

In my opinion, I think the Ikea Restaurant’s atmosphere is quite warm and cosy though it can be really crowded most of the time.

Now, here’s the delicious, famous Ikea foods we ordered….

These SWEDISH MEATBALLS are a must-have here….

And not forgetting the fried-to-almost-perfection, juicy CHICKEN WINGS!

We saw a group of old ladies at one of the tables nearby sharing just one BIG plate of chicken wings… That’s how yummy they are!

I went for the healthier option of grilled salmon with pepper.

Other healthy options available include the organic tomato-based pasta.

Chicken leg set…. Looks good doesn’t it?

We had a very satisfying lunch that Saturday! :)

Cleebo for baby

In the 9 months of Julien’s life so far, he had got kissed by the flu bug thrice.

Did I ever mention that the flu is, in my opinion, the WORST common ailment a baby can get. Read about one of my terrible experiences here.

And one of the WORST tasks that I had to accomplish when my baby is down with flu, is to get rid of his mucus and boogers.

I would do almost anything to try to extract out those boogers especially when it hindered baby’s eating, sleeping and even breathing!

I tried the following ‘instruments’…

1. The index finger

A very crude yet convenient way? But my finger is kinda big for his nose. And not to mention, probably full of germs and bacteria! :p

2. Cotton bud

Long…. and dangerous if I am too enthusiastic and push it a little too far in…

3. Tissue paper

Twisted to insert into the nose. But Julien hates it. He cries at the sight of it, even before I even point it in the direction of his nostrils…

4. Nasal mucus sucker

Even I will faint if you try to squeeze this scary looking thing up my nostrils!

So my solutions thus far were too big, too unhygienic, too dangerous, too scary-looking.

:(

So thank God, the folks at Sophie & Friends recently introduced me to a product called Cleebo.

Finally, some parents and PDs became inspired to invent a small yet ingenious and not to mention, easy-to-use tool to extract those irritating boogers!

Cleebo’s features are that it is…

• safe – silicone ends with ‘safety wings’
• hygienic – clean in steriliser or hot water
• child-friendly – soft, flexible & friendly design
• versatile – ultra flexible use in 3 different ways
• innovative – solves all my previous woes.

HOORAY!

I also feel assured with the following stats:

• 71% of the Doctors would recommend Cleebo;
• 82% of the Doctors think Cleebo is the best option for parents;
• 82% of the Doctors feel that Cleebo is the safest option for clearing nasal congestion in children;
• 91% of the Doctors listed Cleebo as the most practical solution for blockages in the nasal passage;
• Overall, 80% of the Doctors regarded Cleebo as the best way to clear nasal congestion in children, and also regarded it as a safe, hygienic and easy-to-use product

As you can see, I am very confident the next time I need to dig out those awful boogers, Julien will happily allow me to do so!

My darling was enjoying his time fiddling with Cleebo and ignoring the rest of his toys!

If you are interested, you can purchase Cleebo here (from Sophie and friends’ website). They will even donate some of the proceeds to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Do some good while shopping! :)

Playing Hide & Seek

Julien is becoming more aware and responsive towards his environment.

And so, I decided to try to play a very simple game of Hide & Seek with him.

*Knock Knock* (on the door)

Mummy peeks at Julien in the room and made sure he sights her… then she ‘disappears’ quickly….

 

Moves alittle, *unsure*, stops awhile, *thinking*, moves alittle, *unsure*…

*Jumps up and down in walker*

Well done Julien! :)))