Another App Review.

So it's been a long time coming but I wanted to quickly review a few more kid apps for you all. Babe is nearing three years old now so of course her taste in games on my phone have changed since my last app review page.

Now some of you may be pro iPhones, iPads etc for little ones and some of you may not be. I myself go back and forth. But for anyone who does utilize technology babysitters from time to time, here's my top picks for Babe...or rather, Babe's top picks.

Top of my list is My PlayHome. I have no idea why this dollhouse app hasn't gotten more review attention online. There's some of course, but when I searched best apps for kids it didn't come up. I love this app. I originally downloaded the free Lite version but it only came with two rooms. Babe loved it so much I paid to download the full version which I think was about $3.00.

It's a full dollhouse and everything in the house is interactive. Babe can change CD's on the stereo, dress the people, flush the toilet, get food out of the refrigerator, put toothpaste on the toothbrushes and pull carrots out of the garden. This app has held her attention longer than any other and she has loved it for about a year now.

The only down side is everything is so tiny that on an iPhone younger kids may have some trouble manipulating everything. But now that Babe has it on her iPad it's much easier for her to use.

I also downloaded the DooDoo Pad for Babe about a year ago and she still uses it all the time. Not sure if the name is a lost in translation deal, but whatever.

I originally got it because I thought I would like it too and I was right. The pens are super cool with neon lights, beads and an array of colours and paper backgrounds.

You can also import photos and draw on them. Babe loves to colour all over pictures of herself and save them to my photos.

The Lite version is of course free and although it does have an ad banner at the top it doesn't seem to get accidently tapped as often as some of the others.

The only downside, and maybe that has changed since we downloaded it, is when you are drawing with one pen, every time you lift your finger the colour changes. So if you wanted to stay with pink you'd have to keep drawing a line, then undoing it until you rotated back to pink. But I did notice that there was a colour wheel when I looked at the newer version so maybe it's a little different than the one we have.

To compliment Babe's letter learning I chose the Endless Alphabet app. It got good reviews and they weren't kidding around when they made this bad boy. It's so awesome. But the makers know it too and the app will set you back a whopping $6.99.

It has a ton of words to learn and not just ones like; cat, dog, hug and pretty. The kids choose a word and the funky cartoon characters make a big mess and scramble the word up. Then the kids have to drag and drop all the letters back into place. As they drag a letter the app makes the sound that the letter makes. Then once they have fit all the letters back into place the voice says the word, then shows a little cartoon of what the word means and explains the definition to the child.

There are so many funny characters and interesting sounds that Babe can spend a long time working on her letters with this app.

The only downside that I see is she can place the letters back into their spot in any order she wants. Meaning, if the word is BELLOW, Babe can place the LL's first, then the W in it's place and the B last. I would prefer if she were learning how to spell the word out in order from left to right.


Babe likes puzzle games, we have tried a few over the last year. But so far her favorite by far has been the Shape Builder app. It was a good buy at $.99.

It's very simple. Colourful shapes scrambled up, drag them into place and it becomes a picture of something. It has numbers, letters and images to fit together.

It doesn't keep Babe preoccupied for as long as some of the others but she keeps coming back to it.

Also for some reason, because the shapes are random splotches that only reveal the real picture once they are in place, some of the shapes frighten her. I have no idea why or what they look like to her but once in awhile she gets to a puzzle that she says is scary and she wants to skip to the next page. But that's probably just specific to my precious little weirdo.

Both of us LOVE the Nighty Night app. The pictures are really cool with a combination of realistic textures and cartoon characters, kind of like the Little Big Planet video game. The app is $2.99 which is pricy for a kid app but I would buy it again if I had to.

A soothing male voice starts with an intro about everyone going to sleep in town but says there are still lights on at the farm house. Then Babe has to turn off all the lights in the farm house to put all the animals to bed.

Again, it's interactive so whatever she touches makes noise and she loves going through the house and putting the animals to sleep (just for the night, it's not a euthanize the farm animals kind of game).

The end has a little girl waving out her window and Babe finds that part really intriguing. She always waves back.

This app is part bedtime story and part play and it's very calming. No bright, flashing lights or loud sounds. Just farm animal noises and lullaby music. A good short game to play at the end of the day to calm your child down.

And that's it for now folks. Check out some of these apps and let me know what your child thought. And of course let me know if you have any I should be checking out.

It's a Girl! Probably.

I of course couldn't wait until October to be surprised.

My impatience may be surprising to some because I have no gift anticipation at Christmas or my birthday.

But babies are different. It is my child, who will be forever in my life, not a puppy under the Christmas tree and I want to know everything about my baby as soon as the information is available.

So two weeks after my ultrasound with Jaded Tech #2 I followed the advice of my boyfriend's boss, who is also expecting, and headed off to AIM Medical Imaging in my city (Vancouver) to try again.

This time the tech was perfect. She was kind and laid back. She spent half an hour with us, about twenty minutes of which was spent on the hunt for the family jewels. She was excited for us (or at least faked it) and I left with a bunch of cute photos. I guess when you're paying (tests not ordered by your medical caretaker are not covered in Canada) you are treated more like a client and less like a cliche.

Finally the tech was able to say that she was 95 per cent sure that my little he/she is a SHE! I couldn't be happier. There are no guarantees but she assured me that if a boy pops out and I have all the wrong clothes I can send her the bill. Any chance she is serious?

For $50 I am 95 per cent sure my baby is a girl. Money well spent.

The Jaded Tech.

I have definitely had my fair share of ultrasounds during this pregnancy. So I now consider myself an expert on the process. Out of that five, two of my ultrasounds have been a huge disappointment.

I get that the purpose of an ultrasound is diagnostic and that it is not conducted for my entertainment, to calm my fears or to fill my baby book with in utero photos. But having said that, it is something that expectant parents look forward to and worry over throughout pregnancy. And every time an ultrasound is scheduled it is both exciting to see the baby and nerve-racking to hear the results.

I have had the misfortune of two jaded techs so far in this pregnancy and both times I left feeling angry and disappointed.

I understand that for them the job is boring and tedious and they are probably as eager for a coffee break as any other working stiff is. But quite frankly…I don’t give a shit what they feel. When I have to wait months for a ten-minute window into my womb to see my baby and confirm that he or she is not in peril I expect a little bedside manor. And if the tech can’t muster up some excitement then I expect that they will at least recognize that this is a big moment for the patient and fake some concern or enthusiasm.

The first horrible tech I had was when I was only seven weeks pregnant. I had been the week before for the initial ultrasound that my doctor had scheduled to date the fetus, but no heartbeat could be found. Which while completely normal for six weeks was a disaster for someone as obsessive and anxious as I am. So they had me come back the next week to try again.

Obviously I was very nervous and it showed. However I got neither a reassuring smile nor eye contact from the tech as I lay on the table waiting for her to tell me if the little spark inside me had gone out. I spent most of the time cracking little jokes to try to boost her spirits while I was falling apart with worry.

When she finally located a strong heartbeat and I began to cry with relief she sternly told me to “lay still”.

At this particular office the techs perform the diagnostic portion of the ultrasound without family or friends present and then after they allow the woman’s husband, mother, friend etc. into the room to see the baby and rejoice with or comfort the mother. This is the policy. I knew this from the previous visit, the signs posted in the lobby and the phone call I made earlier in the week to confirm that I could bring my girlfriend with me for support.

However this tech who was not just bored with the procedure but was maliciously trying to be as cold and callous as she could safely get away with refused without reason to allow my friend to come in. It didn’t matter that I had driven across town to pick up my friend. Or that the policy of the clinic was to allow me my support network.

And to top it off she allotted me one 2-second glance at my little bean with the blinking heart and denied me any further time with my baby.

I tried to calm my anger afterwards by telling myself that I was blessed that the baby was ok and that nothing else about the experience mattered. Which is true. In an attempt to excuse her behaviour I reasoned that maybe she had lost her own baby and couldn’t muster any joy for her patients. But I couldn’t reason the anger away.

With memories of the ultrasound tech from hell still haunting me the next day I decided it wasn’t fair to subject other nervous patients to the same treatment and I called her supervisor and complained. The tech I had the next time was an absolute doll.

My second jaded tech wasn’t the vengeful bitch that the first was. She was of the “move along, nothing to see here” or “ho hum” variety. This was the big ultrasound. I was excited to find out the sex and nervous about the scan’s ability to catch abnormalities. But once again I left disappointed.

This tech was briskly working her way through the morning patients with her eye on her lunch break. She muttered under her breath what every part was and how things were looking like she was whispering into a wiretap in her scrubs instead of talking to us. She made a half-assed attempt to discover the sex and another half-assed attempt to get a good photo for us.

Towards the end of the appointment she softened a little when the baby was being extra cute but for the most part she couldn’t have cared less and an appointment that was scheduled to take 45 minutes was over in under 15.

After the first bad experience I promised myself that I wouldn’t stand for it again. That next time I would politely vocalize my expectations (provided they were reasonable) instead of feel disappointed later. But the next ultrasound came and went with me biting my tongue. As outspoken as I am I find it hard to stand up for myself in this gooey situation. Lying there waiting for a stranger to tell me the fate of my baby and thus my future is enough to worry about.

I just wish the techs could remember how special this moment is for us, even though its nothing special for them.