a few of my favorite things

Kids' Shampoo

2010-11-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Thumbs up!

Though this L'Oreal Kids shampoo is sort of ridiculously overlabeled (Orange Mango Smoothie Shampoo with a Burst of Mango Tango), it cleans Bunny's hair really well and leaves it soft. It also smells really good. Really, really good.

Wall Art

2010-08-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

Here's another review of bath products for kids:

I found some Crayola finger paint soap in jars and thought we'd try it, since Bunny loves playing with this sort of thing. (I can't find it anywhere online to put a picture here, but will keep looking.)

Sight
The blue is a beautiful color, but... it does NOT mix well with the yellow. It just turned brownish -- and this was using a small amount of blue and a large amount of yellow. I think it's because the blue is a little purple-ish and the yellow is a little orange-ish, so together they made a lovely muddy green-brown.

Smell
Good, kind of fruity.

Touch
It's okay, pretty thin so when Bunny tries to scoop it out, it tends to run over the sides so we lose a lot, and it didn't stick to the wall as well as it would have had it been a little thicker, but it worked okay.

They make a LOT of bubbles, which is good if you want bubbles, which we usually do.

As far as hearing and taste go, well, it didn't really have much sound, and you'd have to ask Bunny how it tasted. At a guess, I'd say soapy.

Sad Face Reviews

2010-04-16T11:25:00.001-07:00

Okay, I was all excited about Prell, and I still say it's super-awesome at getting rid of the gunk that most shampoos want to leave behind on my hair. HOWEVER. It doth strip the hair a mite. Yeah, my hair was too clean.

So, I'm back to trying to find a shampoo that will just CLEAN MY HAIR, for Pete's sake (who is Pete, by the way? Saint Peter?). I don't need a shampoo to add body or volume or straighten or curl or defrizz or add frizz or make an omelette or whatever. Just clean my blinkin' hair!!!

Also, I'm sad to report that Philosophy changed its winning Kiss Me Red formula. Why? Who knows? (Maybe Saint Peter?)

I say come out with new products if you must, but leave the good things alone! Anyway, they added SPF (which is good, I guess, though I'd rather have the old Kiss Me Red and take my chances with lip cancer) and added peppermint oil -- so it burns a little if you have sensitive, dry, or chapped lips. Um... why put this in a product that is supposed to soothe lips? Plus the peppermint scent is not as nice as it sounds like it would be, and it has nothing on the citrus scent the old version had.

Color Me Surprised

2010-01-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in the last post, Crayola 3D Soap Paints:

They were fun for me, but Bunny tended to just squirt the paint out into the water; it wasn't easy for him to get it on the wall, much less draw with it.

We also got some Crayola bathtub markers, and I have to give them a mixed review. I think in some ways they're great, they were fun for me, but they are not good for little ones. You have to hold the marker just right to get the sponge tip against the wall to write and a toddler just doesn't have that kind of control yet. Also, if the wall is wet, the ink runs, so make sure the wall is dry before getting creative.

You Live, You... Buy Stuff

2009-11-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

Apparently I live and don't learn.

So I bought these. I'm nothing if not occasionally -- and usually mistakenly -- optimistic!

Well, boo. BOO, Sesame Street! They're weirdly gelatinous, don't mix very easily, don't finger paint on the wall of our tub very well, and they made my baby itch!

I'm trying to use it up, but I have to space out the use so my son doesn't look (and feel) like he's bathing with poison ivy.

Anyway, I also bought these and will post what I think of them after we've tried them out.

Color My Bath

2009-10-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Bunny likes colored water for his bath. Well, who wouldn't? On a whim, and because I know I would have loved this if they'd made such a thing back in the Jurassic when I was a child, we tried these:

The only negative was that I had to order them. No local stores carried it (or so I thought; I have since discovered that the brilliant people at Target do in fact carry these, along with more fun bath stuff. Big smoochies to whomever orders bath stuff for kids at Target!). If you are so unfortunate as to not have right-thinking Target orderers (I'm sure that's what they're called) taking care of you, order directly from Crayola. It was cheaper than ordering from a vendor on Amazon (Amazon doesn't sell it directly.).

Then, the other day we were at Walmart and they had these (ours does not carry the Crayola ones, BOO), so I thought, Why not? :

We figured if Sesame Street put their name on it, it couldn't be that bad, right? *annoying buzzer sound*

As Alanis so cleverly sang, you live, you learn.

We got the larger size, and am I glad we did, because it takes two or three tablets to get any real color, even though the tablets are larger than the Crayola ones. I also didn't like that the Sesame Street ones had a funky powder that made me cough and when I picked up a tablet to make it dissolve faster (if you have a toddler, you know why I did this), it stained my fingers. It came off later, but still. Crayola's don't stain.

Anyway, my verdict: Crayola - YAY, Sesame Street - meh.

Spark of Heaven

2009-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Spark by Skip Hop

Okay, that's overstating it, but we recently got this new diaper bag that is much smaller than the last one we had, but it holds what we need! (Snacks, cups, diapers, Pull-Ups, wipes, a change of clothes, toys, and books...) I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to maneuver a huge suitcase between tables at a restaurant while everyone stares.

Moonwalking

2009-01-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

I really like this book that we read to Bunny most nights as part of his bedtime routine. Fortunately, he also likes it!

It's I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis, illustrated by Alison Jay. It's a nice, calming story told in rhyme, but it's not cloying or precious at all. And the illustrations are great; make sure you look at all the background pictures, there are fun little details you'll miss if you don't look.

Out, Out, Damn Spot!

2008-09-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

Prescriptives Camouflage Cream

If you need a concealer, this one is great. It hides dark circles, blemishes, any imperfections at all -- well, okay, within reason, it blends in completely, and it stays on. Buy with confidence!

It's that time...

2008-09-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

We bought this album to have something for Bunny that wasn't too annoying for us, and... we got it! Most of the songs are really good, though some are too short, and one is questionable for little kids (The Ninjas seems guaranteed to give some little ones nightmares).

I love love love Pollywog in a Bog. Just ask my husband.

On second thought, don't.

It's a Disposable World... Or Renewable? Something, Anyway.

2008-08-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, y'all, I know that we as a world have got to stop with the disposable everything, BUT...

We got these disposable sippy cups for our vacation, and were they ever little colorful life-savers! (But not the kind you eat.) Bunny took to them right away PLUS they don't leak easily, which was a huge bonus because he loves loves loves to turn sippy cups over and watch whatever liquid is in them drip out. Fun for everyone! Oh yeah, and since we were in the car for LONG periods of time, Bunny also enjoyed throwing them away from himself, of course also AWAY from me, so with these, I could just pull out another one. Ha! Take that, puny infant!

Anyway, they're also BPA-free! Score!

You can get them here or here or do what I did and forget you already ordered them from one place and order them from the other one too.

It actually worked out in our favor, because some madcap dictator at The First Years decided that matching lids and cups are just too tragically dull, darling, and so last year! BUT by buying both sets we neatly (if accidentally) circumvented this zaniness and ended up with mostly matching cups and lids! One set has six cups and one has seven so we're off by one, but for people who prefer things to match, that's not bad.

What, me boring?

Mighty Music

2008-08-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Mighty Joe Moon by Grant Lee Buffalo

All of the songs are good, except maybe Last Days of Tecumseh. But who knows? You may like it. My favorites are Honey Don't Think and Mockingbirds.

Shut Up and...

2008-07-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Kiss Me (Red)

From philosophy. Emollient without being at all greasy, with a hint of color and a lovely citrus fragrance. Sweet!

If the Shoe Fits...

2008-07-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Dansko Marcelle

I LOVE these shoes. I wear them all the time. Seriously, I wear them pretty much every day. They are comfortable, add some height to my short self, go with everything, and did I mention they're comfortable?