Five Rubber Duckies is a book in my house that gets read often. It is just as popular with Will (my one year old) as with Madison (my 4 year old). Will enjoys the books for several reasons. First, he likes the duckies. The pages aren’t like normal book pages; they are half pages with ducks on top. The pages are thick cardboard, so even if he chews on them (and he has), they will not get wrecked. He also can’t rip them. Madison likes this book because we can work on her math skills. As you turn each page, there are two lines which rhyme. It is a story about duckies, and as you turn the page, we lose a ducky (have no fear — they don’t need foreclosure help, they are just busy doing other things).  It is a cute story and ends with 1 rubber ducky being left with a clean baby.  My kids completely adore this book and I highly recommend it!

I don’t often products that I fall in love with the first day I have them. However, it was love at first sight with this laptop cooling stand.  I spend a lot of time on my laptop, and anyone who has a laptop knows how hot they get on the bottom.  I actually have a burn mark from my laptop on my leg (and yes I am serious, I really do).  I have been trying to find something, anything that would help me out.  This cooling stand is exactly what I was looking for.  The size of the cooling stand is perfect.  It adds a small amount of height to your laptop and that’s it.  My favorite part is that the fan is run by the USB port on your laptop.  I saw many versions of these cooling stands that made you plug it in to get it to work.  Personally, I have a laptop, so I am not tethered to the wall.  Why would I want a device that makes me stuck in one spot?  The fan cools down the bottom of the laptop, and it almost feels like your legs have their own air conditioner.  If you are having laptop heating issues like I was, I highly recomment one of these cooling stands.

Charlie the Can-do Choo-choo! is one of those books that you have to buy for all the little boys that you know.  Will got it for his birthday, and it is one of the coolest books I have seen for a long time.  Charlie the Can-do Choo-choo! is about having optimism and knowing that you can do whatever you set your mind too.  The part that impressed me was that this book is not like a normal book.  The book opens up like a train on the tracks. On one side, you have the story;  on the other side, you have pictures and lights.  When you press the train’s nose, the train lights up throughout the book.  Both  my 4 year old and my 1 year love to play with this book.  I have never seen two kids have so much fun with a book before!

We had a very interesting episode at my house this morning.  Will had a little diaper accident that ended up all over my living room floor (and let’s say it wasn’t pee!).  Not only did it smell, it was stuck to the floor (I know, I know TMI, but I could have taken pictures!)

What does a mother do when incidents like this (and yes all mothers have at least one of these with each of their kids)?  Well, first you clean up the kid involved.  I also lucked out that it was Will’s nap time, so I was able to put him down and not have him getting in the way of cleanup.

Once Will was down for a nap, that’s when the real cleaning starts.  I have always loved PineSol.  It does say on the back not to use on wood.  However, I have always used it on my hardwood floors, because it is one of the best cleaners out there on the market and have yet to have a problem.  I have yet to find anything that matches its cleaning ability either.  However, I have always had one major complaint:  the smell.  I personally could not stand the lemony smell (Courtney just corrected me — it’s not lemony — it’s pine :P).  However, PineSol has come to rescue.  They now have flavors (or is it called scents?)!  The one I used on our little accident this morning was the “Sparkling Wave”.  I love it!  Not only did the PineSol clean up the mess, it left my living room smelling awesome.  There was no overwhelming lemon — just a calming sea smell (which after the morning I’ve had, I definitely need).

I would definitely go try this out if you haven’t yet, and tell me what you think.

Yes, I know, it is hard to believe that I actually watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. What may surprise you (heck, it surprised me) the movie wasn’t half bad. Now, I wouldn’t give it 5 stars or probably watch it again. However, it was entertaining enough to watch the whole thing.

Larry (Kevin James) is a widower with two kids. The only way for him to change his insurance policy changed is to get married. Larry is a firefighter, and is partnered with his best friend Chuck (Adam Sandler). To help Larry out, Chuck and Larry get a domestic partnership and get married in Canada. Should be the end of the story right? Wrong. They then have to prove that their relationship is the real deal. The jokes sometimes are really, really bad and a little to stereotypical. However, there is a great scene where the two men fight and call up each others shortcomings that need to be addressed (like Larry needing to figure out how to lose weight and let go of his late wife and Chuck needing to learn how to commit). All in all, it is a movie you should see.

I happened to catch Ocean’s Thirteen the other night on HBO and ended up staying up half the night.  I am a huge fan of the Ocean Trilogy, and this movie does not disappoint at all.  Basically, the boys shut down the venture of a backstabbing hotelier (Al Pacino) because the guy double-crossed the Reuben (Elliott Gould).  By the boys, I mean George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Shabao Qin, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner.  Without giving too much away, I want to say that Ocean’s Thirteen is more like Ocean’s Eleven.  It has the fast pace needed to keep your attention yet you know the guys won’t be looking for jobs in San Francisco. They should be set for a while again.

One of the greatest kid’s franchises out there has to be Sesame Street and their book A Perfect Picnic does not disappoint. It is short, so it keeps even the littlest ones attention.  It is about a picnic that all the Sesame Street characters were trying to enjoy and all the things that go wrong!  However, even though lots of things happened that should have ruined their picnic, they are still happy and together in the end.  The illustrations in this book are awesome.  The story is also written in verse, so that 2nd and 4th lines on each page rhyme.  It’s just an overall good kids book.