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!

It is the small things in life that can make the biggest difference. Did you know that by brushing your teeth with Recycline Toothbrush, you can help save the world? Ok, you aren’t going to be Superman. However, the Recycline Toothbrush uses recycled plastic and when you are done with it, send the toothbrush and case back to Preserve using their postage-paid label. It will then be reprocessed into plastic lumber for picnic tables, boardwalks, and decks.

Now, I did the ultimate test in my house to see how good this toothbrush really is — I switched my husband’s toothbrush without telling him.  This is the same guy who didn’t notice for around six hours that I had cut off six inches from hair, so he isn’t the most observant person out there.  However, he knew immediately that I changed his toothbrush out.  When I ask him what he thinks of his new toothbrush, he just replies “awesome”.  He thought it had a great design, and he likes how it feels.  When I told him how we were saving the enviroment, he like it even more.

This toothbrush passes the mom test for me just because of the enviromental factors involved.  Any time I can make the world a better place for my kids, I am going to do it.  These toothbrushes are super easy to find — just head to your nearest Target.  Since my Target is just down the street from me, that works great.  They are also only $2.04 which is not a bad price for a toothbrushes.  Of course, they have coupons you can use too for $1 off.  Lastly, these come is sizes for both adults and kids, so the whole family can save the world!

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!

As you all know, I love reviewing kids books and kids toys on here.  With having a 4 year old and a 1 year old, I have great product testers, and I really get to see how products hold up.  That being said, at my house, we have been playing with the Nana Star books and plushies, and we have a winner at my house.

Before I go to far into the books, I need to give you a little background on how Nana Star came about (and I got a little teary-eyed myself when I found this all out).  The authors of this series of books are Elizabeth Sills and Elena Patrice.  The illustrator is Linda Saker.  The original creator of Nana Star is Elizabeth Owens (Elizabeth and Elena’s grandmother and Linda’s mother).  She had a grandson named Vance  that she made up Moonman and Nana Star for.  When he moved away, she often sent him hand made cards with her characters, so he always knew she was with him.  Unfortunately, Vance now “dances with the stars“, but she has allowed us into her fantasy world, so our children can have that sense of belonging too.

The first thing I have to do is warn you. You need to read the Nana Star book first. Trust me, it all makes more sense if you do (**blush** won’t tell you how I figured that out). This is a truly entertaining book. Not only can I read it to my kids, there is a CD that comes with it.  When you listen to the CD, make sure you get comfortable.  They have really awesome background music behind the narrator.  There is also an additional song on there.  Madison was singing along after the first time listening to the songs.

The other really cool thing that they do with these books is that they have a Nana Star’s Little Twinkles Club.  On purpose, they have a spellling mistake in the book.  You are able to write them and tell them what the mistake was, and you can then join the Twinkles Club!  This is such a cute idea to engage their little readers.

The second book we read and listened to was Nana Star and the Moonman. Now, in the first book, we learned that a little star fell out of the sky was looking for her Nana. Now, the second book is the start of the journey the little girl (Nana Star) takes to help the little star get home. I truly can see this being an awesome series of books. As an adult, I’m wondering what happens next.  The other nice thing is that the CDs that come with the books are held by a pocket that is attached to the book.  You don’t have to worry about losing the CDs.

Now, I highly recommend these books.  Madison was engaged with them.  The thing I noticed and loved about the books themselves (besides the CD pocket) was that the paper is a thicker paper.  It does not rip easily which is a huge problem normally in my house.  You also get a bookmark with each book.  Amazingly, we don’t actually own any bookmarks, so it is a welcome addition in our house.  I also like that I am not the only one who thinks these products are great.  They have gotten numerous awards including Mr. Dad Seal of Approval and Great Dad Recommends Awards, Nominated by Mom’s Choice Award® for Most Inspirational Story, and iParenting Media Award for Excellent Products of 2007.

Not only did we try out the books, we even had some fun with the plushies that they offer.  Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what to expect.  I really am not good with measurements and figuring out how big things really are.  However, this Moonman was quite a bit larger than I expected!

Now, if you push on Moonman’s belly, his head lights up and it plays a lullaby (which you can kinda tell with my picture of Will and Moonman).  Will likes walking around with him (and let me add that is kissing him not biting him in the second picture!).

Now, this Nana Star plushy is a huge hit with both kids.  Its cute, easy to carry, and even has bloomers on under the skirt (yes, I checked).  Madison immediately made the connection between the doll and the books.  She talks about Nana Star quite often now.  You can also tell that this is not a small doll either.

If you need a great children’s gift, this is the way to go.  The books are for 3-7 years olds and they have such a postivie message.  In some of the books to come, they will learn about good manners and courtesy, friendship and fun, and giving and sharing just to name a few.  Now, if you’d like to win a copy of these books and plushies for yourself, they are running an awesome contest.  All you need to do is comment on their Got Lemons post and tell a story about how you turned lemons into lemonade.  The best story they get by July 7th will win you a copy of the books and they will also donate a copy of the books to your favorite school, childcare center, library, children’s hospital, or doctor’s office.  How awesome is that?

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.

Madison and I have been reading both the Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade.  These books are great.  Even with Madison only being four, we are able to do activities out of both of these books.  The first thing I love is that we can write with our felt tip pens on these books and then erase when we are done with the activities.  The activities are also very age appropriate.  We are able to do some of the activities, because they worked on them in preschool.  However, there are a lot of things we will be working towards.  In the kindergaren book, there is a list of skills that we should be working on with Madison like knowing our address and phone number, taking turns, and recognizing your left and right.  Now, Madison knows a bunch of things on that list.  However, there is a good chunk of things she doesn’t (like knowing her left and right).  There are a lot of skills in these books that we will be working on all summer, so she’s set for preschool again in the fall.  I’m glad we have a fun way to work on them.