In No Particular Order...

I thought I'd share some of my favorite kid products as of late. Kid stuff has come a long way since I was little. I'm amazed at some of the stuff on the shelves these days. I'm sure my list could be incredibly long, but here's my current top three in no particular order...

Children's Mucinex Mini-Melts. The commercials alone were enough to make me never want to purchase this stuff. But I sent Spencer to the store to get cough medicine for the kids. I'm usually not a big fan of cough medicine. I doesn't help them get better any faster. And it usually seriously alters their spirit...meaning it makes them really drowsy and cranky or knocks them out completely. While I admit that that can be nice on occasion, I don't like that a drug is changing them. I only occasionally like it when medicine does that to me...so I imagine my kids don't like to be controlled by a substance. But my kids were just up all night with a nasty cough so it was time to try something. This was fantastic. It got rid of the cough better than anything else, but didn't alter their state of being. They could even take it during the day. And it comes in this powdery substance...like Pixie Stix. Parker loved it. Reid, not so much. But Reid doesn't like any medicine. And even still, it dissolved on his tongue pretty quick. Besides that...it can be taken simultaneously with Tylenol or Motrin...unlike other cough medicines. So when Reid's fever was so bad, I didn't have to choose between suppressing his cough or reducing his fever. I could do both. It's worth a try.



Crayola Bathtub Crayons. Abbey got these for Reid for his birthday. Thanks Abbey. They give kids a creative outlet to color on walls. Reid will spend hours in the tub doing this if I'd let him. Then by the time he's finished, he's all colored out and doesn't have as much of a desire to color afterwards...which occasionally turns into artwork where it shouldn't be. Besides coloring on bathtub walls...you can color on kids bellies. I turn them into Care Bears and superheros in the tub on a regular basis. I have been known to color on my kids bellies in the past. I used to use Crayola Markers. They're washable right? Well that's true, but it takes a couple of scrubbings to get them off their bellies. So I was a little embarrassed during one well child check up to the doctor when she had to put her stethoscope on the bellies of Fun Shine Bear and Good Luck Bear. With these crayons, they get washed off before the crazies even step foot out of the tub. Plus, Spencer and I can use them to write inappropriate messages to each other in the shower.




Leap Frog Letter Factory. It's very poorly animated and the kind of movie that's not really fun to watch as an adult. It's way behind the times. Seriously, they could have done the exact same thing and updated it a little. Although the kids don't really care. After one viewing, Parker knew all the sounds the letters make. He knew all his letters already, but not their sounds. It is very cleverly done. The sounds and letters are all linked to something that can really help kids remember. Really, it's brilliant. Even Reid who's just barely two has learned quite a few letters and sounds from this. I know I shouldn't be using a video to teach my kids something that I could be teaching them, but I couldn't have taught it that well. This is something they can really remember. Besides, we have discussion about it regularly. I had taught Parker all his letters beforehand, but I'm really not good at formal education with my children. It's not a strength of mine as a parent. I have three very small crazies at home and very little time to devote to one on one attention in the form of preschool. So for now...I'll leave that up to Leap Frog. I allow my kids a certain amount of TV time per day anyway. Might as well watch something educational.

This is not a tag or anything, but I just wanted to share since I know so many of my readers are mothers of young children. If you have something great, you might as well share.