January 4th, 2010

Product Review: “A Magical Beauty Collection” from Disney and Carol’s Daughter

It is so hard for me to find bath prod­ucts that won’t irri­tate or dry my daughter’s sen­si­tive skin. At 3 years old she has tried more prod­ucts than most adults. Luck­ily for me,  Carol’s Daugh­ter,  known for it’s authen­tic hair, fra­grance and body prod­ucts, has  launched a col­lec­tion of hair and body prod­ucts for chil­dren to honor Disney’s first ani­mated Black Princess, Tianna (an added bonus).

Let me start by say­ing that I absolutely love the pos­i­tive mes­sages cho­sen to name each prod­uct in the line. The sham­poo, “The Beauty Within” and the con­di­tioner, “Inner Shine”, pro­mote self-love and encour­ages chil­dren to find beauty beneath the sur­face. The bub­ble bath dote the phrase “Shar­ing is Car­ing” and the de-tangler (which I did not try) “Dream Big” sup­ports good behav­ior and hope. They are mes­sages that chil­dren need– espe­cially those of color who will be specif­i­cally drawn to the images of a Princess who finally looks like them. Cou­pled with the fact that Carol’s Daugh­ter was started by a woman of color, this line embod­ies the pos­i­tive mes­sage of the film– work hard and you will succeed.

But the look, the mes­sage, and the names of the prod­ucts don’t mean any­thing if the prod­ucts are not of good qual­ity. And they are. The sham­poo and con­di­tioner lather and spread well, a must for my daughter’s nat­u­rally curly hair which seems to absorb water and soap at an astro­nom­i­cal rate. In addi­tion, they left her hair soft, mois­tur­ized, and smelling good– like almonds, sun­flow­ers, olive and almond oils. The bub­ble bath con­tains Aloe Leaf Juice which is sub­tle enough to leave a trace and gen­tle enough not to irri­tate my daughter’s eczema.

The cost is a lit­tle steep (8oz bot­tles for $8-$10) for my lik­ing and we go through a lot of sham­poo and con­di­tioner here AND I am a bit fru­gal. How­ever, every child needs to feel spe­cial so I have decided that my daugh­ter will get to have one spe­cial bath a week in which she can use these prod­ucts in her dimly-lit bath­room. It’s never to early to pam­per yourself.

*I was given free sam­ples to aid in my review.

November 28th, 2009

Product Review: Hess Toy Truck Gets a Makeover

1987 18-wheeler bank

As a child I was far from a girly-girl. I hopped fences, climbed tress, played Voltron, stormed the brigade as a GI Joe, and crushed minia­ture cars as a mon­strous destroyer of worlds. I played bas­ket­ball, vol­ley­ball, soft­ball, and threw the dis­cuss, And when my mother gave me Bar­bies or Cab­bage Patch Kids, I cut their hair off and turned them into short stops and power for­wards. I was rough and tough!

When it came to my Christ­mas wish list, there was always one item that I wanted but Santa never brought: a Hess truck. The first one that I remem­ber ask­ing for was the 1984 oil tanker bank but it was the 1987 18-wheeler bank that stole my heart.  I begged Santa for it and when I awoke Christ­mas morn­ing I just knew that it would be under the tree. It wasn’t. That was the year I learned that Santa did not exist and that my mom refused to buy me boy toys. I vowed that I would never con­fine my daugh­ter to dolls and nail pol­ish (although I’m sure that came out some­thing like, “girls toys are just stupid”).

2009 Race Car and Racer

So, imag­ine my delight when I was offered the 45th edi­tion Hess Toy Truck model to review.  Now imag­ine my excite­ment when I actu­ally received it and saw the amaz­ing race car pic­tured at left. It is beau­ti­ful and once again, I find myself enam­ored with a Hess toy.

The 2009 Race Car and Racer comes equipped with 29 lights with an optional flash­ing mode, 3 real­is­tic sounds (igni­tion, accel­er­a­tion and horn), alloy-look rac­ing wheels, chrome detailed rear view mir­rors and air vents, low pro­file head­lights (a first for a Hess Toy Truck), and fea­tures a touch-release canopy com­part­ment that opens to reveal a hid­den com­part­ment with a smaller, faster race car.  The smaller race car uses a pull-back motor, has its own set of 15 flash­ing lights, and has many of the same fea­tures of its larger coun­ter­part. They are both sim­ply beautiful.

The 2009 Hess Race Car and Racer.

But the real test was see­ing my daugh­ter (3) play with the cars. She was just as excited about them as I. The moment we took it out of the box she fig­ured out just how to open the com­part­ment to find the smaller car. She demanded that we play rac­ing and we spent the bet­ter part of the evening send­ing the cars– lights flash­ing and all– down the hall. I was a beau­ti­ful sight and I remem­bered why I was so fas­ci­nated by the trucks.

So while I am not doing a gift guide this year, I will say that the Hess Toy Truck def­i­nitely makes the cut.

November 6th, 2009

Product Review: Exergen TemporalScanner

One of the hard­est things about hav­ing a sick tod­dler is hav­ing to take her tem­per­a­ture. Hav­ing to make her more uncom­fort­able in order to gauge just how sick she is, often seems sadistic.

That is why I was so excited about the oppor­tu­nity to try the Exer­gen Tem­po­ralScan­ner infrared ther­mome­ter. It reads tem­per­a­ture in just two sec­onds just by run­ning it across the fore­head. The Tem­po­ralScan­ner mea­sures arte­r­ial tem­per­a­ture (the core body tem­per­a­ture) which is the same as blood flow­ing from the heart. It is rel­a­tively close to the tem­per­a­ture taken rec­tally. The core body tem­per­a­ture is the oper­at­ing tem­per­a­ture of your bod­ies organs as  opposed to sur­face temperature.

What I loved about the ther­mome­ter is that it takes tem­per­a­ture in two sec­onds– no more wait­ing and hop­ing that your child will stay still. I have to admit that I tried this prod­uct while my daugh­ter was per­fectly healthy so tak­ing her tem­per­a­ture was eas­ier than ever before. Nonethe­less, I didn’t have to worry about changes to the tem­per­a­ture due to drink­ing, positioning,talking, or mov­ing. An impor­tant thing to note is that if your patient is sweat­ing, the tem­per­a­ture should not be taken across the fore­head but rather the on the neck behind the ear lobe.

And here is another plus. The Tem­po­ralScan­ner is man­u­fac­tured in the United States  and does not require the use of probe cov­ers like the ear ther­mome­ters. There are no hard to find bat­ter­ies to replace (uses a sim­ple 9 volt) and no scary mer­cury of bulb thermometers.

You can find the Exer­gen Tem­po­ralScan­ner at Wal-Mart, Wal­green, Costco, Babies R Us, Toys R Us and Sam’s Club. It costs less than $50 and makes a great addi­tion to you med­i­cine cabinet.