Flipping Moon Sand

We bought some moon sand a while back for a rainy (more realistically snowy) day and yesterday we busted it out. (Yep it was a snowy day!) I thought it would be like playdoh but maybe more pliable. I really wasn't sure about the stuff.

Delaney proceeded to mix all three of our colors and started pressing the caps to the Moon Sand containers to get little molded shapes. The shapes were not as distinct as the Play Doh molds we make. But anyway, after about 10 minutes of making an ENORMOUS mess and not much creative product to show for it, we decided to put it away. I wasn't sure if I was missing something with this stuff. Was I using it wrong? Do you need to add something to it?

Later on in the day my 1-year-old son found a way to reach one of the little tubs, pulled it down and miraculously pulled off one of the tops. I got to him just as he was ingesting some of it and think I got most of it out of his mouth. I then called Poison Control just to make sure it wasn't lethal and they said if I got to him before he really ate it it would not be a big deal.

Then I went online and Googled "eating moon sand" and found some absolutely terrifying stuff about ingesting Moon Sand. And allergic reactions on children (like burning off skin). There were reports of dogs dying and needing intestinal surgeries from eating it. I know it is not surprising that I found frightening tales online, but it was almost enough to make me call the company.

Needless to say, our Moon Sand is now in the trash. Every last granule.

I have no idea what Moon Sand is made of, or if all of those claims are true, but my advice to you is to avoid it. Even if it were healthy to eat, the stuff makes a monster mess that is nearly impossible to clean up (like wispy granules of sand) and is hard to create anything worthwhile with it. Play Doh is messy too, but nothing like Moon Sand and not nearly as potentially toxic to the skin.

Sorry Moon Sand, I am going to have to give the thumbs down on the product.

Roomba product review, also titled, why I love Johnny

Last summer we took our every-other-year trip to Maine to visit my parents. They had been raving about a new purchase they had made based on some recommendations from different friends. It was the new robot vacuum... the Roomba.

I was intrigued, curious, and skeptical, and as a result immediately set out to watch it work throughout their house. I studied it intently and was impressed with how it moved about the house picking up pet hair and the like from every corner of the room. If you want to know the truth I couldn't get enough of watching that darn Roomba. Here we were vacationing in a beautiful spot and all I wanted to do was watch the Roomba do it's magic. Did it really work? Was it as easy as it seemed? The advertisements are full of quotes from women saying "it is great, I come home from a hard day at work and my house is clean!" How can you not at least pay a little attention to a claim like that? After studying the Roomba for days, and it's impressive skills, I decided we needed one and politely requested that it be our birthday and Christmas gifts combined (Kevin was not a participant in this decision and I admit that it wasn't entirely fair to throw out this offer).

For various reasons we didn't get the gift in our possession until our recent trip to California. By now the magic and allure of the Roomba seemed a bit removed and while I was excited to get it, I wasn't quite chomping at the bit like I was last summer. So it sat in the box at our house until I decided about a month ago to set it up and get it charged.

Then I curiously set it to work in our main living area and watched it slowly work it's way around our house. I was annoyed and perturbed that it kept getting caught and stuck on things. I would set it down and think "ok, cool, my house will be clean soon" only to come back two hours later and see it wedged under our ottoman, likely only minutes after I had left it to do it's work. This happened repeatedly for the first few weeks of use. Every time I set it to work it knocked something over or got stuck. Ugh. This was not exactly "set it and forget it" technology. I was annoyed. Our model Roomba comes with two sensors that you can place around your house at doorjams and other areas you want to deny access to the robot. I didn't even think we would use them at first but after all of the sticking and wedging I figured out that they were a necessity. So I got to work using the sensors and reducing the space the Roomba could roam. And moving certain items so they wouldn't knock. And so on and so forth. And slowly but surely I started to see it work.

Early in the process of using the Roomba, Delaney and I decided that the vacuum needed a proper name, because, well, Roomba just doesn't sound great. So we named him Johnny. Roomba will now heretofore be referred to as Johnny.

Let me tell you about how my opinions of Johnny have changed. I love Johnny so much that I want to hug it just about every day. That little robot gets such a workout cleaning our house that not a minute goes by in my house that I'm not using or planning the next Johnny session. It's amazing. Really. Once you get it dialed in and working effectively in the house, it really will reduce your vacuuming headaches and needs by a large percentage. I think conservatively it's reduced mine by 95%. Given that we have two young kids, are about to go down to a single income stream and the endless frustration at a messy and unkept house, I really think Johnny is the best invention for moms anywhere. Not to mention the pet hair. Oh the pet hair! It's friggin everywhere in our house.

But the dialing in process takes time, and even after you have it down pat, there are still surprises and disappointments along the way. In the first month I highly recommend only using Johnny when you are near and can make sure it doesn't get stuck. You really have to commit to using Johnny every day to make it worthwhile.

Let me just talk about a few things that Johnny can NOT do effectively. During my old vacuuming days I would vacuum the dog beds and couches on occasion to remove some of the lint (in addition to lint brushes and such). Johnny will sadly never be able to do it. I had to laugh at myself as I set Johnny down on Lucy's bed in the hopes that it would run, trying to trick it with my fingers to let it know it was a hard surface. No such luck. And Johnny is not great in a dining room with lots of chairs. Also anywhere that there is a surface that is 4 or so inches high (Johnny's height) as Johnny repeatedly gets stuck under these places. Our TV stand, our ottoman, the dresser in our bedroom and a few other places fall into this category. You also have to remove a lot of throw rugs and any other loose items (i.e. toys) or Johnny might get stuck trying to suck them into his vortex.

And I find that Johnny is most effective when put in relatively small spaces to work it's magic. You definitely cannot set it to go throughout the whole house because it will only barely clean certain areas. But given the chance to bang around back-and-forth in a small space and it will get clean. Surprisingly clean. And the more obstacles you can move out of his way (especially chair legs) the better your house will look.

Johnny has his merits, though, and I have to say that his ability to get under spaces that are 5 inches and higher is wonderful. He vacuums under our bed. And under dressers. And the piano bench. And the crib. And the lounge chair. And so many other places that never see a broom or vacuum unless you move furniture. Love it, Johnny! As a result of that, you need to run Johnny like mad at first because his battery life is relatively small when working in spaces that require deep cleaning. I ran Johnny every day in our bedroom for about 7 days straight and only on that seventh day did I notice that he was finally getting ahead of the game and had removed most of the deep dirt in those never-vacuumed spots. Johnny runs for about 45 minutes at a time and it takes him that long to do one big space (our room and bathroom, the kitchen, both kids rooms, etc). Conservatively I would say I run Johnny twice a day. Most days I run Johnny and then anxiously stare at the battery censor to see when he's back at full speed and I set him going again. My life is now very in synch with Johnny's.

As a sidenote, both of our pets hate Johnny and scurry from his presence. The other two creatures of the house, Delaney and Garrett, LOVE to watch the little slideshow of Johnny moving through the house. In that first week it's pretty classic entertainment for kids.

And Johnny is best at hardwood floors. He cleans carpets well enough, but unfortunately with our carpets (relatively high pile) a more powerful vacuum does a more complete job. Also worth noting is that you have to empty the Johnny canister after every session.

I do feel a bit like a Johnny commercial when I come into my bedroom and see vacuum tracks and a clean floor (done without any human labor) and plop with great satisfaction onto my bed and say "thank you Johnny". One day the floor looked so good that Kevin said "did you finally cave and vacuum our room?" and I pleasantly replied, "no, our little robot did all the work." I have had many "commercial moments" when talking and thinking about Johnny.

I also think that those with two floors would find it hard to manage Johnny in all areas because of the lugging. And it would have to work a lot to clean a large square footage of house. But for one floor or a small house like ours, it is completely and totally the bomb. Thank you inventors, for finding a product that truly is a help to the endless battle of house cleanliness. If you are reading this and don't have a Johnny, please consider putting it on your next gift list. Or just go by one yourself tomorrow. I think Target sells them now. I assume you're going there at least once this week, right? You will soon find yourself in a friggin' vacuum commercial rolling around your floors positively giddy that you did not have to do ANY labor to make it that clean. Johnny is a mom's must have.

So, yeah, that big hairy two-headed green slimy oozy monster of life that tries to beat me down on a daily basis with too much freaking cleaning... you can SUCK IT.

Product review, Cooshee booster seat

I thought it might be useful to some (especially those with young kids or at least younger than ours) if I posted reviews of the products that I have found particularly useful.

Delaney stopped using her high chair around 10 months old. It seemed that she was happier feeling like she was more involved in the table dynamics and frankly, we hated cleaning that darn high chair.

So we moved up to a booster seat, one I purchased during a trip to Target. It was plastic and not quite tall enough for Delaney to sit at the table so we had to prop it up with a few towels underneath. The towels served a double function as we also didn't want the plastic chair scratching our wood chair. I could not stand this particular booster as it was impossible to clean and had a bunch of other flaws. A friend of mine suggested a seat called the Cooshee and I checked it out.



I had to make a special trip to Babys R Us to purchase it because they don't sell this chair in any of our local Targets. There are a few great things about this chair.

The first is that it's a "foam" like material that doesn't scratch our chair. Not only does it not scratch the chair, it naturally grips onto a wood chair and thus we have to worry less about safety and strapping the plastic to the wood chair. Delaney has wanted to climb up onto her chair by herself for some time and this gave us a little peace of mind that the high chair part wasn't going to slip while she was entering or exiting. That being said you would only be able to use this chair once your child is not at risk for falling onto the floor. I'm guessing at least a year old would be the minimum but probably more like a year and a half. Even when your child can sit up by themselves they still risk toppling over when they bend over to look at that interesting bit of food they just spilled on the floor.

The second is that it's so easy to clean. There are no little creases and crevices for food to get lodged. Just an easy swipe and it's clean.

The third is that it's really portable. Often times we go have dinner at our neighbors house and we just lift up the seat and off we go. No undoing and redoing straps.

I highly recommend purchasing this booster if you have wood chairs. It is completely worth the money.