I’d been looking for new bath toys for my son and had a hard time finding things that I liked. I was about to buy some big fizzing balls as a last resort when I spotted this Elmo bottle of tablets that color the bath water. I bought it to try it out.

I like the results.

Color The Water

There are 100 tablets in the container, that’s enough for 100 baths, which works for me. I like things that last. You can combine colors to make new colors (yellow+blue=green water) which can be turned into a lesson about how colors work together. You can also talk about how things dissolve as you watch the little tablet slowly dissolve into the bath, puffs of pink smoke-like color slowly penetrating the water.

I’ve added a photo of what the water looks like once the tablet dissolves. I have to admit that I used yellow the first day and waited to take a new photo because of what the yellow water looked like. I wanted to spare you those thoughts. Here’s the red (looks pinkish) with some added bubble bath.

Definitely makes the bath a little more fun.

I bought these at Babies R Us.

The other night as we were putting up our Christmas tree I remembered a post I wrote a couple of years ago about our tree stand. It’s be the ever. Truly. I’m reposting the review here to share the joy with you…

The other night as we were putting up our Christmas tree I was reminded of the best 50 bucks we’ve spent in years (now, it’s down to $39.99) — on the Swivle Straight Christmas Tree Stand. Truly a life (um, marriage) saver when it comes to putting up your tree. Here’s how it works – There’s an oval piece of the base that is not attached — you screw that onto the bottom of the tree trunk, then you put the tree (with the oval piece) into the base on the floor. At this point it may be crooked. Don’t fret. Now, just hold the top of your tree with one hand, put your foot on the pedal located on the base of the unit and rotate/tilt/move the tree to the desired position. Let go of the pedal. Viola! You’ve got one straight tree — without all the swearing!

Since we purchased this stand several years ago we have never had a crooked tree — or an argument. People, if you want to make this Christmas easier go out and buy this tree stand. I’m pretty sure you can get it at most large Target-like stores.

Love that headline today. Who doesn’t need some time-saving items every morning? Today, as I was racing around trying to figure out what to wear, put my make up on, fix my son’s lunch to take to school, find his Crocs because it’s “water day” at school, and just doing all my other morning stuff — all while also trying to finlize our travel plans for a long weekend, I caught a glimpse of a segment on “Good Morning America” about products that save time.

In order to save time myself, I should have just kept going, but I stopped for a moment to see what the advice was … a few good things:

Downey Wrinkle Releaser — I already know about this product so it’s worth sharing with the world. This stuff actually works. If you pull out clothes from the dryer and they are wrinkled, spray some of this on it, give a tug and let dry. I find it works best when used at night so it can dry overnight, but it would work if you do it before you get ready too.

Remington Wet 2 Straight Flat Iron – OMG! No description needed. I must buy this.

Pop-up toaster — they say they cook toast faster than a toaster oven. Who knew?

See the whole list at ABCNews.com

OK, so this post doesn’t really have much to do with motherhood, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway. My new best friend is the SanDisk MobileMate SD+ USB memory card reader. I love this thing. It’s making my life so much easier.

It’s works like your traditional memory card reader, except it fits in your purse or your pocket and doesn’t have a cable. I can take this baby anywhere and plug it in — in a second. No more long, tangled cables to hook up to my camera and computer. No more bulky memory card reader taking up space on my desk.

The reader has the micro and mini SDHC memory card slots so you have two options based on your camera equipment. Certainly a way to make a moms life easier: small size, bit rewards. Just don’t tell my husband — I stole it from him!

I absolutely love, love, love this wonderfully illustrated children’s book: “I Love You Through and Through,” by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak.

It’s charming, cute and best of all my son loves it. The illustrations are just like the book cover, large, whimsical, colorful. Each page talks about something you love about your child,

“I love your happy side,

your sad side,

your silly side,

your mad side (which, admittedly, is sometimes hard to read!)

I love your fingers

and toes,

your ears

and nose.”

It goes on, each page with something else we love.

It’s the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day. Go out and buy it today so you can read it to your son or daughter on Feb. 14. You’ll both love it, through and through.

Related:
Product information about “I Love You Through and Through” from Amazon.com.