When BigBrother first moved to his toddler bed, we had a night light plugged into the outlet near his bedside. This was fine for awhile. Until he thought, “Oooh, shiny,” and started pulling it out of the wall. Not great. Not only would it then require us to put it back in as he couldn’t quite get it himself but it really wasn’t safe. So, for a very long time, we went without a night light. This wasn’t a great solution either, especially when he finally night trained and occasionally had to get up and use the bathroom in the middle of the dark, dark night.

Then the Parent Bloggers Network asked me if I wanted to review a new kind of night light. They said it was a portable night light and I was imagining the batteries I was going to throw at the thing. I was happily surprised when the SYLVANIA PalPODzzz rocket ship night light arrived and didn’t require me  to put batteries in it for it to work. That’s right, it’s a rechargeable flashlight. Sound the alarms!

Of course, it does plug in. But the night light itself sits on the floor or the night stand and a cord plugs into the wall. A lengthy cord, at that, so it reaches quite far! (I hate short cords.) Since the “ooh, shiny” light isn’t actually shining on the outlet, the fact that it is plugged in is no longer a safety hazard in our house. But that’s not the only benefit of this snazzy little night light.

As you can see from my picture, it lights up itself when the room is dark enough. (So pardon the poor picture quality but I just had to grab a shot of what it looks like in a semi-dark room.) But, even better, when you pull the rocket ship out of the “pod” itself, it has an easy locatable, easy pressable button that, when pressed, emits a super bright LED-type light. BigBrother could perform a surgery at night on the way to the bathroom. Hopefully not on his brother…

It’s perfect for little hands. Not only can BigBrother properly remove it from the pod, press the button and place it back in the pod, but so can LittleBrother. (They are 3 years, 4 months and 16 months. Almost.) LittleBrother loves visiting BigBrother’s room and playing with the PalPODzzz. I figure we’ll need to get another rocket ship by the time LittleBrother moves to his toddler bed (which will be all too soon for my liking).

You can read more reviews of the SYLVANIA PalPODzzz night lights (there’s a lady bug, too) over at the Parent Bloggers Network launch post. This particular night light gets our seal of approval. Buy with confidence!

FireDad and I have been talking about getting a dog. By talking about I mean he’s been jumping around like a kid on Christmas morning and I’ve been listing off all of the reasons that we cannot do it at this point in time. You know, the opposite of how our conversations on big purchases usually go. Good times. So when Parent Bloggers aked if I wanted to review Littlest Pet Shop, I said yes. Because it’s the closest thing we’re getting to a pet this year. I swear.

I gave the game a go by myself first to see if it was easy for adults to understand so they can help their kids. (Which, I know, it’s rare that kids need our help with anything video game but, still, I gave it a go.) I had no problems. It’s a pretty straight forward. Take care of pets. Feed and dress them. I didn’t have problem with menu choices (like the last game I tried). While the game itself was rather girly and I am not really girly, it didn’t annoy me.

Then I brought my three year old out to let him “help” me play. He didn’t press any buttons or do much of anything except talk, point, pretend to be a dog and generally have a blast. I had fun watching him laugh. Then his cousin, a Littlest Pet Shop aficionado, gave it a go. (She’s nine.) I couldn’t get her to leave my house. She was telling me all about the animals as she played the game and basically didn’t stop talking. (She’s a talker!)

When I asked my three year old what he thought of it, he said that it was “funny to watch the puppy.” When I asked my six year old cousin what she thought of the game, she said that it was fun to play with the Littlest Pet Shop animals on a screen and see what they’d do if they were “real.” Obviously, she knew that they weren’t real-real but it meant that it was fun to see them move. For the rest of the evening, my three year old son and six year old cousin played with the animals on the couch, talking up a storm. (He doesn’t stop talking either.)

I found this to be a good, wholesome game with multi-age and gender appeal. It’s one that I’ll be keeping in the house for various visitors. (And I might break it out myself as well!)

Go read more of what they’re saying about Littlest Pet Shop for Wii & DS!