Growing up in Maine where the state bird is the mosquito I was no stranger to bug spray. Of course the kids of today no longer need to empty a can of Raid on themselves to fight of flying bugs. The youth of today can use more natural and less harmful bug repellants. Now that the weather has brought us flying biting pests LTD sports the BugBand insect repellent wristband. The band (that comes in many colors) uses Geraniol to create a force field around the wearer. What is Geraniol, you ask? Geraniol is a “powerful ingredient extracted from geranium plant oil through a unique refining process, does indeed provide a natural – and extremely effective – insect repellent.” In addition to avoiding any messy spray or eye rubbing incidents the BugBand works for up to 120 hours. I am pleased that the little guy’s legs will remain bite free as I know he would totally scratch and I don’t want him looking like he has the plague by the end of the summer.

What can I say, the boy likes smoothies. Okay, I can say one more thing, he often likes to take the straw out and whip it around or play with it in other un-productive ways. Do you want to know how many smoothie ingredients stain? The answer is a lot. The Sili Squeeze goes a long way to stop blueberry spots from turning up on the ceiling. As the company says, it’s not a bottle as much as it is a way to eat blended things on the go. The Sili is dishwasher safe and BPA and Phthalate free. After the baby stage one can move up a weight class with the Sili Squeeze with Eeeze, which features an easier nipple spout because toddlers don’t suck as hard as babies. One of the reasons I like the Sili is that for awhile LTD hit an applesauce phase, but has since drop it like a bad habit. I use the Sili as a fun applesauce delivery system. Also, it looks like something people will be drinking out of in the future on Star Trek or something.

The Mommy is always using bags for various activities, but truth be told she uses them mostly for knitting and baby stuff. One of the bags in heavy rotation is her Virescent bag. These eco-friendly American made bags are actually part of something pretty cool, they help you with fundraising. No more door to door candy bars or wrapping paper. You basically pick out the type of campaign you want to run and then open a custom web storefront and then you are good to go. You also have the option of putting your foundation or school logo on the bags. Additionally, Virescent will work with you to design a bag from scratch. The bags are created using recycled and 100% organic cotton and they feel solid. Certainly solid enough for The Mommy to hold what seems like a whole sheep’s worth of yarn (so far it has also resisted getting a hole via knitting needle). Now if only they could invent a bag you don’t forget in the car when shopping.

While on a trip to our nation’s capital a buddy of mine saw something awesome and immediately thought of LTD. He was in the airport and spied a realistic Astronaut costume. Aeromax toys make a long line of professional costumes including firefighter and police officer, but the Jr. Astronaut costume is truly out of this world (I couldn’t resist). The suit comes in pretty much all sizes from infant to adult. The realistic outfit comes in orange or white and features patches, buckles, zippers and a cap (which LTD won’t wear). This is one of those things that makes me jealous that the little guy has so much cooler stuff than me. Sadly, since the shuttle program ended all this role playing is pretty much just for fantasy, but maybe it will inspire him to reach for the stars anyway. Not that I want my refrigerator to break but it would be awesome to get a new one and turn the box into a wicked cool rocket ship. Since the little guy is old enough now to really appreciate Halloween the Jr. Astronaut gear came in handy as a back up costume for the numerous spooky activities we attended.

As a rule I don’t love the beach, mainly due to my childhood touching of gross things in the frigid water, sand in the food and kids walking around in nothing but a diaper. However, when October 9th rolls around and it is 80 degrees out, you have to go to the beach. I couldn’t do anything about the gross sea monsters in the freezing water and this time instead of babies wearing nothing but a diaper I couldn’t overt my eyes from the people wearing inappropriate two pieces, but I could do something about the sand. We used the Sand-Off Dry Body Wash mitt to remove the offending particles from our feet and legs before getting in the car. The mitt uses an all-natural powder mix to remove sand without needing any water. The mitt is more effective than a towel because I have never been able to really get the sand out 100% with a towel and the towel is always wicked dirty when it goes back in the car.