Review - Ty Beanie Baby Dora the Explorer

Bought this for our daughter for Christmas and she loves it!

Dora is nice and soft, the colors are bright, stitching seems to be good, and I love that the backpack is attached so it doesn't get lost.

Great size for our little toddler (it's about 7" tall, so it's easy for her to hold and put in her Dora backpack).

Would definitely buy again!

Click below to purchase at Amazon:

Ty Beanie Baby Dora the Explorer

Update: June 2014
We've now had this doll for 1.5 years and our daughter still loves her! Dora has held up really well so far to lots of play time. :)

Review - ELC Lift Off Rocket Toy

Bought this as a Christmas present for our 4-year-old, space-loving boy. He loves it!!! The size is perfect for him. The characters are cute and well-made. He plays with it all the time. :) Would definitely buy again!

Click below to buy it at Amazon:
ELC Lift Off Rocket

Update: May 2014
We still have this toy and love it! Our son still plays with it every so often, but our 3-year-old daughter steals it quite a bit. :) The only problem is that the bottom "ramp" falls of constantly. It's easy to snap back on, but wish it didn't fall off all the time.

Review - iHome iH9 Alarm Clock Speaker System with Dock for iPod (Black)

I purchased this handy little iPod system as a Christmas present for my husband. Good news: it fits our iPod perfectly! The sound is nice and clear, remote works well, and he loves being able to see the time from across the room. It charges the iPod without any problems, and we both love the DST switch that makes it super easy to switch over to daylight savings time.

The dimmer on the sharp LCD screen is awesome! We use it as a little nightlight for me and love being able to customize it. The AM/FM radio works ok. Not fantastic, but it works. The buttons on top are fairly intuitive. Enough so that I was able to figure them out without reading the whole manual like my husband does!

Click to buy it on Amazon:
iHome iH9 Alarm Clock Speaker System with Dock for iPod (Black)

Update October 2012:
We've moved this to my nightstand, where I keep our old iPod shuffle set to our "rain sounds" music. I keep it on repeat and love walking into our bedroom; it sounds so peaceful! Makes for a great white-noise maker for me. :)

Update December 2013:
We've now had this for 5 years and gotten a ton of use out of it. Unfortunately, it now has a fairly loud vibrating/humming noise every time we turn on the iPod. Very frustrating! The screen is still crystal clear so I use it as a clock/nightlight. A very large and bulky clock. Wish it would have lasted longer. Not sure if we'll buy another iHome product.