AquaDoodle & Bath Blizzard

Meghan Says:

I don’t get kid’s toys.  I mean, some of them are awesome and I find myself playing with them regularly.  And others?  I think they’re totally lame, but my kids LOVE them.  And then there are the ones that I think are totally awesome and the boys don’t give them a second glance.  But we’re talking about the second grouping today.

Take, for instance, AquaDoodle.  You draw with WATER.  What could be more boring?  (Using completely invisible ink, I suppose.)  But Dylan thinks it’s the greatest thing ever.  Coming from a mostly completely non-artistic family, my kids are definitely destined to be art challenged.  And because drawing was never really something I was into as a kid, it’s not something that I regularly think about setting up for my kids. But with AquaDoodle, all we have to do is pull out the mat, fill up the pen with water and VOILA, time to create some art!  Dylan sits at the kitchen table and draws all sorts of unidentifiable masterpieces.

And then gets totally pissed when they dry and fade away.  But, he can just start over which is nice.  AND, it’s environmentally friendly because I’m not tossing away sheet after sheet of scribbled on paper.  PLUS, there’s no mess, which makes my life that much easier.  And even if there IS a mess, it’s just some spilled water, so cleaning it up really just helps me wipe up the kitchen table or floor.  (BONUS!  It helps me CLEAN!)

AquaDoodle gets a Rating: from Dylan.

The Kid Kleen Bath Blizzard is another item that would get way higher reviews from Dylan than it would from me.  We’ve had it a week now and he’s insisted on taking a bath EVERY NIGHT just so we can turn the damn thing on.  AND, it took ME so freakin’ long to figure out how to get it to work correctly that he’s barely been able to fully enjoy it.

But, again, he LOVES it.

What IS the Bath Blizzard, you ask?  It’s this little machine that you fill with water and bubbles, hang over your bath faucet and turn on.  It has a little blower that forces bubbles to cascade out and into the tub.  He loves to watch the bubbles appear and trail into the water, and he thinks that catching the bubbles as they fall out is fun.

It doesn’t produce nearly enough bubbles to fill the tub or even cover the top of the water, but this hasn’t caused any issues for Dylan.  The creation of the bubbles is enough to make him happy, so he hasn’t cared that there aren’t “bubbles everywhere” like there normally are when he takes a bubble bath.

A few tips/tricks, some of which are included in the instruction sheet:

• Use the machine’s cap to measure the bubble solution, not the bubble bottle cap.
• Make sure the mesh covering is completely wet, that the cap is loosened, and that the bubbles & water are fully mixed up inside the machine.
• Add regular bubbles to the bath as you fill it up (if your kid likes a bath FILLED with bubbles).
• This might be obvious to most people (not me, though!), but make sure you don’t have the faucet on when you’ve got the machine running.  Total buzz bubble kill.  DUH.

I’m curious to see how it works with other bubble solutions.  I have NO idea how different bubble solutions might change the bubble production outcome, but I’m hopeful that it will increase.

I would definitely say it’s a fun product, and if you have a kid who loves bubbles, but doesn’t love the bathtub, this might be just the trick to get them in the water AND actually enjoy it.  It retails for $19.99 which is pretty reasonable, especially if you need a bribe to get your kid to take a bath without throwing a fit.  It’s definitely worth a shot.

I’m going to give this one a Rating:   It’s a GREAT idea, but doesn’t quite live up to the expectation.  Especially if you, or your kids, have seen the commercial.  Hopefully when I start switching up the bubble solution I can amend my rating and bump it up a bit.  OR, if I figure out that I’m a complete dufus and am using it incorrectly, I’ll be sure to let you know!

**For some reason, I’m unable to upload photos.  Once I get the problem resolved, I’ll be sure to put up images.  In the meantime, click the links so you know what I’m talking about!**

Tweet This Post

Comments