Mom’s Toy Reviews

Moon in my Room is the coolest nightlight on the planet. It’s a great-sized plastic moon that you hang on the wall. It’s remote control lets you change the phases of the moon from new moon to full moon, with a total of 12 different phases. Additionally, it’s packed with other cool features such as an audio CD that talks about the moon, a calendar, phase charts, etc etc.

My kids have been fascinated with this toy. Even before taking it out of the box, I could see the excitement on their faces. It’s very realistic, and a great way to get a “close up” view of something that seems to always fascinate children.

Some of Uncle Milton’s toys are a bit flimsy in nature, but this one met my expectations (at least, given today’s average!) and has lasted quite awhile. In fact, I think we ran through the batteries twice already, even given the fact that it turns itself off after awhile to preserve the batter life.

Approximate Retail: $29.97
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The newest attraction on my kitchen counter is a small plastic “aquarium”, which doesn’t house fish, but instead is home to 3 small Aquasaurs. That’s the “toy name” for a critter called a Triops, which apparently dates all the way back to the dinosaur era. They are related to crabs, according to the instruction sheet.

The Aquasaurs are another Christmas present, this time for my 5-year-old son. The nice thing about this toy is that, unlike other creature toy habitats, this one actually comes with the animals. Aquasaurs lay eggs in temporary pools of water, and when they dry up, the eggs can lie dormant for up to 20 years. So you just drop them back in a new puddle (or plastic tub filled with spring water, in our case!) and out they come. Kinda like those old capsules that dissolved in water and produced a foam outline of an animal, except the Aquasaurs are real.

So last Saturday we set everything up. I went to the grocery store and picked up two gallons of spring water, since you can’t use tap water without risking Aquasauricide. Rinsed everything out, filled the aquarium, dumped in 1/2 of the Aquasaur eggs, and waited.

36 hours later we were able to find two VERY small Aquasaurs swimming around. We’ve been checking them each day, until yesterday when it was finally time to start feeding them. I crushed up two food pellets and let my son dump them into the water. We watched for awhile, which is more fun now that the Aquasaurs are bigger and easier to see. We finally discovered that we have 3 of them, not just 2! One is about 20% bigger than the other two…maybe he’s the Alpha Aquasaur.

Tonight I get to go home and change out the water. What fun… but it’s better than cleaning a kitty litter box, and it sounds pretty easy, because we only have to empty 1/2 the water and replace it with fresh water. Hopefully I can keep all 3 of the little guys safe, and not accidentally wash them down the garbage disposal.

Approximate Retail: $19.95
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