I understand the appeal of the Disney Princesses, I really do.  What little girl (and, truth be told, her mother) wouldn’t love to be beautiful and adored and have a life story that ends with “happily ever after”?  It’s no wonder the majority of the pre-K set loves to put on those princess dresses and twirl around, waving their magic wands…until they accidentally swat their younger brother in the face and we have to take the wand away.

Not that such a thing has ever happened around here.

CJ loves dolls.  More specifically, she loves any doll that has hair that can be combed.  Actually, she’ll happily whack away at a stuffed animal with her hairbrush, but dolls with nice long hair…those are her favorites.

She doesn’t cut their hair, thankfully.  But she does like to spray conditioner on it and then comb and comb, and comb some more.  I wish she’d comb her own hair so willingly.

And while she does adore the Disney Princesses, she’s not exactly the girliest girl out there.  So when I was offered a Disney Princess doll for her to comb enjoy, it was no contest.  Mulan is my girl’s kind of princess.

Even though Mulan’s not really a princess.  Just a badass soldier who loves her daddy and oh, by the way, saved China from the Huns.  Not to mention winning over Li Shang, who has got to be the hottest cartoon man ever drawn.

Naturally, CJ loves her new Mulan doll.  She wants to take her everywhere, which means that Mulan has to be strapped into the car seat belt along with CJ.  She’s gone easier on the spray conditioner, which I certainly appreciate, even if Mulan doesn’t know the difference.

I’m impressed by the size of the doll and her elaborate costume.  But what I like best about her is that she’s not so fancy that I feel as if she needs to be put up on a high shelf, where CJ can look but not touch.  Mulan is meant for playing, for pretending, for being a constant companion.

So while Mulan is my girl’s kind of princess, she’s also my kind of doll.

Find Mulan and the other Disney Princess & Friends dolls at Disney.com for $16.95 (or 2 for $25!)

There’s a lot of green stuff I don’t do.  At the risk of inciting outrage, I’ll make a few confessions: I don’t recycle, I don’t compost, and I absolutely adore Viva paper towels.  If Viva ever needs a spokesblogger, I’m their woman.

However, I’ll also toot my own horn on a few points of greenery: I drive a hybrid, I’m replacing burned out incandescent bulbs with CFLs, and I absolutely adore my Flip & Tumble reusable bags.

The lovely people at Stubby Pencil Studio sent me a set of four Flip & Tumble Loopt bags last Christmas - not for review, just as a gift - and I’m never without them.

That’s the first thing that I love about these bags; they roll up and secure with elastic, and they fit perfectly at the bottom of my handbag.  Unlike my big canvas totes, I don’t even have to think about bringing them to the grocery store with me.  They are simply always there.  When I unpack the groceries, I roll up the bags and pop them back in my handbag.

Yes, I suppose I could take my big canvas totes back out to the car after I’ve unpacked them, but that’s not always convenient.  Plus, for apartment-dwellers, it’s definitely not convenient to take the bags directly back out to the car.  Flip & Tumble eliminates that problem entirely.

I also love these bags because they’re so roomy and strong and lightweight.  They’re made from polyester, and I’m amazed by how much they’ll hold.  They’re also easily laundered in the event that one of your grocery items springs a leak or gets squashed.

Finally, I have to admit that I love the colors of these bags.  Sure, a store-brand reusable bag is functional and cheap, but it’s nowhere near as cute.  Think I’m being frivolous?  Fine.  But I’ll bet my bags are cuter than yours.

And since Stubby Pencil Studio is all about eco-friendly products, I suppose I can add my love for their store to the list of ways in which I’m actually pretty green after all.

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I may love my paper towels, but it helps that I prefer to use them with cleaners like Nature’s Source.  Want more ideas for living naturally?  Check out the posts at this week’s PBN Blog Blast!

Hi.  My name is Julie, and I’m addicted to cleaning.

Is that bad?  Do I need an intervention?

My ten year old self would be astounded at my thirty-seven year old self.  Not only do I have three kids and a husband, but I can’t stand messes.  My ten year old self was a champion messmaker with absolutely no attention to detail when forced to clean up those messes.

Who cares about crumbs?  There are books to read and bikes to ride!

I’m also getting to be quite picky about the cleaners I use, which is something that would astound even my thirty year old self.  No more Comet powder or Windex with ammonia or Clorox bleach.  I don’t care what the commercials say; that stuff is bad for you.  Bad to breathe, bad for your home, and bad for your nails.  Also, extremely bad if your kids get a hold of it.

So while I may be addicted to cleaning, I’m moving away from the hard stuff to a kinder, gentler clean that’s still just as clean.

The laundry liquid and pure oxygen whitener from Ecostore USA are great examples of that kinder, gentler clean.  The laundry liquid is made from plant-based ingredients like palm and coconut surfactants (the ingredients in detergent that allow water to clean away oil and dirt), plus eucalyptus oil which smells absolutely heavenly.  The oxygen whitener includes mineral salts, sodium percarbonate, and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

I like that both of these products include ingredients that I understand, even without a degree in Chemical Engineering.  I love the eucalyptus scent that wafts out of my laundry room too.  There’s some debate online regarding the advantages of oleochemicals (the surfactants used in this laundry liquid) versus petrochemicals (the surfactants used in most laundry detergents), but as with most debates, there’s evidence on both sides.  Is my laundry cleaner?  Honestly, I don’t know.  I can’t say that I’ve noticed a difference either way, and since none of us have sensitive skin, I can’t make a judgment on that basis.

As with any household cleaning products, these should obviously be kept out of kids’ reach.  But on the flip side, I can be reassured that if my kids get a hold of Ecostore USA products, there really aren’t any nasty chemicals in there.

In fact, No Nasty Chemicals is their tagline.  While I can’t pronounce all the ingredients in each of their products, I have to commend them for listing the ingredients in full - something rarely seen on other household cleaning products.

Finally, their products are definitely pricey - $11 for one liter of laundry liquid - but they’re also concentrated so that a little goes a long way.  Personally, I’m impressed by how many loads of laundry I’ve been able to do in the last month, and both the laundry liquid and whitener are only about half gone.

Buy Ecostore USA products on their site!

It’s been a year or so since Tacy finally started sleeping with the lights off.  For a long time, she needed the overhead light.  Then a plugged-in Hello Kitty night light would suffice.  Now we turn off all the lights, but the door still has to remain open.

Meanwhile, CJ is still in the stage where she needs the light on.  Fortunately in her case, it’s just the bedside lamp that needs to remain on all night long.  Still, just a nightlight doesn’t cut it.  Not even the super cool PalPODzzz from SYLVANIA.

Don’t get me wrong; she adores her ladybug - which functions as both a nightlight and a rechargeable flashlight - and the little green leaf upon which the ladybug rests while she’s charging her batteries.  It’s the cutest darned nightlight I’ve ever seen, also available in a rocker ship design, and I hope SYLVANIA will come out with a few more models.  I’d gladly buy one for each child.

Why do I love this nightlight?  A few key reasons:

1. It plugs into the wall, just like a regular nightlight, but the “pod” rests on a surface like a night table or dresser.  One aspect of traditional nightlights that I don’t like is that kids can yank them out of the socket, leaving a vacant outlet that’s just waiting for a baby to jam an errant hair clip in there.  With the PalPODzzz, just plug it into an outlet that’s covered by a piece of furniture.  Potential problem successfully avoided.

2. It includes a rechargeable flashlight.  If you’re a parent of children older than three, there’s really no further explanation required.  But I’ll happily indulge those who haven’t yet groped for their emergency flashlight during a thunderstorm only to discover that it’s been relocated to a child’s bedroom, where it was left on all night and the batteries are completely drained.  Oh, and of course, there are no replacement batteries anywhere in the house.

Bottom line: A flashlight that doesn’t take batteries and is specifically intended for the kids = TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME.

3. It’s cute whether it’s plugged in or not, whether it’s night time or not.  So much kiddie decor is just awful.  Even that damn Hello Kitty nightlight Tacy used went against my “no licensed characters” rule, but in the interest of sleep preservation, I did what I had to do.  The PalPODzzz nightlights are decor-neutral and haven’t been infiltrated by Dora or SpongeBob.  God knows I get enough of them on TV; I do not need them in my kids’ rooms.

What don’t I like?  That CJ can drop the ladybug flashlight behind her bed so that I have to lift her entire mattress off the platform in order to retrieve it.  But I suppose that’s actually a good thing; it reminds me that I need to change her sheets.  Plus, she could do the same with any other flashlight (and has).

Of course I wish that PalPODzzz had been the magical solution to the energy drain of CJ’s bedside lamp, but really, that’s too much to expect from a cute little ladybug.

But knowing that my emergency flashlight can rest easy in its kitchen drawer?  That’s more than enough for me.

Find out more about SYLVANIA PalPODzzz from the other PBN bloggers who checked out these nightlight/flashlight combos!  Or if I’ve already convinced you that you must have one, find them on Amazon!

I’m always on the lookout for new options in kids’ clothing.  I love my old standbys where I know I can get a great pair of jammies or a comfy tee, but it’s so much fun to make discoveries and bookmark them to check occasionally.

One of my new bookmarks is 77 Kids, the kids’ clothing offshoot of American Eagle Outfitters.  I’ve always liked AE for their truly casual clothes.  It’s their niche, and they don’t stray from it, even in their dresses and button-down shirts.  Plus, their clothes are comfortable and affordably priced.  Really, you can’t beat that.

So I was excited to check out 77 Kids.  They don’t carry baby clothes - their sizes start at 2 and go up to a kids’ 12 - which meant that I’d get to pick out a couple items for Tacy and CJ.

Tacy has reached the jeans-and-a-tee-shirt stage, which makes her easy to buy for, if a little frustrating to a mother like me who looks wistfully at coordinated pieces and knows that they’ll just end up as part of separate outfits.  I limited my window-shopping to the girls’ tee section, since I knew that’s what would make her happiest, and I ended up going with the pink dip-dye tee.

CJ, on the other hand, loves dresses.  That’s not to say that she behaves like a little lady when she’s wearing one, but she usually prefers them over pants.  I found a solid color smocked style in soft cotton that I knew she’d love.  It’s billed as a sundress, but it looked like it could be paired with a cardigan for those 50-degree days we often see in the winter.  I picked out the gladiola pink sundress since it was a color that could go from winter to summer.

The ordering process was smooth, delivery was quick, and the girls fell all over themselves when I told them it was a package for both of them.  Tacy wanted to put on the tee immediately, but both she and CJ grudgingly agreed to wait until the next day to wear their new clothes.

Both the tee and the dress are super-soft.  The dress feels like it’s a heavier weight cotton than the tee, which is a little thin.  If I were to order the tee again, I’d go up a size.  If you’ve got a skinny kiddo, go with their usual size.  But for kids who are average or tall, a larger size will give you more wear - and it won’t look like you bought a size up.  I’d advise this strategy especially for kids in the younger grades, who are liable to shoot up three inches in one year.

One suggestion I’d make to 77 Kids - have actual kids modeling the clothes on the site.  That would really help me determine whether a particular style would work for us and if we ought to size up or down.

The dress fits CJ perfectly and will definitely take her through the summer and into next fall, even though I only got her a size four.  It’s not so short that she’ll outgrow it, and there’s plenty of give in the material.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could still wear it next summer, maybe with a pair of leggings underneath.

Neither item I bought was on sale, and yet the prices were still reasonable, even for kids’ clothes which tend to be a racket considering how briefly they’re worn.  If they’re both still wearing these items next fall, I’ll count this as a good deal.

I’d definitely recommend 77 Kids.  As the kids’ corollary to AE, you can expect comfy casual clothes at decent prices.  Which is really what most of us moms are after anyway.

*Thanks to 77 Kids for sending me a $50 gift card to try out their clothes and evaluate their ordering process