Ahhh, Valentine’s Day. Looking for a little heart-shaped token of your love for the little ones in your life? Roses? Please. Candy? Come on. Perfume? Well…maybe.

Demeter Fragrance Library may have the perfect scent for your six year old. You know the iconic Necco Sweethearts candy? I honestly don’t recall what they smell like, but the folk at Demeter have bottled it. Jelly Bellies? Bottled in no less than six delicious variations. And should Junior decide he’d rather not smell like ‘Fruit Salad’ consider the macho musk of ‘Play-Doh.’ There’s also ‘Dandelion,’ ‘Dirt,’ and ‘Earthworm,’ (seriously) but I figure you can always just send him out into the backyard for an hour and he’ll smell like that anyway.

With great design befitting a general store, it’s clear this little shop has aspirations of major expansion but for the time being you’ll find it’s their artisinal bath and beauty section that’s most well stocked. Portland General’s goodies are packed in amber glass jars and vials with names that are completely charming and in many cases downright edible sounding - consider Grandma’s Lemon Meringue Bath Whip or her Sweet Potato Pie Body Creme. Of course there’s also Big Aunt Ida’s Mud Scrub created from ground coffee (pick from dark, medium or light roast), Man in the Mountain Shaving Jelly and Grandpa’s Black Fly Butter. The kiddo friendly products include Bare Bottom Baby Creme packaged in a glass honey bear jar and Fjosnissen’s Snow Butter - a chemical-free, all natural, unscented, vegan butter that has been whipped to light and creamy perfection. All of the products are made from scratch by Lisa Brodar, shop owner and nursing student who is passionate about helping others live “healthful” lives and using her nursing knowledge in researching the ingredients that she uses in her body care products. Can’t decide what to select? Order the sampler packaged in a vintage cigar box.

Quantifiable information: kids soak it up like a sponge. My four-year-old nephew recently memorized all of the US presidents off of a placemat, a placemat! Knowing this floors his memory-challenged uncle and makes me think that for his next birthday I need to seriously consider one of the inventive new shower curtains from Simple Memory Art. The folks over at SMart have taken those basic diagrams we all remember from our grade school text books, enlarged them and carefully silk-screened them onto environmentally friendly EVA vinyl shower curtains. Select from dinosaurs, metamorphosis, the solar system, weather and the periodic table. Daily exposure to these bright graphics is bound to make some of their pertinent information soak in!

Thanks to our pal mod*mom for introducing us to the smarty-pants line of goods over at Simple Memory Art. For those of you not familiar with mod*mom’s site, it’s another one of the few bastions of good kiddy style on the web worthy of repeat visits and a browser bookmark. And as an incentive to head on over I’m sponsoring a ‘Secret Prize Giveaway!’ through my shop Mahar Drygoods. At MDG we’re always collaborating with artists and designers to develop new products and we’ve got an especially swell one we’re preparing to roll out later this week. To be the first house on the block to add this goody to your play room, visit mod*mom for the giveaway details. You only have until this Thursday, May 17 to enter - so get moving!

What do you get when you combine a mother/mechanical engineer and a baby who requires an entire pit crew to hold him down when changing his diapers?. Ubi, Sue Wong’s modern take on that nursery standard, the changing table.

I had this product demonstrated for me at a trade show over the weekend and it had me laughing out loud - not so much because it was being demonstrated on one of those eerily life-like anatomically correct infant baby dolls but because of its pure ingenuity! Your Ubi sits on the floor and can be oriented so that the feet are facing you or positioned to the side, the spring-loaded secret compartment underneath the wipe clean upholstered surface holds any brand and any size diaper from newborn to size 5, fastener strips on the table top hold the diaper open allowing you to simply lay Junior down, remove the offending diaper and pull a new one up between his legs. You can see the step-by-step instructional at the bottom of this post.

The Ubi is great looking as just an object and the selection of fabrics are quite nice. The company is brand spanking new and currently accepting pre-orders with delivery dates in July. The deluxe table described above is $119., and there is also a basic table that doesn’t include the ‘pop up’ diaper feature for $89.

And I should mention that each table comes with a safety belt even through its not pictured. The added benefit of changing the kiddo so close to the ground is that should he managed to roll himself off of the Ubi he only has a fall of a few inches versus a few feet with a traditional changing table.

At a certain point in your kid’s life they’re bound to develop an inexplicable aversion to good personal hygiene. Six-year-old boys - notorious. And like most parents you’ll consider bribery, begging and blackmail. Recently several products have made a valiant effort to coerce kids into cleanliness with notable gimmicks.

Consider Listerine’s Agent Cool Blue, a pre-brush rinse that turns the plaque in your mouth bright blue. Junior marvels at the foreign color in his mouth and then brushes until it disappears. And if that’s not motivation enough, it’s reinforced with a flashy interactive website and a cast of cartoon characters.

A personal favorite is Squid Soap hand soap. While pushing down on the dispenser an ink mark is stamped onto the palm of the hand requiring 20-30 seconds of scrubbing to get it off. Brilliant.

It’s also easier than remembering to sing Happy Birthday which is how we were told to gauge the appropriate length of washing time. Smart concept, comes with a rubbery squid toy which can removed for tub play or to reveal the lovely shaped bottle worthy of the adult bathroom.

And because I’m a sucker for this kind of thing I have to point out the clever hand/squid logo.

And then, god help us, there’s Tooth Tunes by Hasbro which, according to their website, streams sound waves through the bristles which then travel through the jawbone to the inner ear where the music is heard. Each brush has a chip embedded in the handle that plays two minutes of Hilary Duff, Queen, KISS or Kelly Clarkson among others. This leaves me completely conflicted. I mean, cool technology right? But do you really want High School Musical broadcast through your kid’s head?

UPDATE! It’s been brought to my attention by one of our members (thanks Carina!) that Agent Cool Blue was voluntarily recalled on April 11, 2007. Egad! Read the statement from Listerine. There are not allot of details cited but but what they are saying is that “the risk of illness in healthy individuals following use of this product is very low. However, there could be a significant health risk to individuals with weakened or suppressed immune systems.” So please be mindful and remove it from your bathrooms.