The other day the wife and the kid went back to Ikea to get some toy bins. [Turns out they fit perfectly under the kid's Ikea bed, much better than the The Container Store ones. Plus, they're only a buck. I'm so glad I don't have to compete with Ikea for anything.]
And in accordance with Ikea's grand strategy, they came back with something they didn't know they needed: a new night light.
That's not strictly true. We got a really nice, tiny flourescent night light when the kid was born, and it stayed on for almost two-and-a-half years straight. It gave off the perfect faint blue-white light. But when it finally died, I couldn't find it again to replace it. The only night light at the drugstore was really bright, and though we put up with it for a couple of months, it just wasn't working out.
This little ghost though, has some low-power blue LED's inside a squishy rubber bulb head. The kid can turn it on and off herself, and it's so damn cute, we put it on a little shelf next to her bed instead of up on the wall.
But the kicker is that it's detachable. You can unplug it, and it'll hold a charge for up to 6 hours. Plenty long enough to go to sleep with. Now the kid walks around the house, all freaky cute-like, cradling this glowing, disembodied head.
I can't bring myself to tell her that Spoka is an old Indian name that means "Stuck his head out of the papoose."
Spoka ghost night light is blue. The red and green ones are shaped differently. $12.99 [ikea]
Dude. My daughter went crazy over the blue one so we went back for the whole set. The first night we got it she stayed up until 2am playing with it and pretty much breakdancing all night.
Great, another reason to be pissed off we're nowhere near an Ikea. And those evil Swedes don't offer these for online ordering... we've been looking for a cheap replacement for the kid's Hello Kitty lanterns that eat batteries - 2 AAA batteries last less than four hours.
We have one of these! Love the little guy. I also liked the little drawstring bag he came in. Very neat.
[oops, we may have ditched that... -ed.]